An Engine for Change - A Chronicle of the Engineering Council

44A CHRONICLE OF THE ENGINEERING COUNCILYoung Engineer for BritainAdministration of the Young Engineer for Britain (YEB) competition, undertaken by theEngC from 1983, continued annually during this period. As incoming Chairman, Sir FrancisTombs demonstrated his support for the competition in September 1985 by presenting theawards at the National Finals at Wembley, following Regional Finals held in July andAugust. In the following year the competition was given even greater publicity in the nationalmedia when Diana, Princess of Wales presented the prizes and awards at the YEBinternational finals, again staged at Wembley. A Special Report on the 1986 Competition waspublished in September 1986 by The Times newspaper. The cover of the report bore aphotograph of The Princess presenting the YEB trophy to 16 year-old Matthew Barker ofEdlington Comprehensive School, Doncaster, for his “muscle stretching machine” to improvethe suppleness of athletes and dancers.During 1987, to acknowledge that a number of financial institutions had joined the EngC asIndustrial Affiliates, it was felt appropriate for the YEB competition to be held at the NationalWestminster (Bank) Hall in the City of London. On this occasion the awards were presentedby Heather Couper, astronomer, broadcaster and writer. The event, sponsored by the NationalWestminster Bank and Dial Industry Publications, was covered on fourteen televisionprogrammes and publicised in 70 reports in newspapers and journals. In 1986, 1987 and 1988financial support was also generously provided by the Comino Foundation for a ‘Who Wantsto be a Millionaire’ project within the YEB remit. Also during 1987 the EngC, in conjunctionwith the Comino Foundation, explored ways of helping some of the YEB competitionentrants to establish their own businesses.Other Schools ActivitiesIn December 1985, to support the technology curriculum in schools, the EngC published‘Problem Solving: Science and Technology in Primary Schools’. Then, during 1986 the EngCtook over the Secretariat of the Engineering Careers Co-ordinating Organisation (ECCO)working closely with ECCO members who included careers professionals, engineeringInstitutions, trades unions and Government Departments. The ECCO engineering careersdatabase used The Times Network Systems to circulate information.In April 1987 the booklet ‘Want to Teach Maths, Science or Technology?’ was publishedwith an accompanying press release. The EngC was campaigning for more mathematics,science and technology teachers in schools, convinced that the Government was not givingthis issue adequate attention, particularly in view of the core curriculum requiring more ableand competent teachers for these topics.In June 1987 a statement of support, ‘Double Award Balanced Science’, was issued jointly bythe EngC with the Secondary Science Curriculum Review. This pressed for the developmentof the GCSE Double Award Balanced Science (which involved physics, chemistry andbiology each being studied to the same depth up to the age of 16, enabling successful studentsto receive two GCSE awards). The media gave good coverage of this and over 50,000 copieswere requested by educational organisations. Twenty-four bodies had subscribed to thestatement by the end of 1987.© Engineering Council UK 2004