Interview with Dirk Bochar – ENGINEERS EUROPE

We interviewed Mr. Dirk Bochar, Secretary General of ENGINEERS EUROPE. We spoke with him about the added value of the EU STEM Coalition, the “Engineers4Europe” project and his advice to STEM platforms all over Europe. 

First of all, what is ENGINEERS EUROPE?

ENGINEERS EUROPE, previously FEANI, was founded in 1951 shortly after the Second World War, mainly by German and French engineers who wanted to build up Europe. We are a professional organization defending and promoting the profession of engineers in all various disciplines, from civil engineering to mechanical, electrical, chemical, biomedical, etc. engineering. ENGINEERS EUROPE represents the interests of around 6 million professional engineers in 33 European markets. We have one national umbrella Organization as member per country. ENGINEERS EUROPE is striving for a single voice for the engineering profession in Europe and we want to affirm and develop the professional identity of engineers.

What is for you the added value from the EU STEM Coalition?

We need to inspire young people. And when I say young people, I mean the people between eight and twelve years old, to engage in these STEM disciplines. Not only in science and technology, but especially in engineering. We noticed that many of the people who engage in engineering studies have been inspired by an example within their family, this could be a father, a mother, an uncle, etc. That applies to both girls and boys.

The often stated idea that engineering is a very masculine profession is not necessarily the case for all disciplines and we need to engage more women in all various disciplines of engineering. The tools and the methods that are being used to engage more young people vary from country to country. This is the added value I find in the EU STEM coalition, since you can help us create an overview.

We used to have a working group STEM also within ENGINEERS EUROPE, but we've noticed that it is very difficult to streamline that at the European level because there's so many different but equally successful initiatives being conducted at national and even local level. Therefore we renamed our WG STEM to a WG FUTURE ENGINEERS. We can learn from the projects that work in one country and can be used as an example for other countries, in order to engage young people or to motivate young people to engage in a certain professional direction.

Read the full interview here