an article by Patrick J. Rottinghaus, Nikki A. Falk and Chan Jeong Park (University of Missouri-Columbia, USA) published in The Career Development Quarterly Volume 66 Issue 1 (March 2018)
Abstract
Career counselors must continually enhance their knowledge and skills to assist clients contemplating careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).
Therefore, the authors review STEM disciplines and theory‐driven strategies for assisting diverse individuals to explore, enter, and persist in STEM careers. Appropriate use of career assessments can contribute greatly to this effort.
To identify available measures for STEM‐focused domains and constructs, the authors conducted a journal content analysis of stand‐alone STEM‐related career assessments from 1983 to 2016, identifying 39 articles with 153 measures.
Notable results included the emergence of social cognitive theory and social cognitive career theory as prevailing frameworks for instrument development, a wide variety of disciplines and journals represented, an under-representation of minority samples, and untapped potential for cross‐discipline and researcher–practitioner collaboration.
Useful strategies and resources for counselors and recommendations for enhancing career assessments and interventions are addressed.
Full text (PDF 33pp)
Showing posts with label engineering. Show all posts
Showing posts with label engineering. Show all posts
Saturday, 24 March 2018
Friday, 14 August 2015
The Scale of ‘Leakage’ of Engineering Graduates from Starting Work in Engineering and its Implications for Public Policy and UK Manufacturing Sectors
SKOPE Research Paper No. 122, January 2015 by Dr Matthew Dixon (SKOPE Fellow)
Abstract
The fact that not all graduates from vocational higher education courses go and work in the ‘natural’ profession or ‘natural industry sector’ corresponding to the course content is recognised. However, the scale of the ‘leakage’ of those completing engineering courses away from working in relevant engineering companies comes as a considerable surprise. The fraction of those graduating from particular engineering disciplines who go into the corresponding industry sector (in particular within manufacturing) is not only not 100 per cent, but generally less than 50 per cent and, in some cases, less than 10 per cent.
This paper presents evidence from the Higher Education Statistics Agency’s (HESA) surveys, Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education (DHLE), over 10 years that shows just how invalid is the idealised ‘linear pipeline’ assumption that has prevailed (often by default) in much higher education skills supply thinking over recent years, and examines the implications. Any shortages, in a particular engineering manufacturing sector, of bright young people who might understand the engineering principles and technical details involved in that work, arise not from a lack of supply of such graduates as a whole but from the fact that most of them go and work elsewhere.
A default response focused on trying to get more (young) people to sign up for the corresponding higher education courses in order to tackle any shortages in individual manufacturing sectors would therefore generally be particularly wasteful from a policy point of view. An ultimately more effective response would rather be to work to significantly raise the attractiveness of the sector to students on the courses.
This paper also considers the natural response from a classical economics perspective – of urging engineering employers, if they perceive a supply shortage, to raise their starting salary offers to graduates. While plausible, this suggestion ignores the realities of the business model within the sector in the highly competitive market context in which these companies must trade. Their operating profit levels mean that engineering manufacturing companies cannot afford, as easily as employers in various other sectors can, to offer higher salaries: the market in which engineering employers recruiting graduates operate is not a level playing field’.
As well as examining aspects of the reported skill shortage context of the issue, the paper also throws light on answers to the questions that naturally follow a recognition of the comparatively large scale of leakage: Where do engineering graduates from particular disciplines go and work? What other disciplines are recruited by engineering firms? In addition, evidence from DLHE data on initial unemployment of graduates from different disciplines confirms that the shortages often asserted are not generally enough to put the corresponding labour markets into a particularly ‘tight’ state.
Evidence on role requirements from the Migration Advisory Committee suggests that such recent engineering skill shortages as are substantiated could not generally be directly resolved with ‘fresh’ graduates. The rather complex realities of engineering graduate recruitment outcomes uncovered by this analysis will help policy analysts realise the need for more robust evidence of market failure when considering possible policy responses attempting to link reported skill shortages in specific sectors to higher education flows into the workforce.
