P3A: Promotion of Engineering through Creation of a Structured School-University Interface

This project seeks to complement and to extend traditional public awareness activities by bringing together schools and universities in the context of an engineering focus. Using Electrical and Electronic Engineering (EEE) as a pilot study, this will involve staff and students from schools and universities working together to create exciting and innovative programmes for school children, supported by world leading engineering research groups. In universities the focus will be on collaboration to redesign first year university programmes to build more closely on the experiences of young people as they move from school to university. To embed ideas in the education system, the project will work with policy makers, local and national, to develop policy implications from research and practice for the school university interface more generally. A primary objective of the project is to secure permanent awareness of engineering as a valued profession within the school community and through this, to increase the participation rates of young people embracing engineering as a career. Centred initially within the Scottish Education system, the findings will be disseminated through the provision of e- learning courses and information packages, ensuring uptake on a UK national basis.