Defining and Building the Engineering Workforce of the Future

为了帮助高等教育项目调整他们的实践，更好地培养在未来劳动力中茁壮成长的工程专业人员，美国工程教育协会（ASEE）将举办一个由两部分组成的系列研讨会，以确定未来准备好的工程劳动力所需的关键能力，以及教育行动计划的要素，将装备这些劳动力。该提案基于美国国家科学基金会（NSF）的战略目标，即培养一支更有能力、更多样化的研究队伍，提高国家的科学和创新技能，以及人工智能（AI）、量子科学、先进通信网络/5G、先进制造业和生物技术等未来产业的预计影响。这个项目将进行一个远景练习，以足够具体的方式识别和分解关键能力，以便在工程教育计划中有意义的变化行动可以以一种直接的方式传达。这种多方利益相关者的行动议程将有助于培养大量具有未来工作场所成功所需的工程技能的个人，并提高国家工程劳动力的能力。这将有助于确定建立可持续的面向未来的工程生态系统（FREE）的启动阶段，该生态系统由教育、政策和私营部门合作组成，这将是保持美国技术领先地位所必需的。为未来做好准备的工程师生态系统（FREE）两部分研讨会系列的目标是双重的：第一个研讨会将侧重于设想和定义，第二个研讨会将侧重于操作化。具体来说，第一次研讨会将重点关注为未来准备好的工程劳动力分解关键能力，并将确定关键能力的优先分类，其中包含基本细节和上下文摘要，以提供有意义的特异性。这种面向未来的工程生态系统能力分类法（FREE-CoT）将成为第二次研讨会所需的学生成果。第二次研讨会将以第一次研讨会的成果为基础，确定教育家、政策制定者和行业需要采取的具体行动，以共同培养一批具有未来几年成功所需能力的新兴工程师。将确定工程教育计划中必要变化的框架以及实现这些变化所需的行动。该框架还将包括必须在各部门之间建立的基本协作进程，以实现正在进行的共同发展所需的沟通和反馈。将起草一份准则，定义每个关键能力的成功门槛。这个面向未来的工程生态系统框架和行动准则（FREE-FRA）将为国家行动呼吁提供一个易于沟通的愿景。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

To assist higher education programs in adapting their practices to better prepare engineering professionals who thrive in the future workforce, the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) will conduct a two-part workshop series to identify the key competencies required for a future-ready engineering workforce, and the elements of an education action plan that would equip such workforce. This proposal builds on the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) strategic goal of fostering the growth of a more capable and diverse research workforce, advancing the scientific and innovation skills of the nation, as well as the projected impact of the industries of the future such as artificial intelligence (AI), quantum science, advanced communication networks/5G, advanced manufacturing and biotechnology. This project will conduct a visioning exercise to identify and disaggregate key competencies with enough specificity so that meaningful change actions in engineering educational programs can be conveyed in a straightforward manner. This multi-stakeholder agenda for action will help develop large numbers of individuals with the engineering skills needed for success in the workplace of the future and increase the capacities of the nation’s engineering workforce. This will help define the startup phase of establishing a sustainable Future-Ready Engineering Ecosystem (FREE) composed of education, policy, and private sector collaborations, that will be necessary to maintain U.S. technological leadership. The objectives of the Future Ready Engineer Ecosystem (FREE) two-part workshop series are two-fold: The first workshop will focus on visioning and definition and the second workshop will focus on operationalization. Specifically, the first workshop will focus on disaggregating key competencies for the future-ready engineering workforce and will identify a prioritized taxonomy of the key competencies with the essential details and context summaries to provide meaningful specificity. This Future-Ready Engineering Ecosystem Competency Taxonomy (FREE-CoT) would then become the desired student outcomes for the second workshop. The second workshop will build upon the outcomes of the first workshop to define what are the specific actions that educators, policymakers, and industry need to take to co-develop a critical mass of emerging engineers with the competencies needed to succeed in the coming years. A framework for the necessary changes in engineering educational programs will be identified along with the required actions to achieve these changes. The framework will also include the essential collaborative processes that must be established across the sectors to achieve the communication and feedback required for ongoing co-development. A rubric will be drafted that defines a threshold of what success looks like for each key competency. This Future-Ready Engineering Ecosystem Framework and Rubric for Action (FREE-FRA) would then provide an easy to communicate vision for a national call to action.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.