Full text (Wordpress)
Abstract
The fact that not all graduates from vocational higher education courses go and work in the ‘natural’ profession or ‘natural industry sector’ corresponding to the course content is recognised. However, the scale of the ‘leakage’ of those completing engineering courses away from working in relevant engineering companies comes as a considerable surprise. The fraction of those graduating from particular engineering disciplines who go into the corresponding industry sector (in particular within manufacturing) is not only not 100 per cent, but generally less than 50 per cent and, in some cases, less than 10 per cent.
This paper presents evidence from the Higher Education Statistics Agency’s (HESA) surveys, Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education (DHLE), over 10 years that shows just how invalid is the idealised ‘linear pipeline’ assumption that has prevailed (often by default) in much higher education skills supply thinking over recent years, and examines the implications. Any shortages, in a particular engineering manufacturing sector, of bright young people who might understand the engineering principles and technical details involved in that work, arise not from a lack of supply of such graduates as a whole but from the fact that most of them go and work elsewhere.
A default response focused on trying to get more (young) people to sign up for the corresponding higher education courses in order to tackle any shortages in individual manufacturing sectors would therefore generally be particularly wasteful from a policy point of view. An ultimately more effective response would rather be to work to significantly raise the attractiveness of the sector to students on the courses.
This paper also considers the natural response from a classical economics perspective – of urging engineering employers, if they perceive a supply shortage, to raise their starting salary offers to graduates. While plausible, this suggestion ignores the realities of the business model within the sector in the highly competitive market context in which these companies must trade. Their operating profit levels mean that engineering manufacturing companies cannot afford, as easily as employers in various other sectors can, to offer higher salaries: the market in which engineering employers recruiting graduates operate is not a level playing field’.
As well as examining aspects of the reported skill shortage context of the issue, the paper also throws light on answers to the questions that naturally follow a recognition of the comparatively large scale of leakage: Where do engineering graduates from particular disciplines go and work? What other disciplines are recruited by engineering firms? In addition, evidence from DLHE data on initial unemployment of graduates from different disciplines confirms that the shortages often asserted are not generally enough to put the corresponding labour markets into a particularly ‘tight’ state.
Evidence on role requirements from the Migration Advisory Committee suggests that such recent engineering skill shortages as are substantiated could not generally be directly resolved with ‘fresh’ graduates. The rather complex realities of engineering graduate recruitment outcomes uncovered by this analysis will help policy analysts realise the need for more robust evidence of market failure when considering possible policy responses attempting to link reported skill shortages in specific sectors to higher education flows into the workforce.
Full text (Wordpress)
Tuesday, 9 December 2014
Thinking like an engineer: Implications for the education system
a summary report from the Royal Academy of Engineering and Centre for Real-World Learning (University of Winchester)
Executive Summary
This report offers fresh insights into the ways engineers think. It suggests ways in which the education system might be redesigned to develop engineers more effectively and makes suggestions as to how the wider public might become engaged with these issues.
Engineers make ‘things’ that work or make ‘things’ work better. But they do this in quite particular ways. The report identifies six engineering habits of mind (EHoM) which, taken together, describe the ways engineers think and act:
Thinking like an engineer makes a compelling case to suggest that, if the UK wants to produce more engineers, it needs to redesign the education system so that these EHoM become the desired outcomes of engineering education. It also needs to work closely with the teachers of, for example, science, design and technology, mathematics and computing.
Young children are little engineers. Yet the primary school system almost extinguishes any opportunities for them to flourish as engineers and the teaching of engineering at secondary school is highly variable.
The report identifies those learning methods – problem-based and project-based learning, for example – which, when rigorously introduced, are highly effective at teaching learners to think like engineers.
Thinking like an engineer makes three broad recommendations:
Both summary (PDF 32pp) and full (PDF 88pp) reports are available
Executive Summary
This report offers fresh insights into the ways engineers think. It suggests ways in which the education system might be redesigned to develop engineers more effectively and makes suggestions as to how the wider public might become engaged with these issues.
