This International Youth Day, the spotlight is on a generation that will shape how we live, work and solve tomorrow’s challenges. Engineering skills are not just about building machines or structures—they are about thinking creatively, solving problems, collaborating, experimenting and turning ideas into solutions.
The Engineering Academy, part of the Next Engineers program, is designed to help young people discover this mindset early. Through hands-on design challenges, employability activities and pathways planning, students develop their 'engineering habits of mind' while building confidence in their ability to solve real-world problems.
Over the course of two years and 180 hours of programming, students part of the Bengaluru Next Engineers program were given the opportunity to learn about engineering through increasingly complex challenges, while gaining the skills and confidence to pursue higher education, apprenticeships and careers in engineering.
The 18 students of Cohort 1 began their Engineering Academy journey in July 2026. Since then, they have completed four sessions of Unit 1 and taken on two hands-on design challenge. One challenge included students building a 6.5-foot "radio tower" using only office paper and masking tape. The other challenge tasked students with crafting a "grabber" device able to pick up small items that would be out of reach using a variety of everyday materials such as string, cardboard, toothpicks and empty plastic bottles.
Each challenge allows them to ask questions, test ideas, learn from what doesn't work, and try again. This experience helps teach them that the engineers of tomorrow need more than technical skills. They need the confidence to imagine, the skills to solve, and the agency to create change. The Academy goes beyond technical knowledge. It helps young people develop a range of valuable skills such as problem-solving, creativity, collaboration, communication, critical thinking and self-efficacy.
This International Youth Day, let's celebrate young people not just as the workforce of tomorrow, but as the problem-solvers and innovators shaping our future.
