Fewer Engineering Offspring

From 1975 to 2000, the U.S. dropped from 3rd to 17th worldwide rank in the number of engineers it produces. The Wall Street Journal reports continuous concern over this decrease in engineers. A number of tech executives warn that this trend will have a significant impact on the United States’ long-term competitiveness. In an interesting ironic twist, these same engineering executives report that they are having a hard time interesting their own children to pursue careers in engineering. The offspring cite several reasons for their lack of interest. First is a fear that there will not be engineering opportunities in the U.S. since engineering jobs are being outsourced to India. A second reason is a lack of interest based on their experiences in school. About 120,000 students start off in engineering. However, only about half graduate. The article also cites poor math and science curricula as well as persistent image problems. Engineers are often thought of as socially awkward or obsessed with work.

It is interesting to note that in a study by Csikszentmihalyi and Schneider called Becoming Adult, engineering was in the top 10 careers that middle and high school students thought they would pursue after college. Why is there such a big gap between interest at the middle school level and graduation of engineers from college? I personally do not buy the argument that it is simply a factor of poor public education. The 120,000 freshman who start out in engineering are an elite class. To make it into an engineering program, these students made it through an advanced sequence of math and science courses in high school and have scored well on their SAT’s. The offspring highlighted in the article did not cite lack of ability as the reason for leaving, but rather lack of interest. It seems like programs aimed at retaining students in engineering programs would have more bang for the buck. A one hundred percent retention rate would double the number of engineering graduates and vault the U.S. back to the top of the world rank.

Grimes, A. (2005, March 29). “Even tech execs can’t get kids to be engineers,” Wall Street Journal, B1, B6.