An Engine for Change - A Chronicle of the Engineering Council

42A CHRONICLE OF THE ENGINEERING COUNCILattendees consisted of four Chartered and two Technician Engineers elected by each of thenineteen regions. A four-page Special Report on the Assembly had been published by TheTimes on the previous morning. In an advertisement contained within that report the EngCpointed out that “The Engineering Council was set up to promote the cause of engineering inBritain”, its slogan being “Fighting to help Britain make it”. In her remarks, the PrimeMinister concluded: “It is for Government to create the right background conditions, but it isyou Engineers who can grasp the opportunities and make our future prosper and I’m heretoday for one reason: to show the importance this Government attaches to your work, yourprofession and your role in our future. Our country’s success needs you!” The full text of MrsThatcher’s speech to the Assembly was published by the EngC in October 1985 as “ThePrime Minister Talks to Engineers – Engineering Assembly 1985”.The second annual Engineering Assembly was held in July 1986 at University College,Swansea; on this occasion the guest of honour was the Secretary of State for Wales, The RtHon Nicholas Edwards, QC, MP. In Sir Francis Tombs’s own words in the EngC’s Annualreport for 1986, the Assembly was “now developing into a useful consultative body”. It wasreported that some ‘Young Engineer’ observers from the regions made significantcontributions to the Assembly discussions and it was decided that the involvement ofengineers of this generation at Assembly meetings should be repeated.At the third Engineering Assembly, held in July 1987 at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh,the guest of honour was Lord Sanderson of Bowden, Minister of State at the Scottish Office.It became evident that the annual Assembly was a most effective forum through which theprofession as a whole could voice its opinion on EngC policies. It was felt that the higherstandard of debate at the 1987 Assembly was a direct result of the ECRO’s local activitiesleading to the greater understanding of the overall role of the EngC. Two young engineersfrom each region were again invited as observers. Matters debated this year included:• Technician Engineers and Engineering Technicians.• The coordination of presenting the engineering profession to the young through amore effective Engineering Careers Co-ordinating Organisation (ECCO). [At thistime ECCO members were largely acting independently with no unifying theme.]• Effective communication by the EngC to the public of a better image for professionalengineers and engineering, and effective communication with Registrants.• The development of joint activities in the regions for the Industrial Affiliates and theECROs.• Stimulation of the use of the three titles, CEng, TEng and TechEng, with particularreference to linking of job titles with responsibilities.• Representation of Registrants on the EngC’s Council.Interfacing with SchoolsWISEThe role of women and girls in engineering was pursued with some vigour during this periodthrough the WISE campaign begun in 1983, as we mentioned in Chapter 2. Girls, women andemployers were all targetted. A WISE conference, sponsored by IBM(UK) Ltd, was held inCambridge in December 1985 when the EngC’s report ‘Career Breaks for Women Charteredand Technician Engineers’ was published at £5. Two associated surveys were also publishedduring this month at £5 each: ‘Attitudes of Employers’, a survey undertaken by the© Engineering Council UK 2004