IMechE Strategy 2030:
Global, Inclusive and Digitally Enabled
Having a clear strategy is core to any organisation’s success. IMechE must be able to articulate its strategy to members, employees, and external stakeholders if it is to stay effective in a world that is seeing the pace of change accelerate.
I would like to thank my fellow Trustees, members of the Strategy Committee and working groups, our Council, and volunteer members and employees that have supported the generation of this new strategy in what I believe is a singular example of collective participation. We have much work to do to continue engaging and consulting on the strategy far and wide, as well as ensuring that we align our organisation and business plan to it.
Technicians and engineers will change the world, like they have done ever since they existed. To our members all over the planet. There is one simple question to ask yourself, “What do I want to be?”. Our response is simple: We want you to be the best technician or engineer you can be, and we are here to help and support you.
Giles Hartill BEng MSc CEng FIMechE
138th IMechE President
Mission: Improving the world through engineering.
Vision 2030: A global, inclusive, and digitally enabled engineering community.
Our Values
Inclusion
We work together as one inclusive team, valuing and respecting diversity by opening up to, and actively listening to the contributions one another have to make.
Integrity
We do the right thing for IMechE and for one another by being honest, truthful, and authentic, acting with integrity in every decision we make and every action we take.
Innovation
We find better ways to get things done, innovating to resolve problems, drive change and move our mission forward by making tomorrow better than today.
Impact
We make a difference and an impact in what we do, taking accountability and ownership for meeting our commitments, making things happen by succeeding together and excelling as individuals.
Our Strategic Goals
Membership Development
Developing, registering, and supporting our members to be their best for a more inclusive and sustainable world.
Impact
Maximising the impact of our members to promote engineering, inform opinion, and stimulate innovation for the benefit of society.
We will use our expertise, global reach, and modern technology to empower our members to improve the world through engineering. Recognising, connecting, and collaborating with members and stakeholders to build a thriving IMechE community.
We will continue to be a leader in providing accreditation, knowledge, and networking as we have done since 1847.
To deliver our strategic goals:
• We will improve our membership accreditation process, recognition schemes, services, and community - making them inclusive and a leading standard, relevant to the modern, global world.
• We will use digital technology to build thriving, networked, inclusive, global engineering communities, and deliver customised services to support engineers throughout their careers.
• We will realise a modern facilities estate, fit for the future of the Institution, ensuring long-term financial stability for the organisation.
• Our members are leaders, experts, generating knowledge and innovating solutions - we will harness their expertise to engage and impact society positively.
Membership Development
Strategic Objectives
1. Lead in membership standards and accreditation
IMechE standards will define and lead global best practice, our membership and registration routes will reflect the diverse ways that technicians and engineers enter the profession, and our membership will support members throughout their lifelong journey in a globalised engineering community.
How we will deliver:
• Ensure our membership grades and routes to professional recognition reflect the needs of the global engineering profession.
• Collaborate with other licencing bodies and organisations to lead, develop, and implement membership standards and accreditation programmes.
• Develop training and accreditation programs that align with future needs of industry, government, and other stakeholders.
• Develop our support to employers through the delivery of a corporate partnership offering to enhance the importance and recognition of professional technicians and engineers.
• Expand our support for the apprenticeship community by extending our End-Point Assessment standards portfolio.
• Review and expand our graduate services portfolio to support the next generation of engineers.
• Review our ethical principles structure and policies to reflect the needs of the engineering profession and societal obligations.
• Maximise the global status of IMechE professional registration and membership services through joint partnerships and global recognition arrangements.
2. Provide the best personalised, relevant services, content, and knowledge to support technicians and engineers throughout their careers
We will develop blended forms of engagement and learning and development so that members can connect with content in ways that suit them and directly offers value and supports the current stage in their careers in a personalised, diverse, and timely manner.
Our services and personal development offering will be aligned to support members throughout their lifelong journey and to suit the needs of the individuals.
Developing, registering, and supporting our members to be their best for a more inclusive and sustainable world.
How we will deliver:
• Improve the value of membership by providing personalised and relevant benefits and services including sharing of knowledge, networking, and lifelong learning opportunities throughout a member’s lifespan.
