The gender gap in engineering starts at home

There is a significant gender imbalance both in engineering apprenticeship starts and, in the interest expressed by young people in progressing towards an engineering career. Official data shows that 51 per cent of the school age population is male, but they make up over 90 per cent of all apprentices starts in engineering and manufacturing technologies according to the most recent government data, up from 80 per cent in 2024-25.

In research commissioned by our High Value Manufacturing Catapult, young people in school years 10 to 13 were surveyed on their interest in apprenticeships. The results were depressingly predictable when it came to gender imbalance. However, one interesting indicator emerged that may provide a focus for addressing this in a different way.

Our survey data showed, as expected, that male learners were much more likely to be interested in pursuing further learning in engineering and manufacturing, transport and logistics, and agriculture. Female learners were more likely to be interested in health and science, education and early years and care services. The data started to get more interesting when it explored their intentions. Male learners were more likely to be aware of apprenticeships and taking proactive steps towards investigating them. Female learners were much more likely to report that they are not aware of apprenticeships at all.

On the face of it this seems obvious given that male learners are more likely to progress to apprenticeships. However, there is no immediately obvious reason why female learners reported a lack of awareness. To explore this further, we looked at how often apprenticeships are discussed in different social contexts; school, at home, in peer groups and in other social situations.

The data showed that learners who reported higher numbers of discussions about apprenticeships in a wider range of social contexts were also the learners that were more likely to be aware of, and be taking positive steps towards, apprenticeships as a progression pathway. The data also suggested that discussions at home were most impactful. This is very important as there is a significant difference in how male and female learners are impacted by this.

In the school environment there is virtually no imbalance in access to information about apprenticeships, with those reporting five or more conversations about apprenticeships at school being 47 per cent male and 45 per cent female. The difference comes when looking at the different social contexts. Over a third of males report discussing apprenticeships at home and in their peer groups five times or more, but only one in five females report the same. There is therefore evidence to suggest that a lack of discussion of apprenticeships in the home may be having an impact on female progression into apprenticeships.

As our data shows that female learners are much less likely to discuss apprenticeships outside of the controlled environment of school, this may be directly causing their lack of progression into those roles. It seems that whilst the education system is giving access equally, the rest of society is not.

This is not a simple thing to change. The responsibility for encouraging families to explore apprenticeships equally cannot fall on an already overburdened education system. But approaches like government-backed publicity campaigns, social media engagement and effective role-modelling might reach female learners and their families, and get the conversation going. Whilst there are no easy answers, it is clear that if we really want to address gender imbalances in engineering apprenticeships then we really do have to talk.