Skip to main content Accessibility Help
Open menu

This week the government has published its white paper on skills and post-16 education.

Dr Hayaatun Sillem CBE, CEO of the Royal Academy of Engineering, says: 

“The Post-16 Education and Skills White Paper makes a fair assessment of the significant challenges facing Higher Education, and builds on the welcome recognition in the Industrial Strategy of the importance of closing the perilous engineering skills gap in the UK. The Academy will shortly be launching a major new initiative – the Skills Centre – to provide a focal point for multi-sector collaboration at scale to address this gap. We look forward to working with Skills England, government and partners across the profession to take this initiative forward."

“On Higher Education, while we welcome the headlines in the White Paper, there is much that remains to be resolved if we are to maximise the potential of this sector to support UK growth, prosperity and security. We encourage the government to follow through on its commitment to work closely with the sector, at pace, to put in place effective remedies and mitigations to the challenges identified."

“We also note that a key route through which universities contribute to growth is via collaboration with industry. Last night, we were delighted to announce University of Warwick and Tata Group as the winners of the Bhattacharyya Award for collaboration between academia and industry – a partnership which has attracted £500m of investment and trained over 750 degree apprentices. These types of sustained collaborations will be vital for delivering the aspirations articulated in the White Paper.”

 

Read more on the Academy's Education and Skills 

Bhattacharyya Award

For more information please contact Pippa Cox

Pippa Cox
020 7766 0745

Notes for editors

  1. The Royal Academy of Engineering creates and leads a community of outstanding experts and innovators to engineer better lives. As a charity and a Fellowship, we deliver public benefit from excellence in engineering and technology and convene leading businesspeople, entrepreneurs, innovators and academics across engineering and technology. As a National Academy, we provide leadership for engineering and technology, and independent, expert advice to policymakers in the UK and beyond.