Qualitative Evaluation of Tomorrow's Engineers 2012/13 : Executive Summary
26 September 2013
The Tomorrow’s Engineers (TE) programme, led by EngineeringUK and the Royal Academy of Engineering, delivers engineering careers awareness through extra-curricular engineering activities delivered by a range of partners to young people in targeted schools across the UK. NFER undertook a qualitative evaluation of TE in 2012/13 to determine its impact and areas of effective practice to inform future plans for the programme.
The evaluation draws on qualitative data from nine case studies with schools undertaking TE activities; these included: a focus group with students taking part in the activity; in-depth interviews with teachers, delivery partners and STEM Ambassadors involved in the activity and an observation of the activity.
Key Findings
- • As a result of taking part in TE activities pupils in the majority of case studies gained a better awareness and understanding of: what an engineer does; the diverse range of engineering jobs available to them; the need for creativity in engineering and the skills and STEM subjects they need to study for an engineering career.
- In order of effectiveness, the activities which engaged pupils most effectively were those which: involved an interactive element; included an element of competition although the competition element had to be treated with caution and should not be the main emphasis; were relevant to, and challenged, pupils and opened up new horizons for them.