A PROMISE from the Government to commit to a programme to boost engineering skills has been welcomed by Droitwich Spa's MP.

MP Peter Luff continued his campaign to get more young people into careers in engineering by calling for a debate on the matter in the House of Commons on Tuesday, December 10.

The Mid-Worcestershire MP, along with Robin Walker, MP for Worcester, also praised the initiative from the Worcestershire Local Enterprise Partnership to build better links between businesses and schools.

Mr Luff called for the debate on a review recently published by the business department’s chief scientific advisor.

He said: "Professor John Perkins’ Review of Engineering Skills has been well received within the engineering community. I called for the debate as I wanted to make sure that the Government was taking action to implement the recommendations in the report.”

How to encourage more women into the engineering profession was also a major topic of the debate and Mr Luff highlighted a feature on careers in Top Gear Magazine on careers in Formula One.

In the debate, Mr Luff said: "There are forty images of a Formula One team. All are white men except the press officer and the six hospitality staff, in short skirts of course.

“I think actually even Jeremy Clarkson might be embarrassed a bit by the stereotypes portrayed in this article.

“The girls at Silverstone University Technical College, which the article purports to be about, are very cross that they are being so badly misrepresented by the magazine.”

After the debate Mr Luff added: “Although this is only one light hearted article in a magazine, it highlights a more broad and important point.

“There are too many gender stereotypes that exist within engineering and this is putting women off.

“We must make engineering more diverse."