BBC doubles its intake of engineering and technology graduates

Citation

(2003), "BBC doubles its intake of engineering and technology graduates", Education + Training, Vol. 45 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/et.2003.00445aab.007

BBC doubles its intake of engineering and technology graduates

BBC doubles its intake of engineering and technology graduates

The BBC has announced that it is doubling the number of places available on its engineering and technology graduate trainee scheme, despite the falling numbers of science, engineering and technology (SET) graduates in the UK. The expansion of the scheme is in response to the rapid growth and diversification of the media industry. As a result, the BBC is looking for over 70 graduates to join the engineering & technology trainee programme in 2003. Two graduates who joined the scheme in 2001 are spear-heading the Graduates for Technology recruitment drive. It will be aiming to attract a diversity of people to become BBC engineers, including more women and more graduates with arts backgrounds, as well as SET graduates. "Although the number of graduates with engineering and technology degrees is falling, the demand for people with those skills – particularly in the media industry – is greater than ever before", says Jenny Abramsky, the BBC's director of Radio & Music. "But engineering isn't just for people with science or technology qualifications; some of our best Radio & Music broadcast engineers were designers, painters, linguists, philosophers or mathematicians before they came to the BBC."

Those who are accepted for the two to four-year development scheme will receive a mix of expert training, led by some of the media-world's leading authorities, plus practical hands-on experience. This will include working on many of the BBC's flagship programmes and initiatives. "The BBC is an organisation that changes and develops all the time; always with the aim of better reflecting its audiences' tastes, their interests and their diversity – not just in programme content, but in the people it employs", continues Jenny Abramsky. "Our training is the best in the world, and we want to attract the best to join us."

Although the BBC concedes that the lack of women in engineering and technology is still an issue, it has always actively sought to attract more women to these roles and continues to emphasise these aims. It has also always championed better arrangements for working women over many years. For example it was one of the first employers to pay mothers throughout their maternity leave, introduced family-friendly policies before being required to do so by UK/EU legislation, as well as workplace nurseries at some major locations.