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Sustaining Manufacturing with Innovative Recruitment Strategies

Abstract

San Diego City College (SDCC) has been partnering with different organizations in the state of California to increase the quantity and quality of manufacturing engineers and engineering technicians available to the workforce. In this paper, the authors discuss different recruitment strategies to attract students into engineering technology programs, specifically, the manufacturing engineering technology field. Three main factors that led us to a successful program implementation are local news publications, active industry partnerships, and campus events for students. This paper describes in details our publication effort through six different news communication channels, targeting both manufacturing companies and the general public. SDCC has strong industry partnerships through a number of advisory boards, grant and project collaborations over the years. Many of our new students were recruited through these industry partners who believe in the values and integrity of our academic programs. Last but not least, the paper writes about various campus events, sponsored by different organizations, that the Engineering and Technologies Department at SDCC used to promote students’ interest in engineering and engineering technology. These events include engineering and engineering technology academic and career fairs during National Engineers Week, engineering technology open houses, campus orientations, technology workshops, and summer academies. Current outreach efforts at high schools are also discussed in the paper. Different strategies are currently used to educate high school students and parents about engineering/engineering technology, and to train high school teachers and counselors (both college and high school levels) on modern perspective and practices in manufacturing. The paper emphasizes special efforts in recruiting females and Latinos into manufacturing, which involve several activities such as industry-sponsored workshops, robotic competition for girl teams, and mentoring program. At the end, the paper describes challenges of student recruitment along with some continuous improvement strategies that the Engineering and Technologies Department at SDCC plans ahead.

Current Status of Manufacturing Industry and Workforce

According to the 2005 Skills Gap Report, over 80% of the 800 surveyed American manufacturers experience a shortage of qualified workers overall, which in turn impacts the companies’ ability to serve customers. See Figure 1 below.

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Ngo, T., & Abina, A., & Lyons, G. (2007, June), Sustaining Manufacturing With Innovative Recruitment Strategies Paper presented at 2007 Annual Conference & Exposition, Honolulu, Hawaii. 10.18260/1-2--1836