AN EXPERT on engineering in the UK has spoken to business leaders in Burnley praising them for the work they are doing in the town.

Professor John Perkins, speaking yesterday at a Burnley Bondholders event, believes the town is embracing a new scheme aimed at developing more skilled engineers through education.

In 2012 Prof Perkins was the chief scientific advisor to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), and while at the department he wrote a report titled Professor John Perkins’ Review of Engineering Skill.

He is now backing a project called Primary Engineering. which is being pushed by the Bondholders and seeks to promote academic achievement and raise aspirations in the town through the context of engineering in all the local schools Prof Perkins said: “I did a lot of work for Vince Cable on engineering skills around the UK when I was involved in BIS.

“One of the takeaway messages from that was that it is really important to get young people interested and involved in engineering, and to do that we wanted them to consider taking the STEM subjects.

“As a result of that I came across the Primary Engineering project, which I think is really important and is something I am keen to support.”

Prof Perkins is now a strong advocate of the Primary Engineering scheme, with Burnley having the opportunity to become the first town to fully integrate the project for children and students aged five to 19.

“I am relatively new to the north west and I am still learning about the towns and the different areas,” said Prof Perkins.

“I have talked about Burnley and engineering in the town with Susan Scurlock who I am working with. The work that the Bondholders are doing in supporting Primary Engineering is excellent and it’s something we are keen to support as well.

“Primary Engineering will encourage people to take up the STEM subjects and hopefully develop future engineers..”

Through his work at BIS, Prof Perkins believes the country needs to start developing more engineers of the future to block a skills shortage.

He said: “The conclusion of the work I did was that we need a significant upturn in the number of skilled people going through a career in engineering, starting with a greater uptake of people studying STEM subjects.”