London Engineering Project

The London Engineering Project (LEP) ran as a pilot from June 2005 to July 2009. In its pilot phase, the LEP worked with 50 schools in south and east London and with 25,000 school pupils. In addition, it created a new BSc course, a new FdEng course and also enhanced 750 timetabled learning hours on other BEng and MEng degree programmes.

It attracted deep engagement from 5 large engineering employers (Transport for London, Metronet, Tube Lines, EDF Energy, Thames Water). Funding from HEFCE of £4.34m (plus an additional £80k from EDF Energy) supported the work of 10 organisations and 4 HEIs over nearly 4 years.

One message from the pilot phase of the LEP is that ambitious output targets can be met by big projects when they are well managed. In terms of project outcomes, the LEP set out to widen participation in engineering higher education in south and east London, attracting more students from under represented groups: women, students from the lower half of the socio-economic scale, students with no family experience of higher education, certain BME groups, adult learners.

There is evidence that this is happening because:

• The largest launch of the 14-19 Diploma in Engineering in the country happened in LEP schools.
• In 2011, Southwark will get its first 11-19 Academy that has engineering at the core of the curriculum. This is being formed out of one of the LEP schools.
• The FdEng degree at London South Bank is recruiting adult learners very strongly.

All three are built on the success of the LEP. However, there is still room for improvement, particularly in the area of targeting interventions at certain student groups under-represented in engineering higher education, particularly those from the lower half of the socio-economic scale.

The LEP Evaluation Report and its Appendices can be downloaded at the bottom of this page. The final impact of the LEP won’t be known for several years. However, the evaluation evidence set out in this report shows the following building blocks are in place:

• Engineering has been positioned as a viable career choice in the minds of thousands of young Londoners. For example, engineering is the second most popular (after business) career choice in one LEP school. At the start of the project, it did not feature at all in student surveys.
• The issues that affect the transition of under represented groups into engineering higher education have been identified and remedies put in place in London universities.

A Menu of Activities offered during LEP Pilot phase can be downloaded from below.

Participation in engineering education is being widened in south London through the work of the LEP. This is a good platform on which to build the new National HE STEM Programme led by the University of Birmingham and funded by HEFCE and HEFCW. This project is started from August 2000 and will run until July 2012. For more details, please visit: http://www.hestem.ac.uk

The Royal Academy of Engineering is leading its engineering component and more details can be found here.