In a year when institutions, firms and the Government are working hard to change the image of engineering careers through the This is Engineering campaign, Sainsbury Management Fellows’ 2018 Hard Hat Index reports a 13% drop in the use of hard hats in the engineering media compared to the 2017 Index.
Comparing the 2018 Hard Hat Index with 2017’s Index, a big fall has come from advertisements, with a 31% decline in the publication of hard hat images. The 2017 Hard Hat Index recorded 129 adverts depicting engineering careers, courses, innovation, products and services using hard hat images compared to this year’s Index which features just 89 such images – the lowest in four years.
In 2017 the Hard Hat Index showed an impressive fall of almost 20% in the use of hard hats in editorials (from 158 in 2016 down to 127 in 2017) but that success has been slightly dented in the 208 Index by an increase of six (4.5%) hard hats featured in editorials.
Despite this year’s blip in the editorial figures, long-term the fall in the use of hard hats to depict engineering is moving in the right direction. Comparing the 2018 and 2015 Indexes, the current Index shows positive results – an 11% decline in hard hats used in editorial and nearly 17% fall in the use of hard hats in adverts.