SÍNTESIS DE LOS ANÁLISIS DE LOS RESULTADOS

Table 4.5 reveals the ethnic makeup of England (and its regions) and Wales279 _{as of mid-2009.}

While white British remains by far the major ethnic group in England and Wales with 83.3% of the population, some regions have significantly greater proportions of ethnic minority groups than others. The national average is influenced heavily by London, which is significantly more ethnically diverse than anywhere else. It has a white British population of just 59.5%, with significant minorities of Asian or Asian British (13.2%), black or black British (10.1%) and white other (10.2%). The West Midlands is next in terms of diversity, with 8.5% Asian or Asian British and 2.7% black or black British people. This compares with Wales where the respective figures are just 2.7% and 0.3%. The urban nature of the UK’s ethnic

minority population is highlighted by the Policy Exchange, which states that “just three cities (London, Greater Birmingham and Greater Manchester) account for over 50% of the UK’s entire BME280 _{population.”}281 _{The report also}

claims that “8 million people or 14% of the UK population belong to an ethnic minority”, while “the 5 largest distinct minority communities are (in order of size): Indian, Pakistani, black African, black Caribbean and Bangladeshi.”282

However, this relatively small percentage of non- white British people is due to increase significantly as “ethnic minorities represent just 5% of the over-60 population, but 25% of the under-5 population” and “by 2051, it is estimated that BME communities will represent between 20–30% of the UK’s population.”283

This is supported by Table 4.6, which shows that while the overall number of 10- to 14-year-olds (3,196,200) is lower than 15- to 19-year-olds (3,513,100) – a fact accounted for mainly by a fall of 273,300 in the number of white British young people – the proportion of mixed, Asian or Asian British, and black or black British young people is rising.

Table 4.4: State secondary schools by region (2014) – England

Region _{secondary schools}Number of state

East Midlands 292 East of England 402 London 456 North East 188 North West 455 South East 489 South West 329 West Midlands 407

Yorkshire and The Humber 311

Total 3,329

Source: Department for Education278

Table 4.5 Regional population percentage by broad ethnic group (mid-2009 estimate) – England and Wales

Broad ethnic group284

All groups White British _otherWhite 285 Mixed286 Asian or Asian _British287 Black or black _British288 Chinese Other

England and Wales 54,809,100 83.3% 4.6% 1.8% 5.9% 2.8% 0.8% 0.8%

England 51,809,700 82.8% 4.7% 1.8% 6.1% 2.9% 0.8% 0.8%

North East 2,584,300 92.4% 2.2% 1.0% 2.7% 0.8% 0.4% 0.5%

North West 6,897,900 88.4% 3.2% 1.4% 4.7% 1.2% 0.6% 0.5%

Yorkshire and the Humber 5,258,100 86.8% 2.8% 1.5% 6.2% 1.4% 0.6% 0.7%

East Midlands 4,451,200 87.0% 3.1% 1.6% 5.4% 1.6% 0.7% 0.6% West Midlands 5,431,100 82.4% 3.2% 1.9% 8.5% 2.7% 0.6% 0.7% East of England 5,766,600 85.2% 4.9% 1.7% 4.4% 2.1% 1.1% 0.7% London 7,753,600 59.5% 10.2% 3.5% 13.2% 10.1% 1.8% 1.7% South East 8,435,700 85.7% 5.0% 1.7% 4.2% 1.9% 0.7% 0.8% South West 5,231,200 90.5% 3.5% 1.3% 2.3% 1.2% 0.6% 0.6% Wales 2,999,300 93.0% 2.9% 1.0% 1.8% 0.6% 0.4% 0.4%

Table 4.6: England and Wales ethnicity of population by age (mid-2009 estimate) – England and Wales

Total population _{total population}Percentage of _{10- to 14-year-olds}Number of _{10-14 age group}Percentage of _{15- to 19-year-olds}Number of _{15-19 age group}Percentage of

