Retaining and retraining: An innovative approach to educating engineers in a changing economy

Changing economic and technological conditions require that talented and experienced engineers adapt and update their engineering skills. Communities support education and retraining in order to retain the human talent. This paper describes an innovative approach to helping engineers overcome barriers to career transitions, which incorporates career and personal development, an engineering skills refresher, a semester-long course at a top-tier engineering school, and an internship at a company in a high-growth sector. We describe the motivation for embarking on a career reengineering program. A large percentage of the engineering population in the Austin community is engaged in semiconductor design and manufacturing, an industry in decline. In order to harness the collective skills and talents of engineers in the semiconductor industry and to redirect those skills, the Center for Lifelong Engineering Education provides training to help engineers to re-tool their skills for growth industries. We describe success factors for a career re-engineering program, including (1) the engagement with multiple stakeholders: a university engineering faculty, community development organizations such as workforce commissions, companies in high-growth sectors, the university career counseling center, and governmental agencies; (2) the acquisition of funding to help support engineers as they embark on a retraining curriculum; and (3) the application process and selection criteria. We describe the curriculum, including an initial orientation and assessment program; the selection of appropriate and available fall-semester engineering classes in fields such as biotechnology, nanotechnology, and environmental sciences; monthly workshops designed to improve communication, presentation, adaptability, and networking skills; weekly small-team meetings designed to keep participants accountable; regular meetings with individual mentors; and a spring-semester internship with a firm in a high-growth sector. Programs to help retrain engineers and to retain engineering talent within a society are critical to community sustainability and growth.