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This report examines and compares early career decisions, initial and 1981 employment, professional activities, and post-graduate education of new, non-traditional engineering graduates (women, Hispanics, Blacks) with their traditional peers. About one-half of the 6,000 surveys mailed to a sample of these engineering graduates (N=1720 men and 1080 women) were returned. Relatively few differences between male/female and minority/majority graduates were found in their initial/current employment, professional activities/achievement, and factors influencing career decisions. Technical responsibilities increased with experiences with no significant sex/ethnic differences. Men reported significantly higher supervisory responsibilities and salaries 10 years after graduating than women. The majority of all groups had pursued or were pursuing some post-bachelor's education, with women/Black-Americans leaning more toward graduate work in management than men/majority graduates. Work-related factors tended to be the most important factors influencing engineers' career decisions; female/minority graduates were more apt to cite a wider variety of factors than male/minority graduates. Men were more apt than women to cite relevant work experiences and hobbies as factors influencing their career decision. Engineers had relatively high self-perceptions. Men were more likely to assess their athletic, mechanical, and visualization abilities higher than women, but women rated their artistic, mathematical, and interpersonal-relations abilities higher than men. (Author/JN)

This study was designed to provide information about factors that influenced career decisions and career development patterns of contemporary engineers. Graduate engineers (N=2835) and beginning student engineers (N=980) completed survey instruments designed to measure demographic, cognitive, affective, and behavioral factors. Subjects also completed Strong-Campbell Interest Inventory (SCII) and/or Purdue Interest Questionnaire. Included in this report are major research issues/questions, methodology, results, and conclusions. Two of the findings reported indicate that the subjects' career decisions and job values were strongly influenced by intrinsic and extrinsic work-related factors and that behavioral descriptions of typical engineers and student engineers (based on the SCII) are similar. Supporting documentation and statistics are provided in six appendices. This information includes marginal percentages for total engineering graduate group and for total student group on, item-response percentages by sex, ethnic group, employment field (for graduate survey), and major field (for student survey), and survey highlights sent to participants. The last appendix is a collection of eight complete research papers presented to professional organizations and articles submitted for publication. Each paper/article includes study rationale, methodology, results, conclusions, and implications. (JN)

Findings from the National Science Foundation's Survey of Scientific and Engineering Personnel Employed at Universities and Colleges, January 1982 are highlighted and discussed in this brief report. The survey was mailed to approximately 2,200 universities and colleges offering programs in the sciences and/or engineering. Areas discussed include employment status, academic versus national science/engineering (S/E) employment trends, women in academic S/E, research activities, and the leading institutions employing the largest number of scientists and engineers. Among the findings reported are those indicating: that S/E employment in the higher education sector continued to climb in 1982 to approximately 348,800; that the growth in academic employment of professionals cut across most major S/E fields, with the sharpest rise occurring in mathematical/computer sciences; that gains in S/E employment differed markedly according to type of institution; that academic employment of women scientists/engineers continued to rise at a faster pace (9 percent) than the growth rate for men (3 percent); and that the number of scientists and engineers engaged in separately budgeted research and development activities, as measured in full-time-equivalent terms, totaled approximately 60,000 in 1982, for an average annual increase of 2 percent since 1975. (JN)

This survey presents tabulated data of the responses of 50,000 Indiana high school seniors to a questionnaire designed to determine the characteristics and plans of those intending to become engineers after graduation. Characteristic highlights include the following: Engineering aspirants were 92% male; 65% were in college preparatory courses; 22% were A average students; and seniors from large population cities were slightly more inclined to become engineers. Plans highlighted included the following: 49% of the engineering aspirants planned to continue their education full time; 46% had no preference for employment locale; job activities and money were the predominant reasons for choosing engineering as a career; parents and other relatives were the primary help in making a career choice; and the college of choice was chosen primarily for program offerings and prestige. Tables including these data are presented. (SL)

Continuing education for professionals (CEP) may be defined as the formal or informal training an individual professional undertakes after the end of his basic professional education. Despite the implicit relationship between professionalism and CEP, continuing education has long been a tangential concern in the study of professional education. As it is, CEP is a complex phenomenon with different forms of organization, varying methods of delivering instruction, and numerous methods for acquiring financial support. Many professions have shown an interest in improving CEP, and there is some awareness that the original professional education will have to be planned with continuing education in mind. New recognition of the need for CEP to serve several purposes (changing licensure regulations, technological advances, and changing personal goals as well as professionalism) is apparent in such fields as psychology and engineering, and its importance is recognized in medicine as well. Programs underway suggest that future CEP efforts will focus on techniques by which individuals can assess needs and prescribe learning activities by evaluation of their own practice. Also in the wings is more debate over the question of legally mandated CEP. (An extensive bibliography is included.) (Author/MSE)

