An Engine for Change - A Chronicle of the Engineering Council

150A CHRONICLE OF THE ENGINEERING COUNCILOther Schools ActivitiesIn May 1999 the Schools’ Institution Working Group (SIWG), chaired by Dorrie Giles of theIEE, held its final meeting concluding nine months’ work. The SIWG comprisedrepresentatives from 16 Institutions, the Royal Academy of Engineering and SETNET. InJuly 1999 the Group’s Report, outlining a way forward regarding volunteer activity in theregions, was approved by Senate for implementation.Shortages of teachers of science and of design and technology were highlighted in 1999 in anEngC-led response to the Government’s Green Paper ‘Teachers: Meeting the Challenge ofChange’, which led to discussions with the DfEE and the Teacher Training Agency.During 1999 the General Education Committee (GEC), chaired by Professor Tom Ruxton,Dean of the School of Engineering and Advanced Technology at Staffordshire University,looked at life-long education and training. Helped by a GEC and Wider Group drawn fromindividuals in the education field, the Committee considered how to further publicunderstanding of engineering and technology and the formation of engineers.In September 2000 the GEC and Wider Group was reformed as a joint BER/BEP effort. Thissparked a wide-ranging series of Seminar and Research projects held in conjunction with theQualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA), the first addressing a Design andTechnology curriculum development theme. The event was oversubscribed. DavidHargreaves, Chief Executive of the QCA opened the proceedings and two research projectswere presented. The first, ‘Continuum of Engineering Education’, was presented by ProfessorGeoffrey Harrison, and the second, ‘Interaction: Links between Science and Design andTechnology in the Secondary Curriculum’, was presented by Dr David Barlex and James Pitt.Stemming from this a number of key organisations agreed to fund a pilot study aimed atimproving collaboration in the teaching of secondary level science and design andtechnology. A joint project was established with the Royal Society of Arts and theTechnology Education Research Unit, of Goldsmiths’ College to develop an assessmentmodel to recognise competence in secondary level educationThe second seminar held at the QCA on 12 December 2000 was entitled ‘Progression inMathematics’, again with high participation from many bodies and organisations and withauthoritative speakers from the mathematics community.In 2000/2001 the profession was represented by the EngC on a range of steering groupsincluding ‘GCSE in Engineering’ a Design and Technology Strategy Group (hosted by theDfES) and Electronics in Schools (hosted by the DTI).Further and Higher EducationThe appointment in 1999 of Richard Shearman (formerly Education Director at the DesignCouncil) as Vocational Education and Training Executive, in succession to Dr Judith Secker,provided an opportunity for a number of key issues in this field to be reviewed. During theyear the Registration Standards Committee (RSC), chaired by Martin Usher and reporting tothe BER, set up several short-life task groups to consider the remaining aspects of theFormation process. This resulted in further SARTOR-3 documents being published in July1999 to expand on various requirements; the publications included guidance for Institutionson Matching Sections, Group Projects, Initial Professional Development and Professional© Engineering Council UK 2004