MP helps highlight need for better curriculum for future engineers (From Droitwich Advertiser)

MP helps highlight need for better curriculum for future engineers

4:20pm Thursday 21st March 2013 in News

THE need for a school curriculum that attracts young people to a career in engineering has been highlighted thanks to Droitwich Spa’s MP.

A debate in the House of Commons, which was secured by Mid-Worcestershire MP Peter Luff, has offered new hope for a better focus on science, technology and engineering in schools.

Mr Luff had secured the debate on Wednesday, March 20 on the Government’s proposed new national curriculum for Design and Technology.

The draft had received a very critical reception from industrialists and academics for not addressing the exciting realities of modern engineering and also for placing too great an emphasis on cooking.

Speaking after the debate, Mr Luff said: “I really was delighted by what Liz Truss, the minister, said in this debate and I couldn’t have asked for more. It is so important that the Government gets this right because we have a desperate shortage of engineers and technicians in the UK and the D&T curriculum is one of the best long-term ways of addressing that shortage.”

In his speech, Mr Luff said: “My principal concern is that the whole draft curriculum is written in a way that retreats from the combination of rigour and inspiration that the department is rightly seeking in other areas of study. The curriculum should be encouraging creativity in its students, offering them choice over how to approach problems and giving them as much autonomy as possible in their approach.”

In her response, Liz Truss, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education and Children, said: “I recently had a meeting with representatives from the Design and Technology Association, who said that they will come back with further suggestions on how we might improve the language and make the subject as aspirational and as rigorous as possible while not losing the breadth and the flexibility that we are trying to give teachers.”