Labour leader Ed Miliband has said that if the UK is to compete in the 21st century – and “win the race to the top” – more women engineers must be trained.
The Evening Standard newspaper reports that Mr Miliband called Britain’s shortage of female engineers a “national embarrassment”.
The Labour leader was speaking at a Crossrail site to launch a mission to create 400,000 engineers by 2020.
The UK’s universities attract engineering students from overseas – but leading figures in engineering and technology have called for the government to do more to retain the overseas students its trains in the fields of engineering and technology.
Leading British inventor and entrepreneur Sir James Dyson has previously called on the government to hand out work visas at graduation ceremonies to the best and brightest engineers trained in the UK, to make sure Britain retains the engineers it trains.
Mr Miliband said that Britain had the lowest proportion of women engineering professionals “anywhere in Europe” – just 14% of graduates and 4% or working professionals in the engineering sector are women.
Speaking at the launch of the initiative to recruit and retain more engineering students in the UK, Mr Miliband said:
“If we are going to win the race to the top in the 21st Century, we have to re-establish our reputation as a world leader in technology and manufacturing.”
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