Carol Marsh:

5) To provide a conduit to Scottish Government and Education System on the impact of advances in Technology and Engineering

The problem with our current Scottish Government (you know who they are!) is that they believe "engineering" is bashing bits of metal to make a ship.   And looking for someone to blame for why we don't do that any more!


If you're looking at promoting engineering and technology in schools this has to be done at curriculum level.   There's no point in doing random one-off special events like a Lego building competition.   We really need kids to have been playing with Lego and Mecano by themselves!


But the problem is deeper than just the education system.   Our youth have become a generation of consumers, not creators.   We don't have the BBC Micros or ZX Spectrums that someone can create wonderful programs in their bedrooms any longer.   And fewer homes have a spare room or even a shed where they can tinker with something to make or modify new creations.   Certainly the loss of Tandy & Maplin hasn't helped for the electronics enthusiast.


The problem is deeper than what the IET can solve with a few soundbites.


Schools have to give pupils some skills they can apply by themselves at home with either technical designing and building, or programming and creating new software or websites.   We have to answer the question of how this can be made to be possible.


And this is where I have to take issue with the IET.   They've closed the Teacher Building yet it should have been a hub of excellence for engineering and technology in Scotland.   It should have been running events to encourage youth in to technology, even if it was only to host LAN parties!   It could have held build sessions with a few 3D printers available for youth to get experience of creating something new from scratch!   3D print a Christmas tree and then fit it with LED lights!   Simple ideas which might help get some spark of interest to carry on in their own time.


So really we need:


1.   Find out what industry needs.

2a.   What qualifications do school levers need to enter the right Uni courses.

2b.   If the school lever wasn't able to get the right Uni entry qualifications, is there another route via FE College?

(Sometimes the pupil isn't able to get the best out a school for a variety of reasons, such as the school not offering highers in technical subjects, and FE Colleges is a perfectly viable route.)

3.   Ensure that there are the right Uni courses!

4.   Match school levers to Uni courses.

5.   Goto 1.


Finally, we have to ask ourselves how Microsoft, Apple, Google, Excite (remember them?) and various other tech companies started up?   And why isn't that possible here in the UK?