To help increase schoolchildren’s awareness of engineering and the scope of careers open to Engineers, gradcracker.com, the careers website for engineering and technology students, has joined forces with Teach First to increase the number of qualified Teachers in STEM subjects.
Teach First is an educational charity that places graduates on a two-year leadership development programme which involves newly-graduated students spending two challenging years teaching in selected schools.
Teach First contacted Gradcracker because they wanted to particularly target engineering and technology graduates who would lead their drive to encourage schoolchildren to go on to study STEM subjects in Further Education. As Teach First’s aims dovetailed with Gradcracker’s, all advertising costs were waived and the two organisations will now work in partnership to increase student participation in the programme.
A spokesperson from Teach First said: “Teach First is committed to increasing the number of qualified teachers in STEM subjects. A lack of effective specialist STEM Teachers affects pupils’ perceptions of the subjects and could discourage them from engaging in further study. This is leading to a lack of STEM professionals in a society becoming increasingly focused on innovation. Engineers are ideal candidates for Teach First and we are very excited to be working with Gradcracker in promoting the opportunities we have on the Leadership Development Programme to Engineers from all backgrounds.”
Sean O’Connor, Managing Director of Gradcracker said, “We are taking a long-term view on this and our hope is that better informed school pupils will lead to an increase in the number of university students studying engineering and technology subjects and therefore an increase in talented Engineers in the future.”
