Towards the end of last year, the Prince of Wales visited the University of Essex to discuss the skills shortages in engineering and see how it tries to encourage more young people to take up an engineering career.

Prince Charles, who joined head teachers and employers at a Prince of Wales Engineering Workshop —one of a series of events to help promote manufacturing and address the recruitment challenges that the industry faces — said: “I hope these workshops might help in terms of co-ordinating all the initiatives that I know are going on in this field. There are an awful lot of initiatives in the cience, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) sector, but they do need co-ordination to avoid duplication.”

This co-ordinated approach is being addressed by Tomorrow’s Engineers, a programme that brings together employers, professional engineering institutions and the wider engineering community to inspire the next generation of engineers.

Paul Jackson, chief executive of the Engineering UK support body, said: “The Tomorrow’s Engineers programme aims to ensure that every 11- to 14-year-old understands the variety, excitement and opportunity presented by a career in engineering. In working together to widen the talent pool, we will create a more-level playing field when it comes to recruitment.”

The Prince of Wales Workshop took place alongside The Big Bang@University of Essex, an event run by Engineering UK that saw over 1,000 students from secondary schools across Essex and Suffolk enjoy a day of STEM shows, workshops, careers sessions and hands-on activities.