The Institute of Physics (IOP) recently commissioned research that challenged common stereotypes and misconceptions about a subject that will be crucial to solving many societal and global challenges.
This follows much anecdotal evidence from business and industry about the physics-based skills gap hampering research and development and business growth, notably in high-value manufacturing sectors and industries central to meeting net-zero targets.
Unfortunately, physics often gets portrayed as a “hard” subject suitable only for academic students and is often a subject dominated by white, middle-class boys. Despite the efforts of many, over many years, the percentage of girls in Scotland choosing to study Higher physics or going on to physics degrees has been stuck around 25 per cent.
And the same research mentioned above shows only about 4 per cent of those choosing to do physics-related apprenticeships in Scotland are girls - a figure much lower than elsewhere in the UK. Although there is less robust data, this is also very likely to apply to those with other protected characteristics and from lower socioeconomic groups.
However, there is a bright future for young people who do have good physics-based knowledge and skills, at all levels from apprenticeships through to PhDs.
IOP research has shown that 53 per cent of physics-based jobs do not require a degree and that, while jobs based on physics knowledge and skills make up 10 per cent of the workforce, they contribute 17 per cent of Scottish GDP. The average salary for these jobs is significantly above the national average, so encouraging more girls into such jobs would help address other societal issues such as closing the gender-related pay gap.
IOP already has its Limit Less campaign, which includes promoting whole-school equity approaches to ensure that all young people feel they can study any subject they wish, as well as Bin the Boffin to change how scientists are portrayed in the media.
So, at this time of impending educational reform, what else might be done over and above even better careers guidance?
Some lessons can be learned from the past, as well as considering the needs of the present and future. When Standard Grade physics was introduced in Scotland the 1980s, with its applications-based approach, this resulted in physics being the subject with the highest retention rate from Standard Grade into Higher. Teaching physics through topics such as telecommunications, health physics, energy matters and space physics showed the relevance and a human side of physics, in a way perhaps lost in Scotland’s Curriculum for Excellence.
In 2023, young people are rightly concerned about the climate emergency. Physics is at the heart of renewable energy and of many new jobs, such as those needed to replace gas boilers with heat pumps and to install the infrastructure for electric vehicles. And, while the development of vaccines may have captured many of the Covid headlines, it was the physics of the modelling of fluid flow and populations that informed crucial decision making. Physics is also central to many medical procedures and developments.
Meanwhile, Scotland has burgeoning photonics and space sectors offering good opportunities, even in remote locations. More small satellites are manufactured in Glasgow than in any region outside the USA.
It is time to develop the curriculum to show explicitly how physics can be of material benefit to individuals, society, industry; to show that it is essential to the long-term sustainability of our planet, or even to escaping from it if we ever have the need.
Scotland becoming a “Stem nation” needs to be far more substantial than just a catchy slogan - and physics is at the heart of this.
Stuart Farmer is learning and skills manager (Scotland) for the Institute of Physics. He tweets @stuartphysics
