2 November 2022

With almost 300 Scholarships awarded this year at our ceremonies at the IET in London and EICC in Edinburgh, we were delighted to hold the awards once again in person and celebrate with our newly appointed Scholars, their families, and their sponsors.

"It was my great pleasure today to represent tlmNexus and join the incredible Scholars and sponsors at the Arkwright award ceremony. As usual, I was humbled by the incredible achievements of the students, and it is an honour to sponsor our student this year.” – 2022 Arkwright Sponsor tlmNexus

The return of our awards ceremony also coincided with our 30th year celebrations and the release of our “Future of Engineering” research report. 

Our mission at Arkwright and The Smallpeice Trust is to give the young people we work with the tools and experience to close the skills gap and meet industry requirements. We are proud to say that The Arkwright Engineering Scholarship programme can be part of the solution, with 6,000 Scholars over the past 30 years now working within the engineering industry; however, we are aware more can be done.

“As a second year Arkwright Engineering Scholar, I have found the experience extremely beneficial. Being the first in my school to take part, I feel privileged to have been selected. The mentorship program has allowed me to get real life experience and an insight into the industry, and I am so thankful for these opportunities. Overall, the Scholarship has opened doors, developed my passion for engineering and allowed me to encourage the current Year 11s to apply for this amazing opportunity!” – 2021 Arkwright Scholar

As part of our Future of Engineering research, we looked at the importance of increasing diversity, with 97% of those surveyed agreeing that “it is important to encourage young people from all backgrounds to be engineers.” And almost 75% thought that “girls continue to face greater barriers than boys when accessing engineering careers.”

We are delighted to confirm that 38% of Scholars awarded this year are female and 68% of Scholarships were awarded to state school students - a record-breaking year for the programme on both counts.

We are proud to be at the forefront of this positive change, and we’re excited to continue this progress for future cohorts.

Applications are now open for 2023 Scholarships. For more information and to apply, click here.