The Bishop of Southwark has challenged the UK’s leading engineers to use climate change and energy generation issues as the carrot to get more young people into the profession.

The Rt Revd Dr Tom Butler, who has a PhD in electronics, told members of the Royal Academy of Engineering that the battle against climate change was what energises and excites young people.

Butler also warned that the shortage of qualified engineers would be heightened by construction of Olympic 2012 venues and a new generation of nuclear power stations. Network Rail’s recent problems in finding enough engineers to work over the New Year was an illustration of this.

A recent survey by the Royal Academy of Engineering and the Engineering and Technology Board found two in three young people knew very little about engineering and almost three in four did not understand what engineers did.

Butler said there was a real challenge in improving the uptake of science subjects in general at university, particularly engineering.

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Building Sustainable Design