Providing Opportunities for Women in Energy Related (POWER) Careers

为能源相关职业的妇女提供机会的首要使命是帮助妇女在科学、技术、工程和数学相关的技术职业领域实现平等。POWER Careers将增加女性在STEM两年制学位课程中的入学率和完成率，这些课程将导致能源行业的职业生涯。该试点项目旨在引发能源系统项目招募和保留女性方式的转型变革。 教育和工业界未能成功地使妇女平等地参与历来由男性主导的技术领域。POWER Careers解决了增加女性参与的需求，重点关注需要或想要开始新职业的非传统大学年龄女性（25岁以上）。入门级能源技术员工作提供有吸引力的薪水，出色的福利和有前途和机会的职业道路。 Power Careers将实施有针对性的战略，旨在增加女性成功参与爱达荷州州立大学（ISU）能源系统技术和教育中心（ESTEC）内高质量、经过验证的应用科学副学士（AAS）项目。技术学院。这些战略将通过毕业和职业安置留住女学生。该项目很重要，因为它可以帮助参与者戏剧性地进入高薪STEM相关职业。 它将采用一个支持和活动系统，形成一个跨学生体验的连续体。 对于ESTEC来说，招收学生的最好和最有力的声音是那些成功的女学生和女毕业生。Power Careers将作为一个试点项目，帮助识别和解决在农村地区招募不同年龄女性的挑战，部分方式是与将成为榜样和导师的项目毕业生以及与潜在成年学生接触的社区机构密切合作。该项目还将促使工业界努力建立一支更加多样化的劳动力队伍，并创造欢迎女技术人员的工作环境。招募妇女的努力将包括那些代表性不足的人口-拉丁美洲人，美洲原住民和退伍军人。电力职业的具体目标是：（1）招募和招收45名年龄在25岁及以上的妇女参加能源和技术学院的AAS方案;（2）通过支持性的学生学习社区留住学生毕业;（3）将毕业生安置在能源行业的专业工作中;（4）加强能源和技术学院与能源雇主的伙伴关系，以促进妇女的职业发展;以及（5）促进导师文化，以鼓励追求STEM技术职业的女性。 项目目标的实现将使用直接的措施，如招生，保留，毕业和就业安置数据进行评估，并通过进行调查，以评估与文化和气候，以及计划的有效性的情感结果。 调查人员将解决两个具体的研究问题，该项目的目标：（1）如何改善教育策略，提高学生的学习和表现的非传统的大学适龄妇女在农村地区的能源领域？(2)创新和有针对性的招聘和保留策略如何提高能源技术人员教育计划在保留，毕业和将非传统的大学年龄女性安置在STEM相关和能源特定职业中的有效性？ 研究人员将制定一系列策略，这些策略可能会成为其他有兴趣改善STEM技术人员教育和女性职业机会的机构的典范。

The over-arching mission of Providing Opportunities for Women in Energy Related (POWER) Careers is to help women achieve equity in STEM-related technical career fields. POWER Careers will increase enrollment and completion of women in STEM two-year degree programs that lead to energy industry careers. This pilot project is designed to evoke transformational change in the way that women are recruited to and retained in energy systems programs. Education and industry have not been successful in obtaining equitable participation of females in historically male-dominated technical fields. POWER Careers addresses the need to increase female participation, with a focus on non-traditional college-aged women (ages 25+) who need or want to begin a new career. Entry level energy technician jobs offer attractive salaries, excellent benefits, and career paths with promise and opportunity. POWER Careers will implement focused strategies aimed at increasing the successful participation of women in high quality, proven Associate of Applied Science (AAS) programs within the Energy Systems Technology and Education Center (ESTEC) at Idaho State University (ISU) College of Technology. These strategies will retain women students through graduation and placement in professional positions. The project is important because it can help participants make dramatic moves into higher paying STEM-related careers. It will employ a system of supports and activities that form a continuum across the student experience. For ESTEC, the best and most powerful voices to recruit students are those of successful female students and graduates. POWER Careers will serve as a pilot project to help identify and address the challenges of recruiting age-diverse women in a rural area, in part by working closely with program graduates who will be role models and mentors, and with community-based agencies that are in contact with potential adult students. The project will also engage industry in efforts to build a more diverse workforce and create workplace environments that are welcoming to female technicians. Efforts to recruit women will include those from underrepresented populations - Latinas, Native Americans, and military veterans. The specific goals of POWER Careers are to: (1) recruit and enroll 45 women age 25 years and older into ESTEC AAS programs; (2) retain students to graduation with a supportive student learning community; (3) place graduates in professional jobs in the energy industry; (4) strengthen ESTEC partnerships with energy employers to further careers for women; and (5) promote a culture of mentorship to encourage women who pursue STEM technical careers. Attainment of project goals will be evaluated using direct measures such as enrollment, retention, graduation and job placement data, and by conducting surveys to assess affective outcomes related to the culture and climate, as well as program effectiveness. The investigators will address two specific research questions related to the project's goals: (1) How do improvements to educational strategies enhance student learning and performance for non-traditional college-aged women in rural areas within the energy field? (2) How do innovative and targeted recruiting and retention strategies increase the effectiveness of energy technician education programs in retaining, graduating, and placing non-traditional college-aged women in STEM-related and energy-specific careers? The investigators will develop a combination of strategies that will likely serve as a model for other institutions interested in improving STEM technician education and career opportunities for women.