Financial Benefit of Workforce Development Projects in Engineering: Using Return on Investment (ROI) and Key Performance Indices (KPI) for Evaluation

This innovative practice full paper presents a novel ROI metric for engineering and technician work force development (WFD) programs along with complementary key performance indices (KPI's) derived from business financial measures. As many workforce development programs are funded by taxpayers, quantifying outcomes in terms of economic benefit is crucial for justifying their existence. Moreover, Pareto frontiers (boundaries of optimal solutions) are found that reveal inherent trade-offs between: (a) value to funding agencies; (b) value to students; and (c) cost effectiveness. These trade-offs depend not only on program performance but also on the chosen WFD approach. Practical application of the ROI metric to a leading, cross-university, multi-discipline, national WFD effort in microelectronics engineering that is funded by the US Department of Defense is included as a reference case. The utility of the metric for identifying tangible paths to higher ROI is shown for this program. Moreover, its ROI, cost, and student value are compared to alternate WFD approaches of scholarship and internship programs using Pareto frontiers. While the scope of this work is WFD programs in undergraduate and graduate education, the approach is even more general, which could point to further research in this area.