UK Platform for Inclusive engineering: IncEng
Dawn Bonfield MBE CEng FICE FIMMM FWES & Dr Mark McBride-Wright CEng MIChemE
EngineeringUK [1] has identified that the UK has a major skills shortage needing an additional 182,000 engineers per year to 2022. This has spurred some UK organisations into action seeking to address this issue. It is becoming increasingly accepted by proactive organisations that creating a more diverse and inclusive sector is a key determinant in this.
The importance of diversity and inclusion in engineering is well understood by under-represented groups. Many groups and initiatives currently exist to represent and champion under-representation in engineering, and these groups work tirelessly to raise the profile of the problem within the sector and to find ways to ensure that diversity and inclusion are embedded into the fabric of the industry in a way that is impossible to ignore.
By 2019 the Women’s Engineering Society (WES) will have been campaigning for better gender representation for 100 years. InterEngineering advocates for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) engineers and the Association for Black and Minority Ethnic (AFBE-UK) advocates for BME minorities. It has become apparent that better collaboration between under-represented groups would be beneficial in order to share evidence, share best practice, agree on ways to measure, and goals to improve under-representation.
Engineering and technology has an additional dimension in that the design, engineering and technological solutions themselves need to be inclusive, and this is a subject of growing importance worldwide. Human factors and ergonomics are critical considerations for a design to be effective, and the earlier in the design chain they are considered, the better.
In September 2017 a new UK platform was established to facilitate this collaboration called IncEng. The goals of this stakeholder group are to provide a single platform to:
The lack of coordination in this new sector of the engineering industry is resulting in the unnecessary duplication of work and effort. For example, many groups recognise the need for an industry standard or kite mark that can be achieved to reward excellence in inclusive engineering. Without coordination we risk putting our efforts into the formation of two or three standards where collaboration to form one overarching standard would be far better. The platform will provide the means for this collaboration to be coordinated. It will allow groups to become equal partners and to avoid the ‘not invented here’ mindset where every organisation creates its own version of best practice thereby leading to a state of confusion for an industry which needs clarification and clear guidelines.
Engineering organisations should be focused on inclusion as much as diversity. Inclusion involves bringing together and harnessing all the diverse resources in a way which is beneficial for all. The recently published Green Paper on the UK Industrial Strategy identifies 10 pillars [2] to which inclusion will add real value. Organisations need to focus on what adjustments are required to their organisational structure and ways of operating in order to become inclusive. Inclusivity in engineering is a new concept and hence this is the ideal time for greater collaboration. We believe that establishing the Inclusive Engineering platform as a central body to coordinate these efforts will lead to significant synergies and fast-track the adoption of an inclusive engineering industry forging real-change through collaborative action.
With the support of the Institution of Civil Engineers a workshop took place on 18 September 2017 to launch the new collaborative platform called IncEng. For further details, and to get involved with this group, please contact dawnbonfield@btinternet.com.
References
[1] EngineeringUK, “The State of Engineering”, 2016, URL: http://www.engineeringuk.com/research/engineering-uk-report-2016/
[2] UK Government, “Building our Industrial Strategy”, Green Paper, January 2017
EngineeringUK [1] has identified that the UK has a major skills shortage needing an additional 182,000 engineers per year to 2022. This has spurred some UK organisations into action seeking to address this issue. It is becoming increasingly accepted by proactive organisations that creating a more diverse and inclusive sector is a key determinant in this.
The importance of diversity and inclusion in engineering is well understood by under-represented groups. Many groups and initiatives currently exist to represent and champion under-representation in engineering, and these groups work tirelessly to raise the profile of the problem within the sector and to find ways to ensure that diversity and inclusion are embedded into the fabric of the industry in a way that is impossible to ignore.
By 2019 the Women’s Engineering Society (WES) will have been campaigning for better gender representation for 100 years. InterEngineering advocates for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) engineers and the Association for Black and Minority Ethnic (AFBE-UK) advocates for BME minorities. It has become apparent that better collaboration between under-represented groups would be beneficial in order to share evidence, share best practice, agree on ways to measure, and goals to improve under-representation.
Engineering and technology has an additional dimension in that the design, engineering and technological solutions themselves need to be inclusive, and this is a subject of growing importance worldwide. Human factors and ergonomics are critical considerations for a design to be effective, and the earlier in the design chain they are considered, the better.
In September 2017 a new UK platform was established to facilitate this collaboration called IncEng. The goals of this stakeholder group are to provide a single platform to:
- Collate evidence to support the business case for diversity and inclusion in engineering
- Collate statistics to support the need for action and measure improvement
- Work collaboratively to establish common goals and joint actions
- Prevent duplication of effort through better visibility of current work
- Share best practice
- Signpost the organisations working to support and represent under-represented groups
- Provide a stronger voice that is representative of all under-represented groups
- Foster collaboration with the wider field of diversity and inclusion which is extensive and advanced
- Produce a regular newsletter bringing the latest news on diversity and inclusion in engineering
The lack of coordination in this new sector of the engineering industry is resulting in the unnecessary duplication of work and effort. For example, many groups recognise the need for an industry standard or kite mark that can be achieved to reward excellence in inclusive engineering. Without coordination we risk putting our efforts into the formation of two or three standards where collaboration to form one overarching standard would be far better. The platform will provide the means for this collaboration to be coordinated. It will allow groups to become equal partners and to avoid the ‘not invented here’ mindset where every organisation creates its own version of best practice thereby leading to a state of confusion for an industry which needs clarification and clear guidelines.
Engineering organisations should be focused on inclusion as much as diversity. Inclusion involves bringing together and harnessing all the diverse resources in a way which is beneficial for all. The recently published Green Paper on the UK Industrial Strategy identifies 10 pillars [2] to which inclusion will add real value. Organisations need to focus on what adjustments are required to their organisational structure and ways of operating in order to become inclusive. Inclusivity in engineering is a new concept and hence this is the ideal time for greater collaboration. We believe that establishing the Inclusive Engineering platform as a central body to coordinate these efforts will lead to significant synergies and fast-track the adoption of an inclusive engineering industry forging real-change through collaborative action.
With the support of the Institution of Civil Engineers a workshop took place on 18 September 2017 to launch the new collaborative platform called IncEng. For further details, and to get involved with this group, please contact dawnbonfield@btinternet.com.
References
[1] EngineeringUK, “The State of Engineering”, 2016, URL: http://www.engineeringuk.com/research/engineering-uk-report-2016/
[2] UK Government, “Building our Industrial Strategy”, Green Paper, January 2017