Fostering Flexibility in the Engineering Work Force (1990) / Chapter Skim
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National Needs and Technological Change: A Background Paper
National Needs and Technological Change: A Background Paper
Pages 35-52
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From page 35... ...
To maximize the benefits from an intensive one-day workshop, the committee agreed that workshop participants should be briefed beforehand on the Committee's deliberations so that the workshop could build on them rather than repeat them. Workshop participants will identify the major policy issues concerning adaptability of the engineering work force and evaluate the state of the knowledge base that informs these issues, enabling the study committee to outline a long-range action agenda that focuses on filling in the gaps in knowledge informing the major policy issues associated wide adaptability.
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From page 36... ...
Other issues the Coup will consider include: how industry adapts to changing patterns of demand-specifically, the work force practices that they believe enhance their ability to respond to environmental changes and impact of federal immigration policies on the adaptability of the U.S. engineering work force.
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From page 37... ...
Accordingly, Woodallts case study of nuclear engineering may provide insight on how to deal with both emerging and declining technologies. Woodall points out that the first nuclear engineers were trained as physicists, chemists' and mechanical or chemical engineers; and even today-because nuclear engineering is a relatively young field-many senior faculty members of nuclear engineering departments have degrees Mom fields other than nuclear eng~neer~ng.l '!
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From page 38... ...
points out that the nuclear engineering curriculum could be used as a model for We development of an inherently flexible engineering Braining program. Are there doable modifications/additions/changes that could be made to current undergraduate engineering programs and Lacks that might improve a young engineer's ability to adapt to the changing professional demands of the work place and increase hisser worth in a fast-changing, technologically sophisticated marketplace?
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From page 39... ...
Adaptability Matrix To help conceptualize these issues In a manageable way, the committee developed an adaptability matrix in which the rows represent three major perspectives from which to examine adaptability, and the columns are specific items to be included in each examination: Problems Opportunities Data Changes in National Priondes Technological Change | education and Training l Terminology To establish a common universe of discourse that will facilitate communication among workshop participants, this section provides brief, basic definitions of the terms 2A copy of the fFFE self-assessment is in Appendix A of Atkinson's paper.
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From page 40... ...
However, examining the engineering work force, we understand neither the adjustment process itself nor the factors that facilitate and impede it. The engineering work force is broadly defined to include individuals who earned degrees in engineering, or are employed as engineers, or are self-identif~ed as engineers, based on their education and work experience.
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From page 41... ...
Selected Characteristics of Engineers4 One major source of information is the Current Population Survey (CPS) , a survey of approximately 55,000 households conducted monthly by the Bureau of the Census for the Bureau of Labor Statistics and providing information on industry and occupation of employment, age, sex, and education.
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From page 42... ...
, Dauffenbach found that among the 20,000 observations of employed engineers, about 55 percent had an exact match between their detailed employment field and the detailed degree field of their highest degree earned. He found that 80 percent of all working engineers had engineering degrees, though not necessarily an exact match.
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From page 43... ...
There also appears to be two groups: "stayers" who remain in the same engineering field and "switchers" who once they have switcheci continue to switch at relatively high rates to either other engineering fields or other nonengineenng fields Koala on persons with a doctorate degree in engineering are Tom the 1987 Survey of Doctoral Scientists and Engineers, a biennial longitudinal survey conducted by the National Research Council's Office of Scientific and Engineering Personnel. Data on experienced work force persons with bachelor's or master's degrees in engineering are from the 1986 National Survey of Natural and Social Scientists and Engineers, conducted by the United States Census Bureau.
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_ Cam - N en |
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l . _ , ~ g ~ ~ ~ "m SOURCE: Labor and Policy Studies Program, Science/Engineenng Education Division, Engineering Mobility and Salary Information, 0~ Ridge, Tem.: ORAU, 1989 based on the 1987 longitudinal doctorate survey.
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From page 46... ...
In fact, average salaries in the management areas are somewhat higher for those indicating an eng~neenng employment field. The only exception is in operations/other primary work activity, where nonengineering employment has a substantially higher average salary than eng~neenng employment.
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Paper presented at the Workshop on National Needs and Technological Change: Fostering Flexibility in the Engineering Work Force, National Academy of Sciences, Washington, D.C., September 29.
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From page 48... ...
survey data,where almost 70 percent of the over 55-year-old age group report physical science as Heir major field of study. Approximately 50 percent of the 45- to 55-year-old age group indicate physical science fields of study, but less than 25 percent of the under-45 age group report physical science fields of study.
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From page 49... ...
Degree Field Physical Sciences23.747.652.469.6 E· e ng~neenng Nuclear52.86.64.20.0 Chemical6.816.921.518.4 Over14.627.717.812.0 A110~=2.11.24.200 Total100.0100.0100.0100.0 Age Group (weigh ted Numbers) Under 45 45-49 50-55 Over 55 Total1124166191158 Ma=tat20200 Physics197678887 Chemistry69121223 .
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as Nuclear Engineers in 1987 by Degree Field and Age, 1987 Longitudinal Doctorate Survey. Age Group (Percent Dis~bui~on)
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Under4S ~ 49 S0~55 Over SS Age Groups Figure 2. Ph.D.s employed as nuclear engineers in 1987, physical science versus nuclear engineering, fields of study in Ph.D.
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From page 52... ...
Physical science and nuclear engineering majors, 1975 vs. 1987 for Ph.D.s employed as nuclear engineers by age group.
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