The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) ­ is the only international organisation with a specific mandate for science and engineering. Sharing Airbus’ ambition to inspire young people about sustainable innovation and engineering, UNESCO granted patronage to Fly Your Ideas in 2012.

This is comptetition is an exciting opportunity to promote the need for more diversity among the global population of innovators, to better reflect the communities we serve and attract talented young people from all profiles and backgrounds into the industry.

UNESCO’s in-depth report about future engineering capacity highlights an engineering skills gap that threatens industry and growth. Aviation is no exception. There are not enough aviation engineers currently graduating to meet industry needs and nearly half of them switch to other careers once they qualify. 

Not only do engineers play a vital role as members of the large multi-disciplinary teams that design, create and innovate to improve the lives of people everywhere. Diverse teams – in terms of gender, areas of study or individual profiles – have always been a hallmark of successful Airbus Fly Your Ideas’ teams.

"Fly Your Ideas is an inspirational endeavour for students around the world and UNESCO is proud to be a part of this initiative” said Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of UNESCO. “The new challenges will allow students to think outside the box and come up with sustainable solutions for global problems beyond aerospace - exactly what the world needs from our future generations!"

Since the competition was launched, over 20,000 students have registered to participate, from over 650 universities and 100 countries worldwide, with over 400 Airbus employees supporting the students and assessing entries.