There are many reasons for the decline in students in engineering professions. On the one hand, engineering degree programmes are considered demanding and deter potential first-year students. On the other hand, traditional engineering professions are competing with other, changed or newly created occupational fields due to technical change and digitalisation. Some of these are considered more modern and attractive by university applicants.

The basis for a good supply of young engineers in Germany also appears to be problematic. According to a study by Ingenieurmonitor on the skills development of 15-year-old students in mathematics, the number of students with high skills in this area has fallen by around half, from 17 per cent to 8.6 per cent, between 2012 and 2022. This is based on the PISA studies, which still showed a continuous increase in mathematics between 2000 and 2012. From 2012, it went downhill steeply, including in the natural sciences.

At the beginning of 2023, around 2 million of the working population had a degree in engineering. Compared to 2020, this is an increase of 10 %. In fact, only around 1.5 million were actually working as engineers in 2023. The reason for this is that specialists are working in other professional fields. In 2023, only around 84,000 engineers were self-employed in Germany.

Almost two thirds of engineers work in the fields of production and manufacturing, including technical research and development. One in five specialists worked in the fields of construction, architecture, surveying or building services engineering. 16% of engineers work in other engineering professions.

Technical sales and distribution saw particular growth, with an increase of 7.9 per cent. Around 8 per cent of all engineers now work in technical sales and distribution.

Increases in detail:

Technical sales and distribution +7.9 per cent

Transport operations and safety technology +3.7 per cent

Mechanical and automotive engineering +3.1 per cent

Mechatronics, energy and electrical engineering +3.0 per cent

Engineering professions overall +3.0 per cent

Natural sciences and computer science +2.9 per cent

Technical research and production management +2.5 per cent

Construction, architecture, surveying, building services engineering +2.3 per cent

Agriculture, forestry, gardening, landscaping +2.0 per cent

Other areas, e.g. medical technology +1.3 per cent

Metal processing and other manufacturing -0.3 per cent

The question arises as to how the traditional engineering professions can be made more attractive to young people again. After all, new talent is urgently needed. After the slump in vacancies during the Corona crisis, around 71,000 new positions were offered in 2023 alone. A record high.

In fact, around 30% of pupils with good grades can very well imagine studying a technical subject and pursuing an academic technical profession. Among female pupils, the figure is between 12 and 20%, depending on the study.

However, young people often have misconceptions about engineering careers and are not sufficiently informed. Relevant German studies from 2014 to 2024 show that many young people associate engineering careers with traditional activities. They perceive engineering studies as very demanding, boring and selective. The perceived high dropout rate represents a significant image problem for technical degree programmes.

To get young people excited about traditional engineering jobs today, the industry needs to open up more to social media and present itself in an attractive way. For many young people, it is important to work on systemically important tasks. Engineering professions are at the top of the list here. Transformations in various fields are not possible without technical solutions from engineers. A great opportunity.

Young people associate engineering professions, particularly in civil engineering, with hard work and old, outdated structures. It needs to be made clear that this is no longer the case in many places. Fundamentally, the image of engineering professions needs to be worked on. By way of comparison: in the UK, civil engineers are among the top 5 most respected professions, while in Germany they are not even among the top 10.

Nevertheless, it cannot be denied that a solid education in mathematics and natural sciences is a basic requirement for a successful career in an engineering profession. Therefore, the question must be asked as to how these subjects can be made more attractive to students and taught better. The industry itself must then inspire them, which means that industry representatives and decision-makers must increasingly go to schools and communicate the attractiveness of engineering professions themselves.