Bechtel boosts education support to celebrate 70 years in the UK

Institution of Engineering and Technology scholarships will help students who have faced challenges enter the industry

LONDON, July 14, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Bechtel has donated an additional £50,000 to the Institution of Engineering and Technology for its Launch Scholarship programme in celebration of the company's 70 years in the UK. The Launch Scholarship supports engineering students, degree apprentices, and apprentices who have faced financial challenges or personal obstacles. Bechtel's donation will support at least eleven students every year for the duration of their education. The donation adds to the £680,000 (US$970,000) that Bechtel has gifted to the IET for its Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics educational outreach over the past decade.

"Bechtel has been a valued partner of the IET for almost a decade, including our founding sponsor for the FIRST® LEGO® League," said Sir Julian Young, IET president. "This year's additional donation will enable us to support even more young people on their academic or apprenticeship path into engineering. We thank Bechtel for its continued support of the next generation as they each pursue their dreams." 

"Engineering is a fulfilling career that helps tackle some of the world's biggest challenges, including diversifying our energy supply and achieving net zero. We need people from varied backgrounds to help us find the best solutions," said John Williams, Bechtel's UK and Ireland managing director. "We hope that this support will remove some of the obstacles that talented people can face in earning the qualifications needed to join our industry."  

Bechtel has supported the IET since 2013, including as a founding supporter of the FIRST® LEGO® League competition that enables young people between the ages of 4-16 years old to develop STEM skills through hands-on learning. Some 100,000 children have participated in the UK program with over 15,500 children participating in 2020-21 competition. Bechtel also supports FIRST® programs in Australia, Chile, and the United States. Read more about FLL in the UK here.

Bechtel's 70^th year in the UK coincides with Her Majesty the Queen's Platinum Jubilee, and earlier this year it celebrated the opening of a new railway named in her honor, the Elizabeth Line, through central London. The company's global infrastructure business is headquartered in the UK, from which it has directly supported projects across the UK, Ireland, Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, accelerating progress, creating access and opportunity, building a path to net zero, and protecting people and our planet so that future generations thrive.

Notes to editors

IET scholarships help people like Simone who is a Degree Apprentice studying Electrical and Electronic Engineering and working at Sellafield. Read about Simone here.

About Bechtel

Bechtel is a trusted engineering, construction and project management partner to industry and government. Differentiated by the quality of our people and our relentless drive to deliver the most successful outcomes, we align our capabilities to our customers' objectives to create a lasting positive impact. Since 1898, we have helped customers complete more than 25,000 projects in 160 countries on all seven continents that have created jobs, grown economies, improved the resiliency of the world's infrastructure, increased access to energy, resources, and vital services, and made the world a safer, cleaner place. 

Bechtel serves the Energy; Infrastructure; Nuclear, Security & Environmental; and Mining & Metals markets. Our services span from initial planning and investment, through start-up and operations. www.bechtel.com

About the IET

We inspire, inform and influence the global engineering community to engineer a better world.

We are a diverse home for engineering and technology intelligence throughout the world. This breadth and depth means we are uniquely placed to help the sector progress society.

We want to build the profile of engineering and technology to change outdated perceptions and tackle the skills gap. This includes encouraging more women to become engineers and growing the number of engineering apprentices.

Interview opportunities are available with our spokespeople from a range of engineering and technology disciplines including cyber-security, energy, engineering skills, innovation, manufacturing, technology, transport and diversity in engineering.

For more information, visit www.theiet.org

Media contact:
Juliet Whitcombe
C : + 44 (0) 7917 722304
Email: [email protected]

SOURCE Bechtel