December employer partner policy roundup

In November, IChemE hosted its second policy roundtable in Scotland, with a collaborative event with the Royal Society of Edinburgh looking at industrial decarbonisation and skills in Scotland. This event was excellently attended, with representation from Scottish Government, industry, academia, and professional bodies.

We also supported a discussion of how to make engineering a truly diverse profession at the Fellows’ Luncheon on the day of the Annual IChemE Awards, and spoke to a networking event in Wales at Swansea University about our policy work and began to make plans for more activity in Wales in this area the near future.

In Westminster, we have continued to raise the profile of our skills for the circular economy report, with a recent positive meeting with Tristan Osborne MP, Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Sustainability. In a few weeks, we will also be discussing this report with Chris McDonald MP – Minister for Industry, Chemical Engineer and IChemE fellow.

That's not all we’ve been up to in Parliament, however. We worked with Steve Yemm MP and the student engagement team in IChemE to deliver an outreach session about chemical engineering for some visiting students, and held a session introducing chemical engineering to the group of Labour Party MPs with an interest in Science, Innovation and Technology.

Finally, the policy team was on hand to support at DiscoverChemEngLIVE, running an activity based around debating a number of potential government policies ranging from making A-level maths compulsory through to taxing fast fashion. We saw a few potential future Prime Minsters among the attendees on the day.