Neon career pathways

Our research shows that organising a series of  engineering outreach activities across a student's school career has a much greater impact on their career choices. We believe that presenting young people with a sequence of linked activities and resources will increase their interest in a career in engineering, as well as their understanding of the breadth of opportunities that are available to them.

Our Engineering career pathways bring together quality assured experiences with supporting resources which you can use together to inspire your students about engineering careers - and keep them inspired.

Our research showed that the activities in a pathway should include five key elements:

  1. They should show what engineering and technology jobs can achieve.
  2. They should make links between young people's interests and strengths and engineering and technology jobs.
  3. They should challenge stereotypes.
  4. They give young people the opportunity to develop and use their skills.
  5. They should recognise and celebrate those skills.

The Neon team curated the Neon career pathways on this page carefully to ensure that they contain all of the five elements above. We believe that this means that using these pathways will increase your students engagement with engineering careers.

We have suggested a sequence of how you could use the resources, but you may wish to use them in a different order.

Starter packs

Three basic pathways that are easy and free to run.

Basic engineering careers pathway

A free, low resource pathway that gives your students an introduction to engineering and technology careers over 2 terms.

2 experiences 3 resources
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Big Bang Blueprint engineering careers pathway

A free, low-resource pathway that introduces your students to engineering and technology careers using the Big Bang Blueprint as a starting point.

2 experiences 7 resources
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Challenging perceptions engineering careers pathway

A free, low-resource pathway that introduces all students, especially girls, to engineering and technology careers over 2 terms. The experiences in this pathway are all available online.