Research: Workplace Preparation in the Aerospace Engineering Profession

每年新毕业的工程师都会进入劳动力大军，开始他们的工程生涯。尽管他们可能在技术问题上接受了良好的培训，但为了有效地参与工作，他们仍有大量的学习要做，例如了解自己的角色和责任，确定公司的文化和规范，以及发展与同事的关系。他们必须适应工作场所，这是一项极其重要的发展任务。不能适应可能会导致与工作环境的斗争，离开劳动力，甚至离开这个职业。这项研究旨在调查最近聘用的工程专业毕业生如何进入并适应他们的工程专业。这项研究特别关注航空航天领域的新工程师，原因有四个：(1)培养航空航天工程师的传统方法与现代工程工作场所的需求不匹配，(2)该专业需要更多地保留女性和代表性较低的少数族裔成员，(3)需要修改目前的高等教育计划和航空航天公司培训，以更充分地向不同的工程师群体开放该职业，以及(4)将需要大量多样化的新工程师来填补随着婴儿潮一代即将从航空航天领域退休而出现的越来越多的职位空缺。这些都使得航空航天工程专业迫切需要毕业的工程师为进入工作场所的挑战做好准备。这个项目的目的是(1)确定刚刚毕业的航空工程师如何完成管理他们适应工程公司工作的任务，(2)确定他们在社会化过程中的经验、挑战和支持机制，(3)确定工程专业学生在大学期间如何为成功完成工作任务做准备，以及(4)确定工程教育计划和工程公司如何培训不同的工程师群体来完成这些任务。本研究的理论框架涉及社会化文献定义的四个社会化任务域：任务掌握、角色明确、文化适应和社会融合。使用多案例研究设计，这项研究将采访一组不同的新近聘用的应届工程学毕业生(N=30)，他们正在美国著名的航空航天公司全职工作。这一发现有望扩大工程教育者的知识，了解如何通过揭示人口结构不同的工程师群体的关键社会化因素来为劳动力做好工程师准备。通过网站、在线学习模块和同行评议出版物传播研究结果，将有助于应届工程学毕业生更好地进入工作场所，并使大学能够更好地为学生进入劳动力市场做好准备。此外，研究结果将帮助公司帮助不同的新工程师快速掌握并进入成功的职业道路。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Every year newly graduated engineers enter the workforce to begin their engineering careers. Although they may be well trained in technical matters, they still have significant learning to do in order to participate effectively in the workforce, such as understanding their roles and responsibilities, determining their companies' culture and norms, and developing relationships with coworkers. They must adjust to the workplace, which is a critically important developmental task. Failure to adjust may lead to struggles with the work environment, leaving workforce, and even to leaving the profession. This study aims to examine how recently hired engineering graduates enter and adjust to their engineering profession. In particular, this study focuses on new engineers in aerospace field for four key reasons: (1) there is a mismatch between traditional methods for training aerospace engineers and the needs of the modern engineering workplace, (2) the profession needs to increase retention of women and members of underrepresented minorities, (3) current higher education programs and company training in aerospace need to be modified to more fully open the profession to diverse groups of engineers, and (4) a large supply of diverse new engineers will be needed to fill the positions that will open in ever-increasing numbers with the coming retirement of baby boomers from the aerospace field. These make it urgent for aerospace engineering programs to graduate engineers who are prepared for the challenges of entering the workplace. The purpose of this project is to (1) identify how recently graduated aerospace engineers accomplish tasks that govern their adjustment to working at engineering companies, (2) determine their experiences, challenges, and supportive mechanisms during socialization, (3) determine how engineering students can prepare during their college years to succeed at workplace tasks, and (4) identify how engineering education programs and engineering companies can train diverse groups of engineers to accomplish those tasks. The theoretical framework for this study involves the four socialization task domains, defined by the socialization literature: task mastery, role clarification, acculturation, and social integration. Using a multiple-case research design, this study will interview a diverse group of recently hired new engineering graduates (N = 30) who are working full-time in preeminent U.S.-based aerospace companies. The findings are expected to expand engineering educators' knowledge about how to prepare engineers for the workforce by uncovering key socialization factors for demographically diverse groups of engineers. Dissemination of the study findings via websites, online learning modules, and peer-reviewed publications will help recent engineering graduates to improve their entry into their workplaces and enable universities to better prepare students for the workforce. Additionally, study findings will inform companies to help diverse new engineers get up to speed quickly and launch themselves into successful career paths.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.