This report presents data compiled by the Manpower Characteristics Study Group of the National Science Foundation (NSF) as part of a comprehensive program to measure and analyze the nation's science and engineering manpower resources for 1974. The data presented are based on three sources: the 1973 Survey of Doctoral Scientists and Engineers; the 1974 National Survey of Scientists and Engineers; and the 1974 Survey of College-Educated Men and Women. Tabulated data present: (1) characteristics of United States scientists and engineers for 1974; (2) distributions of employed scientists and engineers by field and sex; and (3) number of employed scientists and engineers by field and primary work activity. Comparisons between scientists and engineers in terms of demography and employment statistics are given. Results show that one scientist in four has earned a Ph.D. compared with one in twenty among engineers. The industrial sector of the economy provided the largest source of employment for both scientists and engineers, and research and development were the dominant activities of both scientists and engineers. (BT)

A project focusing on the assessment of the educational system in adapting people to technological change considered the problem of adaptation for the whole person, not simply the work role, but also the family, consumer, citizen, and other roles for which educational activity is potentially instrumental. There were two major objectives: Development of a formal theoretical framework by which the problem could be defined, and application of that theoretical framework in terms of the educational needs of several selected groups. The analytical framework emerged from the interaction of a multidisciplinary team and may be characterized as a formal treatment of role-theoretic concepts in social psychology, using the welfare-maximization techniques of microeconomic theory. The usefulness of this model of adaptation to technological change was explored in terms of the problems of adaptation to technological change faced severally by engineers (role conflict), physicians (role conflict), married women (role sequence), and the elderly (role loss). The model was useful in structuring a review of the literature relevant to each of the groups considered, but the paucity of literature posed a major difficulty. Little research has been conducted on the nature of the adaptation problems of these groups, the resources at their disposal, and the effectiveness of various educational interventions. In addition to the summary and introduction the report is in four chapters, each with its own bibliography: (1) A General Model of Adaptation, (2) Professional Obsolescence in Engineering and Medicine, (3) Technological Change and Role Sequences: Special Problems of Women, and (4) Problems of Adaptation Among the Elderly. (HD)

A sample of 82 engineers and 82 supervisors rated the importance of 10 job performance criteria in relation to the successful performance of the engineer's job. Supervisors also rated the engineer's performance on each of the 10 specific criteria and two global measures. The ratings were intercorrelated and factor analyzed; the extracted factors were rotated using Kaiser's varimax method. The importance ratings by supervisors were found to be highly similar to the importance ratings by engineers, with three factors emerging from the ratings by each group: (1) administrative skill, (2) technical competence, and (3) design skill. The factor analysis of the performance ratings by supervisors revealed two factors: (1) interpersonal relations ability and (2) technical ability. It appears that supervisors appraise performance by criteria similar to those they perceive as being critical to the type of work performed by engineers. (Author)

This pilot research project analyzes the role related classroom instruction plays in training journeymen in three Boston area trades-machinist, electrician, and operating engineer. Information was gathered from apprentices, journeymen, apprentice coordinators, and others by means of personal interviews and/or mail questionnaires. The data were used to estimate the impact of related instruction on individual job performance. The principal hypothesis was that related instruction has multiple roles, varying by trade and the particular objectives of different sponsors. It was possible to identify the independent effect of related instruction on job performance. In all three crafts the primary objective of related instruction was to equip apprentices with the technical knowledge and manipulative skills to become versatile all round journeymen. Only in the electrical trade did related instruction seem to offer a significant explanation of the variation in individual performance. It was almost impossible to coordinate related instruction with on-the-job training in construction. In the machinist trade, the degree of coordination varied from firm to firm. (Author/SA)

Current issues in engineering education and supply and demand information on engineering personnel in the Southern region are summed up in this report. Highlights of the report include the following: (1) Although changes in national priorities make it difficult to forecast the demand for engineers, projections are in agreement that the national demand for bachelors of engineering will exceed the available supply. (2) The minimum annual national projection of demand for graduate engineers is 44,000. Yet with declining enrollments the expected annual supply in 1976 will be only 28,000, and will not reach 40,000 during the remainder of the decade. (3) For the Southern region the gap between available graduates and jobs will mirror the national imbalance. (4) At the Ph.D. level, however, it is expected that engineers will have difficulty in finding jobs that require training at that advanced level. (5) The current manpower situation has the following implications for the education of engineers: recruitment of women and minorities, integration of the engineering curriculum with social sciences, reduction or stabilization in the number of Ph.D. programs, and stress on continuing education for engineers by colleges and universities. (Author/PG)

