University of Nottingham launches project to increase diversity in engineering

A PROJECT aimed at encouraging more “top talent” from diverse backgrounds into science and engineering careers is being launched by the University of Nottingham.

Researchers say the country’s economic future depends on broadening the pool of engineering graduates and workers to tackle a growing skills shortage in STEMM (science, technology, engineering, maths and medicine) roles and boost innovation.

The team hopes the two-year project, STEMM Change, will transform the workforce from being predominantly white male - and make this a long-term change.

One of their tasks will be to make the recruitment process “more inclusive”.

Pro-vice-chancellor of the University’s Faculty of Engineering Sam Kingman is the principal instigator and programme manager of the project.

He said: “There are a lot of discussions on improving diversity, charters and awareness days, but nothing really changes beyond tokenism.

“It is vital to attract underrepresented groups to STEMM roles, but the process we currently use repeatedly gives us the same outcome - white, male recruits.”

The project will take in research from across the university in disciplines including psychology, linguistics, English and medicine.

The first area it will look at is linguistics, with the aim of identifying language in current job adverts and recruitment materials that could be “exclusive”.

Partner organisations including Nottingham Trent will be involved in this part of the research.

This will use a method of recruitment created by the firm Diversity by Design, which “designs out bias” from the process, recognising the value diverse staff bring to the workplace.

This method has been used in previous faculty recruitment drives and it has resulted in women being successfully recruited - they are now looking to test this in different subjects to see how successful it is.

Another programme the project will explore is “reverse mentoring”, where older workers and bosses are paired with and mentored by younger employees.

When the two-year project, which starts in September, comes to an end, the researchers want to create an electronic tool to reduce bias in recruitment.

Mr Kingman said: “Cultural change will take longer than the duration of the project, but we hope to make great strides in the first two years.”