Engineers make ‘things’ that work or make ‘things’ work better. But they do this in quite particular ways. The report identifies six engineering habits of mind (EHoM) which, taken together, describe the ways engineers think and act:
- Systems thinking
- Adapting
- Problem-finding
- Creative problem-solving
- Visualising
- Improving
Thinking like an engineer makes a compelling case to suggest that, if the UK wants to produce more engineers, it needs to redesign the education system so that these EHoM become the desired outcomes of engineering education. It also needs to work closely with the teachers of, for example, science, design and technology, mathematics and computing.
Young children are little engineers. Yet the primary school system almost extinguishes any opportunities for them to flourish as engineers and the teaching of engineering at secondary school is highly variable.
The report identifies those learning methods – problem-based and project-based learning, for example – which, when rigorously introduced, are highly effective at teaching learners to think like engineers.
Thinking like an engineer makes three broad recommendations:
- The Royal Academy of Engineering to disseminate its findings to ensure wide engagement in the conversation about how engineering is taught.
- The engineering teaching and learning community to seize the opportunity of the National Curriculum and the report’s new thinking to bring about a mindset shift in schools and redesign engineering education, especially at Primary level.
- For employers, politicians and others to engage in a dialogue with schools and colleges about the EHoM they think are most important, suggesting practical ways in which they can help.
Both summary (PDF 32pp) and full (PDF 88pp) reports are available
Wednesday, 7 August 2013
Women Scientists and Engineers in European Companies: Putting Motherhood under the Microscope
an article by Clem Herman, Suzan Lewis and Anne Laure Humbert (Open University, Milton Keynes, UK) published in Gender, Work & Organization Volume 20 Issue 5 (September 2013)
Abstract
Unlike the rise in women’s participation in other professional sectors, women still form a minority of professional scientists and engineers, especially in multinational companies. Moreover, embedded gendered cultures in the science, engineering and technology (SET) sectors continue to affect the career progression of professional women, with few women reaching senior management positions and many leaving and failing to return.
This article examines the experiences of women SET professionals in three European companies based in France, The Netherlands and Italy and illustrates how the careers of SET professionals in industry are shaped not only by corporate cultures and practices but also by the specific national contexts in which they live and work.
In particular, we look at how motherhood rather than gender alone is constructed as problematic and propose a model of strategies that women adopt in doing motherhood and SET, including assimilation, cul-de-sac, breaking the mould and lying low.
Abstract
Unlike the rise in women’s participation in other professional sectors, women still form a minority of professional scientists and engineers, especially in multinational companies. Moreover, embedded gendered cultures in the science, engineering and technology (SET) sectors continue to affect the career progression of professional women, with few women reaching senior management positions and many leaving and failing to return.
This article examines the experiences of women SET professionals in three European companies based in France, The Netherlands and Italy and illustrates how the careers of SET professionals in industry are shaped not only by corporate cultures and practices but also by the specific national contexts in which they live and work.
In particular, we look at how motherhood rather than gender alone is constructed as problematic and propose a model of strategies that women adopt in doing motherhood and SET, including assimilation, cul-de-sac, breaking the mould and lying low.
Wednesday, 28 November 2012
'Act now' to address engineers' low status, MPs told by IET
an article by Richard Wilson published in ElectronicsWeekly.com
The head of the professional engineering body, the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET), has told a committee of MPs that the British society’s lack of understanding of the role of engineering, and the value of engineering skills to the economy, needs to be addressed.
He said this must begin with better careers advice at schools.
“More work needs to be done to improve the public’s understanding of what engineering is and the diversity of engineering jobs and careers, including vocational routes and especially apprenticeships,” Nigel Fine, chief executive of the IET, told the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee’s inquiry into ‘Engineering Skills’.
According to Fine, if this is not addressed, there will be a worryingly small pipeline of young people going on to pursue technical careers, resulting in a continuing skills gap and negative consequences for the UK economy.
