This year, we received a significant number of applications from underrepresented groups in STEM that we can’t currently fund. The UK faces significant STEM skills gaps, estimated to cost the UK economy £1.5 billion every year. Accessibility, diversity, and gender disparity are particular issues, especially among young people. Only 16.5% of eventual working engineers are women, and 11.1% are disabled, for example. Awareness gaps early on across STEM education foster negative stereotypes. FIRST® LEGO® League bridges some of this gap for young people to try to re-address the estimated shortfall of 173,000 workers in STEM sectors.

We provide schools/groups with high-quality, STEM educational resources and guidance to integrate FIRST® LEGO® League into their curriculums/activities, ensuring they receive the right equipment and training. Our goal in doing this is to close the STEM education gap, and we work with a range of partners, including local councils to offer additional assistance to foster a quality, unique STEM experience for participants through FIRST® LEGO® League. In laying these foundations we look to inspire engineers and technicians of the future.