Engineering the Future Workforce Required by a Global Engineering Industry

• Published in: Association for Engineering Education - Engineering Library Division Papers p. 26.646.1
• Main Authors: Richey, Michael, Zender, Fabian, Camarda, Charles J
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: Atlanta American Society for Engineering Education-ASEE 14.06.2015
• Subjects: Colleges & universities; Curricula; Design engineering; Education; Emergency response; Engineering; Government agencies; Levels; Skills; Students; Workforce
• DOI: 10.18260/p.23984

Engineering the Future Workforce required by a Global Engineering IndustryThe last decades have brought numerous changes to the engineering workforce. These changeshave been caused both by the increased specialization of skills required by the continuousapplication of innovative technologies and the geopolitical changes enabling global collaborationof engineering design teams. These phenomena, coupled with challenges in the workforcedemographics have created an environment requiring dramatic changes in the way that youth andadolescents in primary, secondary, and post-secondary education are educated to ensure theirfuture career success.While individual teachers have made great strides in improving the learning of their individualstudents to accommodate the requirements of a global workforce in the 21st century overallengineering companies and governmental agencies are challenged by the quantity and quality ofgraduates produced by the education system at all levels. To solve this dilemma a very largeaerospace company and a national space agency have jointly engineered a program inpartnership with educational institutions which prepares students with skills in the Science,Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics (STEAM) areas and does so collaborativelyacross the nation.While the very large aerospace company and governmental space agency have various educationprograms at all levels of the education system, this paper will focus on the joint efforts to engagevarious engineering universities and secondary education institutions across the United States byhaving geographically-dispersed, student teams comprised of members from various universitieswork together to solve an epic engineering challenge. These epic challenges address issues ofglobal concern, e.g., capturing and retrieving an asteroid, monitoring agricultural fields toincrease yield, or assisting first responders, and require a multidisciplinary skill set. This paperwill define the detailed processes required for such a multi-organizational endeavor, rangingfrom the recruitment and organization of partners, to the development of a joint curriculum andexecution of the program. These processes are based on the experiences, by both the very largeaerospace company and governmental space agency, in successfully carrying such multi-stakeholders initiatives within the education systems.While both organizations represented by the authors are aware of the limitations andshortcomings of the current education system, a paradigm change cannot be implementedovernight. This paper will therefor also detail how the jointly engineered program satisfiesABET criteria and will contrast benefits with traditional programs. In addition, a framework willbe presented that will enable the application of these processes to primary and secondaryeducation enabling students to have validated skills that are directly related to national scienceand engineering standards as well as workforce requirements. It is the intention of bothorganizations to leverage their respective technical expertise to engineer a multifunctionalsystems that can provide a workforce based on national objectives and industry requirements.