An Engine for Change - A Chronicle of the Engineering Council

1991-1995: THE FAIRCLOUGH YEARS 95‘Smart Wire and its Applications’. A TEP Video, ‘Taking Control’, was also produced, aswas a pilot multi-media CD-ROM on manufacturing for schools and colleges to supportGNVQ Engineering and GNVQ Manufacturing at Level 2 and above. Following trials, a finalversion was planned for issue in 1996. The range of these publications was subsequentlyextended considerably and their development and distribution continued by MiddlesexUniversity.A Gatsby Initiatives’ Board, chaired by Dr John Sellars, Chief Executive of the City andGuilds of London Institute, was established in 1995 by the EngC and the Gatsby CharitableFoundation to manage related projects in a more coherent manner.The number of participating schools rose rapidly and in 1995 Wellfield ComprehensiveSchool became the 500 th school to join the TEP. To draw attention to this, the EngC and SirMalcolm Thornton, Chairman of the Commons Select Committee of Education, jointlyhosted an event, again at the Houses of Parliament, to which MPs and Peers were invited withrepresentatives from education, industry and the Institutions.By the end of 1995 there were 620 schools and colleges in the TEP programme and over 20text books had been produced, including in October 1995 a mini text book, the first forPrimary Schools. The GCSE syllabus: ‘Design and Technology: Engineering’ was developedin conjunction with the Midland Examination Group for introduction in September 1996, aspart of the MEG Design and Technology syllabuses.WISEThe WISE Campaign further heightened its influence during this period by producing newand improved videos, texts and posters. The WISE Award for 1991 was won by NicolaYoung for an invention to help frail elderly people. The use of additional travelling exhibitionand teaching facilities in buses, now nicknamed “Wisemobiles”, enabled WISE to reach areasof Great Britain not previously visited. In October, Georgina Wicks of North London becamethe 100,000 th girl to visit a Wisemobile; she was presented with a certificate by Home OfficeMinister, Angela Rumbold to mark the occasion. The 6 th Wisemobile was launched by LadyPlatt in November 1991 at the Royal Festival Hall, London. WISE extended its activities intoWales in February 1992, following the election of Dr Jarmila Davis, Senior Lecturer in CivilEngineering at the Polytechnic of Wales, as Chairman of WISE in Wales and to NorthernIreland in October 1992 – the latter with the support of Lord Belstead, Minister of State forEducation for Northern Ireland and of Jeremy Hanley, Parliamentary Under Secretary ofState for Northern Ireland. Thanks predominantly to WISE, it was claimed, 15% of studentsentering engineering degree courses were women by the end of 1991.‘Awards, Courses, Visits: Women Into Science and Engineering’ was published annually inFebruary 1991, 1992 and 1993, and in March 1994. In February 1992 the WISE poster‘there’s a place for you…’ was produced, and ‘The Other Half’, a careers break video, wasremade in 1991 and launched in May 1992. A WISE video and information pack waslaunched for schools in November 1993 to enable them to gain the maximum benefit from aWisemobile visit. By this time over 200,000 girls had sampled the technology presented inthe WISE vehicles. To help parents stimulate their daughters’ interests in engineering‘Engineering Equals for Parents’ was published in December 1993.© Engineering Council UK 2004