Through programme funding EngineeringUK ensures all state-funded schools have access to Energy Quest and ring-fence a minimum of 60% of workshops delivered each year to our priority schools, schools with high proportions of young people from groups underrepresented in engineering and technology.
We have exciting opportunities for organisations to support and extend the reach of this programme at a national or regional level.
By sponsoring Energy Quest funders will:
- Gain improved links with local secondary schools.
- Create opportunities to inspire talent and diversify their future workforce.
- Provide well developed volunteering opportunities for staff
To find out more about sponsoring Energy Quest contact Nathan March
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213,484
young people taken part in a session
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6,719
sessions delivered
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1,350
UK schools taken part
Co-creation & evaluation:
Energy Quest is an iterative programme, designed to be shaped and redeveloped each year in response to the evaluation data, and in particular data from young people from under-represented groups in engineering, ensuring content is tailored to capture their interests.
We adopt a number of approaches to ensure we gather data from a wide range of participants, enabling us to make comparisons on how students are engaging with the workshop between a number of sub-groups, including gender, socio-economic status, ethnicity and prior level of interest in STEM. We use this information to adapt our content to ensure it engages the widest audience possible.
In 2024, this meant refocusing the workshop on ages 11-13, rebalancing the practical and non-practical aspects of the workshop and increasing the competitive element.
To find out more about supporting this exciting programme contact Nathan March
Workshop impact
After taking part in the workshop, students report positive outcomes on their knowledge about the types of things engineers do, the range of careers on offer and the subjects they need to study to pursue a career in STEM. These are the results from the evaluation of the programme in 2020-23.
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85%
Agree that they know about the different types of things that engineers can do in their jobs
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87%
Agree that they know about the range of careers that engineering can offer
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78%
Agree that they know about the role engineers play in developing technologies for renewable energy sources
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64%
Agree that they could 'definitely' or 'probably' become an engineer if they wanted to
"I’ve learnt so much! Before this session I never considered Engineering as a job option but now I am thinking about it."
Year 8 student
Challenging stereotypes
Students' attitudes to engineering are changed by taking part in Energy Quest. These are some of the new attitudes to engineering from evaluation results in 2020-23.
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85%
Agree that there are opportunities to be creative in engineering careers
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81%
Agree that engineering careers are open to people of all backgrounds
“The workshop dispelled misconceptions that engineering is just somebody with oil on their hands, underneath a car. It really drove home that engineering has a number of different aspects and it leads to different things. There were a few students in there that didn't realise that what they wanted to do in the future, was massively linked to engineering. That was really good and that was something that the workshop did really, really well.”
Teacher