“Careers advice in the UK is very poor,” said Fine.
Continure reading
The head of the professional engineering body, the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET), has told a committee of MPs that the British society’s lack of understanding of the role of engineering, and the value of engineering skills to the economy, needs to be addressed.
He said this must begin with better careers advice at schools.
“More work needs to be done to improve the public’s understanding of what engineering is and the diversity of engineering jobs and careers, including vocational routes and especially apprenticeships,” Nigel Fine, chief executive of the IET, told the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee’s inquiry into ‘Engineering Skills’.
According to Fine, if this is not addressed, there will be a worryingly small pipeline of young people going on to pursue technical careers, resulting in a continuing skills gap and negative consequences for the UK economy.
“Careers advice in the UK is very poor,” said Fine.
Continure reading
Monday, 19 September 2011
Is the glass ceiling cracked in information technology? …
A qualitative analysis: part 1
an article by Steven H Appelbaum and Kamal Argheyd (Concordia University, Montreal) and Neveen Asham (Technology Consultant in Montreal, Canada) published in Industrial and Commercial Training Volume 43 Issue 6 (2011)
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this research is to qualitatively investigate, through a literature review of past studies and an in-field case study, three different hypotheses regarding women working in the IT sector and their career and promotional aspirations.
Design/methodology/approach
An online survey was used for data collection from female employees with varying professional specializations across several IT departments within the company. Questions for the survey were designed from the findings of the literature review.
Findings
The results obtained have proven that married women who are intrinsically inspired to maintain their work-family balance face higher stress and more conflicts than those who do not. In addition, the glass ceiling was still evident in today’s corporations, but mainly affecting the older generation of women professionals. Also, the results slightly hinted at a ten-year cut-off period, after which promotional aspiration is lost.
Research limitations/implications
Owing to the limitations of the research conducted, further qualitative studies can be done to compare careers and promotional patterns between men and women in the IT departments, as well as those between women in IT departments and women working in other departments.
Practical implications
Employers should strive to provide their female employees with practical solutions to allow for an easier balancing of work-family responsibilities, such as flexi-time and telecommuting. At the same time, the employers should place the female employees in more opportunity-enhancing positions within the corporation so that they can exploit or utilize their talents and increase the probability of climbing up the corporate ladder.
Originality/value
With a generous response rate, this paper provides a realistic perspective of professional females working within the IT domain with regard to their career and promotional aspirations.
an article by Steven H Appelbaum and Kamal Argheyd (Concordia University, Montreal) and Neveen Asham (Technology Consultant in Montreal, Canada) published in Industrial and Commercial Training Volume 43 Issue 6 (2011)
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this research is to qualitatively investigate, through a literature review of past studies and an in-field case study, three different hypotheses regarding women working in the IT sector and their career and promotional aspirations.
Design/methodology/approach
An online survey was used for data collection from female employees with varying professional specializations across several IT departments within the company. Questions for the survey were designed from the findings of the literature review.
Findings
The results obtained have proven that married women who are intrinsically inspired to maintain their work-family balance face higher stress and more conflicts than those who do not. In addition, the glass ceiling was still evident in today’s corporations, but mainly affecting the older generation of women professionals. Also, the results slightly hinted at a ten-year cut-off period, after which promotional aspiration is lost.
Research limitations/implications
Owing to the limitations of the research conducted, further qualitative studies can be done to compare careers and promotional patterns between men and women in the IT departments, as well as those between women in IT departments and women working in other departments.
Practical implications
Employers should strive to provide their female employees with practical solutions to allow for an easier balancing of work-family responsibilities, such as flexi-time and telecommuting. At the same time, the employers should place the female employees in more opportunity-enhancing positions within the corporation so that they can exploit or utilize their talents and increase the probability of climbing up the corporate ladder.
Originality/value
With a generous response rate, this paper provides a realistic perspective of professional females working within the IT domain with regard to their career and promotional aspirations.
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