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Go For Aerospace! High School Recruitment Program: Preliminary Outcomes, Lessons Learned and Future Directions

Introduction

Need for STEM Talent in the U.S. and National Statistics Long-term growth in the number of positions in science and engineering has far exceeded that of the general workforce, with more than four times the annual growth rate of all occupations since 1980.2 Recent occupational projections from the Bureau of Labor Statistics3 forecast that total employment in engineering fields will grow by approximately 10% between 2008 and 2018. While the outlook varies by discipline, aerospace engineering is expected to follow this trend in response to a growing demand for new technologies and new designs for commercial and military aircraft over the next decade. Thus, the employment outlook for aerospace engineers appears favorable.

In spite of these promising job prospects, recruitment for science and engineering programs is a real challenge for most universities nationwide. According to the recent Congressionally requested report, Rising Above the Gathering Storm: Energizing and Employing America for a Brighter Economic Future, in South Korea, 38% of all undergraduates receive their degrees in natural science or engineering. In France, the figure is 47%, in China, 50%, and in Singapore, 67%. In the United States, the corresponding figure is only 15%.4 This is one of the most serious issues our nation will face over the next decade, as the current science and technology workforce retires without a pipeline of workers to replace them. The aerospace industry is one such example of this looming crisis. Of the 600,000+ aerospace workers employed in 2006, ~26% are eligible for retirement this year, but only 40,000 graduating engineers are qualified to work in the industry.5

Although the number of degrees granted in aerospace engineering has begun to increase after many years of decline, new graduates continue to be needed to replace aerospace engineers who retire or leave the occupation for other reasons.3 If the United States is to maintain its competitive edge in the global economy, the pipeline of interested and qualified students prepared to enter STEM careers must be increased. Yet recent results from a survey by the American Society for Quality (ASQ) revealed that more than 85% of students today are not considering careers in engineering and that more parents encourage their daughters to become actresses than engineers. Forty-four percent (44%) of survey respondents cited a lack of knowledge around engineering as the top reason they would not pursue such jobs. Another 30% listed the “geek” perception as their top reason, indicating that “engineering would be a boring career,” according to the ASQ.6

Equally alarming, international comparisons of student mathematics and science performance indicate that U.S. students scored below average among industrialized countries.7 Out of the 57 countries participating in the 2006 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) examination, which is designed to assess students’ abilities to apply scientific and mathematical concepts to real-world problems, U.S. 15-year-olds scored lower than 23 and 31 nations in

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Dischino, M., & Al-Masoud, N., & Baumann, P., & Naoumov, V., & Kremens, Z. (2010, June), Go For Aerospace! High School Recruitment Program: Preliminary Outcomes, Lessons Learned And Future Directions Paper presented at 2010 Annual Conference & Exposition, Louisville, Kentucky. 10.18260/1-2--16518