Thinking Twice About the Technical Workforce

As an engineer, sometimes you need to walk away from a problem and come back to it with a different perspective to unearth new solutions – a second look. This is true with engineering challenges, and, at ASME, we believe it is also true with people challenges like training and developing a technical workforce.

The NSF projects millions of unfilled skilled technical roles in the years ahead. ASME is committed to not only developing the workforce to fill these roles, but to making sure they are accessible to people from all backgrounds, especially those historically underrepresented in technical fields.

As we have amplified our workforce development programs, we have rigorously focused on new solutions – finding technical talent in places where engineering has not always focused, creating innovative strategies for keeping potential technical workers engaged, and taking a differentiated approach that recognizes people are different and each have their own needs.?

This focus on new solutions has led us to prioritize contexts like community colleges and historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs), which have significant numbers of talented students but insufficient pathways into technical fields. And to work with successful engineers from underrepresented backgrounds to get a practical understanding of what their pathways looked like and how they can be replicated.

Our upcoming event, Reinventing the Future: Diversity Drives Innovation, encapsulates this work. Taking place on March 21 at Capitol Crossing in Washington DC, the event will focus on creating a diverse and thriving technical workforce. We will present Dr. Oscar Barton, Jr. Ph.D., P.E., F.ASME with the 2024 ASME Edwin F. Church Medal, which recognizes eminent service to mechanical engineering education.

Dr. Barton was selected because, throughout his career on the faculty of the United States Naval Academy he constantly looked for new ways to make engineering accessible to all students. He is particularly concerned about how few African American boys are entering and thriving in technical fields, at the event we will inaugurate the Dr. Oscar Barton, Jr., Endowed Scholarship Fund to benefit aspiring African American engineering students.

The scholarship is a perfect example of taking a second look at an old problem. Engineering has traditionally been a male-dominated field, and while women and girls have seen their rates of educational attainment in technical fields continually rise in recent years, men and boys, and especially men and boys of color, have lagged. Our work to encourage more women and girls to enter these fields is succeeding, and we must continue to invest in it, but we also must watch how dynamics are changing and adjust our strategies.

If you’re interested in learning more, and in creating new pathways into engineering for men and boys of color, I hope you’ll sign up here to join us for the event.