A new mobile phone app that alerts Londoners when they walk past a great feat of engineering will be launched to encourage more teenagers to study the subject.
The engineering trail is designed to highlight the world-class construction projects that often go unnoticed by passers-by.
People walking past places including St Pancras station, Regent’s Canal and the King’s Cross Underground ticket hall will hear their mobile phone buzz and be able to watch a video showing how they were built.
It comes after fears that bright students do not understand what engineering involves, and are seduced by the prospect of careers in banking and finance instead.
A spokesman for the Association for Consultancy and Engineering, which created the app, said: “Our inspiration for doing it is so youngsters are more aware that engineering is out there.
“Some think engineering is the guy who comes to fix the boiler, not the one who makes the great new railway.”
Latest figures from the Royal Academy of Engineering show that Britain needs an additional 100,000 science, technology, engineering and maths graduates every year to meet a desperate skills shortage.
The first engineering trail is based in King’s Cross and will launch in September. Others are planned for the Olympic Park and Manchester.