• Develop a personalised, inclusive digital approach to communications and ensuring members have access to and are aware of the services and benefits available.
• Improve support for members’ lifelong learning by aligning activities with the requirements of IMechE Continuous Professional Development.
• Review the Institution's membership pricing models and services so they provide value and remain competitive and globally accessible including considering global variances in economic conditions.
3. Build inclusive, thriving communities to support technicians and engineers to learn, work, and excel
We will support technicians and engineers to learn work and excel by building thriving membership communities. We will continue to support and encourage volunteering to ensure that members continue to remain at the heart of our communities. We will build state-of-the-art inclusive platforms to enable our members to interact and our resourcing of communities will reflect our global membership.
How we will deliver:
• Expand our global reach through the introduction of a global development framework that focusses on improving engagement with the engineering community on local and global levels.
• Enhance local international resources in line with the global development framework.
• Develop integrated, global, inclusive communities for technicians and engineers to increase engagement and exchange of ideas.
• Create a sustainable, motivated volunteer community through diversifying and expanding our volunteering networks.
• Provide support services for our member communities to ensure the Institution offering is ‘by the members for the members.’
4. Enable and support members to effectively promote engineering, inform opinion, and stimulate innovation for the benefit of society
The 2030 vision encourages and enables members to take part in the public discussion of engineering solutions to improve the world.
We will build an environment where the Institution's membership community is actively developed and sought for the quality and impartiality of their advice by industry, government, academia, and the press.
How we will deliver:
• Identify and develop impartial technical expertise and industry influencers, by identifying and delivering their training and skill development needs.
• Create channels for members to engage with the wider community on engineering issues.
• Create learning platforms to support members’ skill and expertise development.
• Structure and align our technical and specialist groups to ensure that a balanced policy message is communicated cross sector.
Impact
Strategic Objectives
1. Expand and harness the expertise of our members and employees for the good of society and promote engineering as a means for solving the major challenges faced by our planet
We will maximise the impact of our members in promoting engineering, informing opinion, and stimulating innovation for the benefit of society. We will also inspire, engage, support and influence: pupils, students, teachers, careers professionals, academics, parents/guardians, and education outreach stakeholders, equipping them with the education and skills needed to respond to society’s challenges.
How we will deliver:
• Develop new ways of harnessing the expertise of our members to influence decision makers in government and industry.
• Continue to assist with the development of the National Engineering Policy Centre and work with the Royal Academy of Engineering to streamline mechanisms for providing IMechE input into NEPC activities.
• Provide high quality, inclusive, relevant, and engaging outreach activities, engineering student/apprenticeship competitions, careers materials, STEM kits, and work experience to members and volunteers to enhance success and impact.
• Increase and diversify our STEM ambassador pool.
• Ensure our outreach and engagement portfolio reaches underserved areas (e.g., rural) and groups (e.g. gender, BAME, LGBQT+).
Maximising the impact of our members to promote engineering, inform opinion, and stimulate innovation for the benefit of society.
2. Be a point-of-reference for policymakers across industry and government when impartial technical expertise is considered essential in informing key national and local decisions.
We will be a leading organisation in providing engineering policy and technical advice to governments and to encourage innovation and the role of engineering across academia, industry, business, and communities. We will shape the public and engineering debate, with a specific focus on our key policy priorities:
• Climate change and sustainability
• The future of transport and mobility
• Healthcare and infectious disease control
• Education and skills
We will be thought leaders and a trusted partner to influence and shape education and skills policy and in doing so secure a sustainable and diverse stream of talent into and through the profession meeting society’s current and future skills needs.
How we will deliver:
• Proactively engage with senior government officials and industry leaders to promote our ideas to decision makers and to provide ongoing technical advice to the government.
• Produce a regular stream of policy and technical outputs that are novel, independent, have strong engagement with decision makers, and make the best use of the diverse range of our people and expertise.
• Produce and maintain a new database/list of IMechE expertise that can be tapped into to advise on IMechE reports and events.
• Act as a major convener in the engineering sector through an inclusive range of event types and formats, addressing relevant and forward-looking topics, and encouraging meaningful participation from a broad, diverse, global customer base.
