This August’s A-level results made the usual headlines about grades. But tucked inside the data was a story that matters far more to parents of primary-age children than any single result: university places in engineering and technology jumped by 14% this year, the fastest growth of any subject area, according to EngineeringUK’s analysis of results day. Britain is training more engineers than it has in years.

Look a little closer, though, and an old problem hasn’t gone away.

What the numbers show: Of this year’s engineering and technology university places, only around one in five went to female applicants. Women still make up just 17% of the UK’s engineering workforce. Meanwhile, national surveys of parents have found that many simply don’t believe engineering is a realistic path for their child, particularly if no one in the family already works in the field.

What it means for your child: By the time a young person is choosing GCSE options, let alone A-levels, their sense of whether they’re “an engineering person” has usually already formed. That confidence, or the lack of it, tends to take root years earlier, in primary school and at home, long before any exam is on the horizon.

What actually closes the gap: Hands-on experience, early and often. Children who get to build, test, and rebuild real things, not worksheets about engineering but actual engineering, learn that mistakes are part of the process and that they are capable of solving problems. That’s exactly the kind of experience we aim to give every child at EFK Chelmsford, whichever school they go to and whatever their background.

Along the way, children build skills that quietly shape how they see themselves:

• Confidence: Trying an idea, testing it, and trying again without fear of getting it “wrong”.
• Problem-solving: Working through a real design challenge, not just answering a question about one.
• Representation: Seeing themselves, whoever they are, as someone who can build things.
• Curiosity: Asking “how does this work?” and being given the chance to find out.

Results day statistics will keep making headlines every August. But the children who go on to fill those university places, and to close that gender gap, are the ones who got their hands on a set of gears, a circuit, or a pile of cardboard years before anyone asked them to pick an option box. That’s the work we get to do every week, and it starts a lot earlier than sixth form.