Providing Opportunities for Women in Energy Related (POWER) Careers

为女性提供能源相关（POWER）职业机会的首要任务是帮助女性在stem相关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，这些学位课程将导致能源行业的职业生涯。这个试点项目的目的是在能源系统项目中招募和保留女性的方式上引起变革。教育和工业未能成功地使妇女公平参与历史上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）。入门级能源技术人员的工作提供有吸引力的薪水，良好的福利，以及充满希望和机会的职业道路。POWER Careers将实施重点战略，旨在提高女性在爱达荷州立大学（ISU）技术学院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）课程中的成功参与。这些战略将通过毕业和担任专业职位来留住女学生。这个项目很重要，因为它可以帮助参与者戏剧性地进入高薪的stem相关职业。它将采用一个支持和活动系统，在学生体验中形成一个连续体。对于ESTEC来说，最好和最有力的招生声音是那些成功的女学生和毕业生。POWER Careers将作为一个试点项目，帮助确定和解决在农村地区招募不同年龄妇女的挑战，部分方式是与将成为榜样和导师的项目毕业生密切合作，并与社区机构联系潜在的成年学生。该项目还将使工业界参与建设更加多样化的劳动力队伍，并创造欢迎女性技术人员的工作环境。招募女性的努力将包括那些未被充分代表的群体——拉丁裔、美洲原住民和退伍军人。POWER Careers的具体目标是：(1)招募45名年龄在25岁及以上的女性加入ESTEC AAS项目；(2)通过一个支持性的学生学习社区留住学生直到毕业；(3)将毕业生安置到能源行业的专业岗位；(4)加强ESTEC与能源雇主的伙伴关系，促进妇女的职业发展；(5)促进师徒文化，鼓励女性从事STEM技术职业。项目目标的实现将通过招生、留校、毕业和就业数据等直接指标进行评估，并通过开展调查来评估与文化和气候相关的影响结果，以及项目有效性。调查人员将解决与项目目标相关的两个具体研究问题：(1)在能源领域，教育策略的改进如何提高农村地区非传统大学适龄妇女的学习和表现？(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、毕业和安置非传统大学适龄妇女从事stem相关和能源特定职业方面的有效性？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.