Sarah Green column
Mar 13 2007 By Sarah Green, The Journal
At the start of national Science Week, the CBI has issued a stark reminder of the dire need to increase science skills.
The UK needs to double the proportion of science and engineering graduates leaving university by 2014 or see skilled jobs go overseas.
Around 12% of graduates presently leave university with a science, engineering and technology degree and this needs to rise to at least 25% if the UK is to match the predicted growth in jobs.
The North-East has a world class science base and many world-beating companies but we must build on these strengths, not allow them to wither on the vine.
Our future success will depend on our ability to compete not only with our traditional international rivals but new ones too, particularly India and China.
These two emerging giants are producing hundreds of thousands of engineers and scientists a year.
Our research has identified four weaknesses that are holding back the flow of students into university science courses:
Primarily poor science laboratories in schools - with one in four unsafe or inadequate, according to the Royal Society of Chemistry, and four in 10 basic and uninspiring. Secondly, a lack of teachers with specialist knowledge to teach GCSE and A-level science - a quarter of secondary schools do not have a specialist physics teacher, for example.
Thirdly, a stripped-down curriculum which does not devote sufficient time to science - only one in five State schools offers separate GCSEs in physics, chemistry and biology and too few students step up to study science at A-level.
Finally, poor careers advice which fails to stimulate young people's interest in the well-paid and cutting-edge careers available in science and engineering.
In 2005, the Government announced a £200m fund to equip schools with modern science facilities but today that money is still sitting in a bank account. At a time when one in four labs are unsafe or unsatisfactory, and four in 10 rated as basic and uninspiring, this is a disgrace. If we don't face the challenge, then the companies which have helped build up the UK's science base will be faced with no alternative but to go overseas. They are increasingly recruiting from abroad and the danger is they may relocate altogether. It is relatively easy to redevelop the Federation Brewery site and call it a science hub, but the future of Science City is dependent on inspiring young scientists. It won't happen with a "big bang" but if schools, business and government work together, we can find the chemistry of success.
Sarah Green is regional director, CBI North East