This report represents the National Science Foundation's third projection analysis of science and engineering doctorate supply and utilization. This 1974 study incorporates several new elements. New data have been used, such as the results of the 1973 Survey of Doctoral Scientists and Engineers, and different methodologies were developed, such as those used for the projection of academic and "other science/engineering" utilization. Furthermore, the overall projections have been limited to broad areas of science, such as the physical sciences, engineering, etc., since too little is currently known about interfield mobility to make further breakdowns by individual science and engineering fields very meaningful. After the summary and introduction, the general environment for projections, the doctorate scientist and engineer utilization in 1972, and projected supply and projected utilization are presented. Appendixes include technical notes, selected related publications, text tables and charts. (Author/PG)

A total of 160 companies supplied information for the 29th annual report regarding the employment of college graduates in business. Most are large or medium-size corporations that regularly recruit college men and women. A total of 31 percent of these companies plan to contact fewer colleges in 1975, but 29 percent will contact more schools. The companies expect to hire almost exactly the number of men with bachelor's degrees they hired from 1974 classes. No decrease is indicated. Also, they expect to hire 7 percent more women graduates. In greatest demand are men in engineering, accounting, business administration, and sales, and women in accounting, general business, data processing, and engineering. Almost all of these companies will raise starting salaries. Predicted averages for 1975 indicate that bachelor's degree graduates in engineering will be offered about $1,062 per month, accountants about $990, graduates in business administration about $814, and liberal arts graduates about $776 per month. Almost all of the companies that reported starting salaries for both men and women indicated they were the same. Although there has been a somewhat restricted job market for college graduates in recent years, the responding companies report that from 23-33 percent of the men employed three years ago have left. (Author/PG)

This publication is an informal report on a technical research problem, that of manpower utilization. This report is based on the results of a questionnaire sent out in 1973 and completed and returned by 621 men. The sample was the result of a steady attrition of the 3,000 men who responded to a short news item in "Science" magazine inviting science graduates about to be induced into the Army to contact the Scientific Manpower Commission (SMC) concerning placement assistance in the Army. The report includes an analysis of comments written by many of the men in the sample, particularly those assigned to science and engineering jobs. The questionnaire was designed to provide compatibility with information compiled by the Army after World War II. Comparisons were made of the utilization of the SMC sample of draftees, of whom more than half had completed at least one year of graduate training, with the beginning utilization patterns found in a study based on Statistics on the Utilization of Enlisted College Graduates in the Department of Defense. The conclusions drawn, added to the Army and Department of Defense studies, are considered to be of value in plans for future manpower utilization. (EB)

The large number and known career patterns of engineers make them an important target population for the use of videotechnology in programs of continuing professional education. Currently, universities use videobased instruction with engineering students on and off campus. A variety of signal delivery systems are used to link job sites to campuses. Projections of video course enrollment in engineering shows continuing steady growth even with present technology. New developments including videocassettes, videodisc, cable television, satellite distribution, interactive linking of input/receiving stations and computer control of cable delivered systems can accelerate this growth. Expansion could also be facilitated by cooperative development of curricula by engineering colleges, expanded participation of engineering faculty and increased capital investment in video publishing. The report contains a bibliography and a listing of university video based engineering programs. (KB)

Statistics are presented regarding the employment situation for engineers during the school year ending in 1975. The overall findings reflect the state of the national economy with a depressed job market. The major changes in this year's placement status of engineering and technology graduates at all degree levels were a large reduction in the percentage entering employment, only slightly offset by a small increase in those going on to full-time study. Changes in the numbers entering military service, having other firm plans, or still considering job offers were significant. The result was a large increase in the proportion of graduates without job offers or other plans. Although 1975 was one of the poorest employment years engineering graduates have experienced in recent times, the picture looks more favorable when viewed in the context of other occupations and educational curricula. (LBH)

The Rand paper on programs facilitating the mid-life career redirection of unemployed aerospace professionals is 1 of 20 policy-related research reports commissioned by the Division of Social Systems and Human Resources in the Research Applied to National Needs Program of the National Science Foundation. It is based on the evaluation of some 300 items of literature on the topic of mid-life career redirection. Evaluation criteria were internal and external validity and policy relevance. The paper evaluates those items which assess the effectiveness of the private and public sectors of our economy to mount schemes to deal with the problem of the involuntary career change of aerospace engineers and scientists. It assesses employment programs ranging from those based on the assumption that comparable jobs are available somewhere in the economy to others which assume that retraining and skills conversion are required in order to get professionals reemployed. The review of the literature revealed that unsuccessful retraining programs failed because of inadequate program design, retraining costs, trainees' age, and the nature of labor market information systems. It was concluded that, if retraining programs were to be successful, counseling and job information services should be a prominent feature of such programs. (Author/BP)

