ENGINEERING IN FOCUS
enabler. I feel there’s a huge opportunity to make more people aware of the role that IHEEM’s members play in delivering the health benefits we all value. Drawing on some of the ‘This is Engineering’ experience, and thinking about the sector’s ‘audience’, I believe healthcare engineering professionals need to identify who they are talking to. If the answer is young people, think about using social media channels and the kind of imagery that will resonate with them. I also think greater coherence between all of us who are trying to get the messages about engineering out is key. What we don’t want is a different engineering disciplines striving to out-compete each other to attract potential entrants.
‘Hidden heroes’
“I’d also suggest telling the story of those ‘hidden heroes’ in healthcare engineering, because we know role models are incredibly important in attracting people to a profession.”
I next asked Dr Sillem what she felt were the Academy’s key, broader functions. She said: “We have three strategic priorities – the first being to make the UK the leading nation for engineering innovation and business; trying to make sure that in this challenging and uncertain political climate, we draw on the strengths of UK engineering excellence so we continue to create economic opportunity right across the UK, and drive innovation that will deliver benefits across society. The second is tackling the engineering and diversity challenge. We need to focus not only on attracting people to the profession, but also on upskilling and re-skilling to ensure that the skills of
Students join Professor Danielle George, Vice Dean for Teaching and Learning in the Faculty of Science and Engineering, and a Professor of Radio Frequency Engineering, at The University of Manchester, and the Robot Orchestra, at an Academy event.
our workforce keep pace with our competitors internationally. Finally, our third strategic priority is ‘Positioning engineering at the heart of society’, which has two components – ensuring that engineers have the right skills to engage in society and its challenges, and changing perceptions around the role that engineering does play. We have extraordinary examples everywhere we look of engineers who are inspirational people; we just need to get better at transmitting the message.”
Institutes’ role
How important a role, I wondered, does Dr Sillem feel the professional engineering institutions have in promoting engineering.
She replied: “An extremely important one. Encouraging professionalism is incredibly important, and the professional institutions have a vital role to play in ensuring that those who serve as professional engineers have the right skills, competencies, and mindset, to do that. There are all sorts of challenges around the digitisation of engineering too. Now, every engineering role will – to some extent at least – be a digital role, and we need to ensure that we respond, by upgrading skills, and measuring competence. It’s broader than that though; it’s looking at questions such as: ‘What do ethics mean in a world where digital technology is ever more prevalent?’”
I asked what Dr Sillem’s message would
January 2019 Health Estate Journal 39
The Royal Academy of Engineering
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