• Develop an open access forum where captains of industry can partner with the Institution and meet through a virtual open access forum.
• Formulate an Education and Skills Strategy which unifies all elements of the Institution's education and skills work.
• Maintain strong relationships with other PEIs to ensure our technical and policy outputs are complementary. Collaborate directly with such Institutions and when there is an opportunity.
3. Communicate the outputs of IMechE across multiple platforms including webinars, in-person events, and social, broadcast and print media.
We will promote the achievements of our members, ensure our policy outputs are in front of key decision makers, and raise the profile of IMechE and the engineering community with government, the media and wider society. IMechE will be the go-to place for comment on issues with an engineering perspective and drive the agenda with our policy work and priorities. We will also engage members with the work of the Institution and ensure their achievements and expertise are recognised.
How we will deliver
• Grow a network of trained spokespeople to speak to the media on behalf of IMechE.
• Build stronger contacts with national journalists and broadcasters to promote the Institutions policy work.
• Develop better communications channels with our members so we hear their stories and achievements and can promote them on our channels.
• Use the convening power of the Institution to bring together engineering companies and organisations, to work together on leading edge technology, innovation, and critical strategic issues.
• Our programme will include a wider range of activities designed to promote the policy and outreach work of IMechE globally, influencing government, industry decision-makers and academia, and the public.
• Collaborate and drive education outreach and engagement across the Institution by working with our partners (e.g., STEM Learning, Engineering UK, Primary Engineer).
Strategic Enablers
Governance and Leadership
We will ensure that our:
• Governance processes are seen to be best practice by the sector and are benchmarked against leading professional bodies.
• Business processes are best practice and compliant with legal and regulatory requirements.
• Strategy is continually developed and improved, responding to changing needs and circumstances.
• Registration and qualifications are best practice for the development and support of professional engineers.
• Future leaders amongst our staff and members are proactively developed.
• Members and staff are provided with leadership learning and development opportunities.
For each of our strategic enablers we have a set of objectives we will deliver during the strategy.
People and Culture
We will ensure that we:
• Cultivate an open, collaborative, and inclusive culture where our employees and members know they belong, feel valued and can thrive.
• Support and engage volunteers and employees to work in close partnership.
• Strengthen our governance and leadership arrangements with inclusion at the heart.
• Deliver communications that reflect the diversity of our global engineering community.
• Provide services and processes designed with inclusivity and accessibility in mind.
• Secure partnerships that are aligned with our vision and values to amplify our impact and achieve our mission.
• Take a proactive approach to living our values, translating them into meaningful action that makes a difference to our organisation and beyond.
Digital First
We will ensure that we:
• Develop highly functional and globally accessible, digital services.
• Create a unified data platform to enable a digital-first operating model across the Institution.
• Design and implement content and solutions to be beneficiary centric.
• Produce content to be cross-platform and optimised for priority channels.
• Host technology solutions appropriately to support global accessibility.
• Apply automation and Artificial Intelligence technologies to improve customer experience.
• Deliver all services digital first.
Collaboration and Partnership
We will ensure that we:
• Build a culture of collaboration and partnership amongst our staff, members, and stakeholders.
• Work to harmonise standards globally.
• Collaborate with global Professional Engineering Institutions (PEIs) through reciprocal arrangements for membership and member services.
• Enable our global volunteer network to effectively promote engineering and work in partnership with other PEIs.
Sustainable Finance and Facilities
We will ensure that we:
• Have a modern and affordable building estate with excellent environmental performance.
• Develop rolling medium-term plans ensuring financial sustainability and sufficient reserves to enable strategic flexibility.
• Maximise operational efficiency and digital capabilities to minimise environmental footprint.
Evaluation and Continuous Improvement
We will ensure that we:
• Track and measure the output of IMechE to assess the success in delivering on our goals and objectives.
• Implement learning and feedback in a system of continuous improvement.
• Coordinate and collaborate activities across the spectrum, prioritising those activities with the greatest strategic fit and impact.
• Develop new metrics, KPIs and targets to encourage the delivery of the strategy.
• Extend and strengthen links with other PEIs or organisations with shared interests to understand their offering and look for areas of overlap and gaps so that we can increase the reach and impact of IMechE activities.
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