The survey is the fifth in a series covering the salaries of engineering technicians, conducted biennially since 1969. The format for salary presentations is maturity curves in which salary is plotted as a function of years of experience, accompanied by the data tables from which the curves were plotted. The survey covers three groups of personnel under the general category of engineering technicians: (1) graduates of two-year college-level programs leading to an associate degree in technology, (2) non-graduates qualified to perform the same kind of work on the basis of equivalent education and experiences, and (3) graduates of four-year bachelor of technology programs. The first two groups are distinguished between in some of the data tables. Bachelor of technology graduates are called "technologists" and are reported separately. The survey does not attempt to establish salary standards for any industry or employee group; the curves simply show what various sectors of employment were paying as of August 1975. A three-part questionnaire was used (facsimile appended) on which respondents indicated the number of individuals in appropriate boxes of a salary-versus-experience matrix, and the report is based on returns submitted by 630 different establishments employing 61,537 technicians. (Author/AJ)

Reported in this newsletter in narrative, graphical, and tabular form are data related to industrial research and development expenditures in 1974, showing a seven percent increase over 1973. It is noted that more than 80 percent of a total of $22.3 billion was spent by five industries; these included electrical equipment and communication, aircraft and missiles, machinery, motor vehicles and equipment for same, and chemicals and allied products. Total industrial research and development expenditures for energy and pollution abatement, by industry, 1973-1975, are summarized. A brief summary is presented relating research and development funds with net sales, as well as with basic research, applied research, and development. (EB)

This study focused on two objectives. The first objective was to identify and classify the characteristics of conceptual design trade studies that have high potential impact on human resource requirements of Air Force weapon systems. The approach used was a case history review and analysis of 129 F-15 aircraft design trade studies. The analysis indicated that the avionics system demonstrated the greatest potential impact on human resources. It was also found that trade studies dealing with design alternatives that encompass widely different technologies have substantial impact on human resources. The types of human resources data (HRD) most influenced by alternative design options were maintenance task times and personnel costs. The second study objective was to determine the accuracy of using subjective estimates as a technique for deriving the HRD impact of trade study options. Using only engineering information for six avionics subsystems, from the conceptual design phase, Air Force maintenance technicians made subjective estimates of the impact of the designs on selected HRD items. It was found that technicians can make accurate estimates of the amount of time, the Air Force occupational specialty, the level of technical skill, and the number of personnel needed to perform field maintenance tasks. (Author/JB)

The survey reported in this document was undertaken to determine the experience and opinions concerning written technical communications of prominent and successful engineers in a wide variety of engineering fields. A questionnaire sent to 245 engineers asked 11 specific questions, 8 of which dealt with the respondents' own experiences and the writing necessary in their positions (the amount done, its importance, and its effect on their own and others' advancement) and 3 of which dealt with the respondents' opinions about courses in technical writing in scientific and engineering curricula. Replies were received from 73.6 percent of those surveyed and indicated that respondents spend 24 percent of their time writing, the writing is very important to their positions, and the ability to write effectively has helped them in their own advancement. In addition, 80.5 percent feel that technical writing (clear, direct, and logically developed) should be required of all engineering students, while 16 percent feel it should be an elective course. (JM)

This publication presents data on the supply, utilization, and characteristics of U.S. doctoral scientists and engineers. The population surveyed consisted of individuals in the United States who held science or engineering doctorates, or who had received doctorates in nonscience and nonengineering areas but were employed in science or engineering positions. Included in the population were individuals who received their doctorates between January 1, 1930 and June 30, 1972, inclusive. Subsequent surveys in this biennial series will take account of new entrants into this segment of the nation's scientific and engineering manpower resources. The data on doctoral scientists and engineers in this report are presented in three parts: charts providing a broad perspective; tables presenting more specific, although selective, information; and appendices containing the questionnaire and specialties list used in the survey, plus notes on the survey methodology, coverage, concepts, and definitions used in the survey. (Author/MLH)

The study was prepared, at the request of UNESCO, by the European Federation of National Associations of Engineers (FEANI), an organization grouping the engineering associations of 18 countries and including 650,000 engineers. The differences in the types of engineering programs and graduation requirements of the various countries are examined, along with the differences in terminology and definitions used in the engineering education systems. The qualifications for becoming a professional engineer and the standards of engineering societies are reported, in addition to the role of the engineer in the industry of each particular country. The report concludes with an examination of the common denominators of the Continental and the British engineering education systems and discusses the possibilities of applying the European experiment of FEANI to other continents. (MLH)