Esteemed engineer and former President of Engineers Australia, Dr Marlene Kanga responds to Dame Professor Ann Dowling’s recent BBC article, about the UK skills shortage, and explains why Australia needs young engineers.
Children should be encouraged to study maths and science to avoid losing their “natural” interest in engineering, said eminent engineer Dr Marlene Kanga.
“I agrees that all young people are natural engineers,” she said. “Somewhere during their school years, they tend to lose their fascination with the natural world and how it could be changed – that takes engineering.”
Dr Kanga made the comments to
PWPro in response to a comment piece on the BBC written by Dame Prof Ann Dowling, President of the Royal Academy of Engineering in the UK.
The piece, titled
“Why engineering should be a woman’s game” encouraged young people, particularly women, to explore a career in engineering.
Dr Kanga agreed with Dame Prof Dowling that children are natural engineers, but they tend to lose interest as they get older.
“We need to encourage all young people to study science and engineering,” said Dr Kanga. “The future of Australia depends on it, especially if we want to remain an advanced economy.”
The idea that engineering is a male dominated profession is a myth, according to Dr Kanga.
The percentage of women engineers is below 20 per cent in many western countries, but approaching 50 per cent in Asia and the Middle East.
“For example, more than 50 per cent of engineering students graduating from the university of Kuwait are women,” she told PWPro. “Nearly 30 per cent of registered engineers in Malaysia are women.”
In comparison, only 16 per cent of engineering students in Australia are women, and only seven per cent of working engineers are women.
“Engineers in IPWEA are making a great contribution to their communities – providing essential services like water, sewerage services, roads and other infrastructure,” she said.
“We would not be able to function as a modern economy without these facilities yet they are taken for granted.”
Read the full interview with Dr Kanga in the May/June 2015 edition of PWPro.
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