School Reunion and Connections

Last weekend, Simon Ruddlesden went back to school, to celebrate the retirement of an exceptional geology teacher, who, together with colleagues, has built a department that consistently ranks among the best in the country.  The results speak for themselves: over 50% of the year group now take GCSE Geology; 85% of A-Level students achieved A or A* last year.

There are incredible numbers and inspiring teaching. However, despite decades of producing highly capable geology students, very few of them have ended up in the ground investigation / geotechnical / geo-environmental industry. A missed opportunity, perhaps?

As discussed at the recent AGS annual conference (and elsewhere), we are hearing that there are fewer well-trained graduates entering our industry, and we are seeing fewer universities offering geoscience degrees and fewer schools offering geology at GCSE and A-Level. 

However, perhaps the biggest challenge of all is awareness. Ask a school-age student what a career in geology looks like, and you’ll likely hear “mining…oil and gas…quarrying”. Our industry is often not even on the radar. If students don’t know we exist, why would they ever choose this path? Why would they pick geology at university if they don’t realise it could unlock a rewarding career in our field?

So, Simon will be going back to school again, not to study, but to share what we do, why it matters, and how rewarding it can be. The ground investigation/ geotechnical/ geo-environmental industry won’t be for everyone, but there could be an untapped pool of future engineering geologists and geo-environmental engineers out there; we just need to reach them earlier. Let’s make sure the next generation know we exist!

If you know of a school that would like to hear what Simon has to say about working in the industry, please get in touch.