Facebook has announced it wants to promote engineering as a career choice among future students by joining the government’s Year of Engineering Campaign.
The social network hosted an open day today (November 16th) for 100 schoolchildren at its offices in London, using this as an opportunity to reveal its commitment to encourage young people to pursue STEM careers, including plant and process engineering, oil and gas, manufacturing and waste management.
It will become one of 1,400 other partners who have teamed up for the Year of Engineering initiative to drive applications for engineering-based courses at university and close the diversity gap in the sector.
Government Envoy for the Year of Engineering Stephen Metcalfe MP said: “Leading technology companies like Facebook play a vital role in inspiring the next generation of engineers and innovators, and it is wonderful to see so many young people given the opportunity to discover first-hand what an engineering career could look like.”
Director of product at Facebook Kyle McGinn added the company is “proud” to be hiring hundreds more engineers in its London offices next year and wants to encourage the “UK’s next generation of talent”.
To do this, the social network is launching a mentoring initiative alongside educational programme JUMP. This will enable young people from disadvantaged backgrounds to experience one-to-one mentoring with Facebook engineers to develop their understanding of an engineering role and potentially motivate them into pursue a STEM career.
Among the other organisations involved in the Year of Engineering Campaign are Newcastle University, the Institution of Civil Engineers, HS2, KPMG, the London Transport Museum, and Ford.