An Engine for Change - A Chronicle of the Engineering Council

1999-2001: THE HAWLEY YEARS 159To test the validity of the objectives and to aid development of its strategy, the Hawley Groupnow sought the views of other bodies including EMTA, EEF, the General Teaching Counciland the Engineering Institutions as well as of the EngC’s committees. Dr Hawley himselfheld many meetings with organisations and individuals. One of the key events was a speechat the City and Guilds Association Annual Dinner on 17 February 2000 in which he putforward a vision of the future shape of engineering and industry. “..the UK will develop aculture…which approves of wealth creation, encourages innovation and entrepreneurship andis not jealous of success”. He pointed out that although engineering officially contributed but8% of GDP, if ‘engineering-led’ industries such as construction, electronics andtelecommunications were included, the figure rose to 40%. And if ‘engineering dependentindustries’ such as the financial and retail were added in, that figure virtually doubled.The intention was for these numerous and wide communications and consultations to‘generate timely consensus views from the wider engineering community’ to advise theGovernment on such issues as:• The role of engineering in society• The present and future skills needs of the engineering community and the means tofulfil these needs• All education issues relevant to engineering• Knowledge of developments abroadThe Hawley Group offered the following definition of the Engineering Community:The engineering community is the sum of all individuals and groups who employ engineeringskills and expertise to add value to society or the economy. This is a much broader remit thanindustry alone because it covers areas such as the financial, medical and arts sectors.This notion of the ‘Broader Engineering Community’ was to drive much of the ensuingaction. The Hawley Review was based on the premise that the ‘engineering community’extended far beyond the commonly recognised boundaries of the profession. In thisperception it was, however, fundamentally similar to Fairclough’s ideas and the 1997Memorandum of Understanding with GovernmentThe above objectives certainly fell within the existing remit of the EngC and could have beenmet by implementing the provisions of the recent MOU with Government, had the willexisted to drive forward with them. For example the MOU states at Article 4e “TheEngineering Council should …with other organisations…define clear routes foradvancement of the “engineering workforce” [our italics added]. In a sense, the HawleyReview took up the challenge of defining this phrase and one of the next actions was to forma joint Engineering Council / Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng) working party to:• Seek a definition of the engineering profession and its practising population.• Seek to define engineering competencies and how to recognise and promote these.• Articulate appropriate terminology to define the full scope of engineering and of thosewho practise it.• Recommend how to integrate science and engineering for more effective exploitationto the betterment of society and the economy.© Engineering Council UK 2004