All groups 54,809,100 100.0% 3,196,200 100.0% 3,513,100 100.0%

White British 45,682,100 83.4% 2,651,900 83.0% 2,925,200 83.3%

White other 2,506,800 4.6% 81,100 2.5% 104,100 3.0%

Mixed 986,600 1.8% 112,000 3.5% 104,100 3.0%

Asian or Asian British 3,219,500 5.9% 216,400 6.8% 227,500 6.5%

Black or black British 1,540,100 2.8% 101,700 3.2% 106,400 3.0%

Chinese 451,500 0.8% 15,500 0.5% 22,300 0.6%

Other 422,600 0.8% 17,500 0.6% 23,500 0.7%

291 See Section 15.3 for more details 292Public Attitudes to Science 2014, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, March 2014, p41; www.ipsos-mori.com/Assets/Docs/Polls/pas-2014-main-report. pdf 293Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI), Science and Technology, European Commission, November 2013, p5; http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/archives/ebs/ebs_401_en.pdf 294Public Attitudes to Science 2014 topline results, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, March 2014, p11; www.ipsos-mori.com/Assets/Docs/Polls/pas-2014-topline.pdf 295Public Attitudes to Science 2014, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, March 2014, p114 296Public Attitudes to Science 2014 topline results, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, March 2014, p15 297ASPIRES Young people’s science and career aspirations, age 10 –14, King’s College London, November 2013; www.kcl.ac.uk/sspp/departments/education/research/aspires/ASPIRES-final-report-December-2013.pdf 298ASPIRES Young people’s science and career aspirations, age 10 –14, King’s College London, November 2013, p3 299ASPIRES Young people’s science and career aspirations, age 10 –14, King’s College London, November 2013, p1 300Educational aspirations and attitudes over the business cycle, Institute for Social and Economic Research, November 2012, p9; www.iser.essex.ac.uk/publications/working-papers/iser/2012-26.pdf

301School and College-level Strategies to Raise Aspirations of High-achieving Disadvantaged Pupils to Pursue Higher Education Investigation, Department for Education, January 2014, p11

In order to meets this demand, we must ensure that the perception of science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) continues to improve and that teachers, parents, careers advisers and businesses work together to attract and inspire young people to study STEM subjects and help them to progress towards engineering as a profession.

Whilst there have been marked improvements in the knowledge and perceptions of young people and their influencers towards STEM subjects and engineering careers, our brand monitor survey

clearly shows there is more to be done. Almost one in five (17%) of all STEM teachers think that a career in engineering is undesirable for their students, rising to 19% for the 25- to 44-year-old group. Also, when asked to name an engineering development from the past 50 years that has had an impact on their lives, only two out of five (41%) of those aged 20+ could name one. This chapter outlines the challenges that remain as well as the progress made in improving perceptions of STEM as a subject area and engineering as a career.

5.1 Young people and their

influencers

The importance of engineering is by no means underestimated by the British public. The 2014 Public Attitudes to Science study reports that 88% believe that engineers make a valuable contribution to society.292 _{This is a similar}

proportion to those who believe that scientists make a valuable contribution to society (90%), which, in turn, is higher than the percentage (77%) of Europeans who think that science has a positive impact on society.293 _{Other key}

findings from the report show that 31% of people believe that they are not clever enough to understand engineering. However, this goes down to 21% for those aged 16-24, suggesting increasing confidence in those who have recently been part of our target audience.294

Unfortunately, while 24% of the public claim that school put them off science, this number rises to 27% for those aged 16-24.295 _{Positively, the}

percentage of those who trust engineers who work for private companies has increased from 70% to 74% between 2011 and 2014, while the figure for those working for universities has gone from 84% to 89%.296

King’s College London’s ASPIRES study297 _has

shown that 80% of young people believe that, “scientists are brainy”, which, the authors conclude, “influences many young people’s views of science careers as ‘not for me’”, even if they find science interesting and have good attainment in the subject.298 _{It also claims that}

there is no evidence of a ‘poverty of

aspiration’299 _{among those aged 10-14 or their}

parents. This is supported by research which shows that almost 76% of 13- to 15-year-olds would like to go to university but that only 47% actually did so.300 _{This demonstrates that}

aspiration more generally is not a significant problem when compared with attainment and participation.301

Part 1 – Engineering in Context

5.0 Understanding and influencing