Collaborative Research: Professional Engineering Pathways: A Longitudinal Study of Early Career Preparedness and Decision-Making

拟议的项目通过调查学生如何看待他们的职业选择、工程技能和与他们的计划相关的教育经历，并让工程教育工作者和行业专业人士利用我们的研究成果来改革本科工程教育，来检验不同工程毕业生在工程职业生涯中的保留情况。六所院校的本科生从大三到毕业后第一年将采用定性和定量研究进行评估。实践元素社区将召集每个合作机构的利益相关者，他们投资于将该项目的结果转化为教育实践。将提出一个专业路径模型，解释学生对职业选择和自身能力的信念如何影响他们的职业决策。

The proposed project examines retention of diverse, engineering graduates in engineering careers by investigating how students perceive their career options, engineering skills, and educational experiences relate to their plans and to engage engineering educators and industry professionals in using our research findings to reform undergraduate engineering education. Undergraduates at six institutions from their junior year to their first year post-graduation will be evaluated using qualitative and quantitative research. The community of practice element will convene stakeholders at each partner institution who are invested in translating the results from this project into educational practice. A Professional Pathways Model that explains how students beliefs about their career options and their own abilities affect their career decisions will be proposed.