# Transcript

Chi Onwurah

I think you've got to start with the desire to solve problems. And I think, you know, we've talked to or listened to engineers … a lot of them, they're always trying to figure out the way things work as children, so you've got to have that desire and that interest to make things work. I think that's really what engineers do – they make things work. But in addition to that, then, or as part of that, you need a lot of persistence, because things don't work for an awful long time before they actually do work, often. And you do need also a logical kind of mind that rationally goes through the debugging stage, because a lot of engineering in my experience is understanding what the problem is and then looking at all the different types of solutions there might be, constrained by the environment or the budget or the users or whatever. So you do need a logical approach as well.

I think to be a good, or even a great, engineer you don't need to be a fantastic communicator because engineering is about making things work – it's not about talking about making them work. But having said that, what the engineering profession lacks is effective communications. And I … my engineering body is the Institute of Engineering and Technology, the IET, and I do say to them quite regularly – and they say they're changing it – but that we need stronger voices for engineering. Because if people don't understand what we do, then firstly we won't get as many engineers as we need, but also we won't get the sort of funding and the sort of research that we need in order for the UK to be a leading engineering country. And I would hope, and I do understand it's the case, that most engineering degrees or apprenticeships include some kind of module around communications and engaging with society, and science and engineering in society as well.

I think engineers are absolutely fundamental in society, and when people ask me why I went from engineering to politics I say, you know, both engineers and politics are the key drivers of progress. Obviously I love science, but it only actually makes a difference to people's lives when it gets to be engineering, generally. Because, you know, to make an impact on people's lives you need to take the science and adapt it and make it usable or affordable or whatever in a way that people will engage with and interact, and that's what makes it part of the progress in society. So the area that I'm familiar with, telecommunications, a lot of the basic science for that was done decades and decades ago, you know, radio waves in the 20s and silicon chips, all that, but it was bringing it together in a way that people could use and which was affordable – and that was down to engineers. And that is what's responsible for the internet and the huge social changes that the internet's bringing.

Deciding to study engineering was the best decision I ever took, and having that basis and that background has helped me achieve most of, if not all of, my ambitions, both in science and engineering but also as a politician. And so I think that engineering is in good shape, in as much as it's making a great contribution to society, but it needs more champions and it needs more and brighter people taking it up – so I hope The Open University is making a contribution towards that.