Are Young People Interested in Engineering Anymore?

It's all over in the US. Engineering and science for the future now falls to China and India. Todays youth don't want to work hard enough to pursue engineering.

quote "the champion of the remnant of Christian civilization against the forces that threatened it." unquote

How does this relate to the original topic, except maybe as an illustration of just what went "wrong in the west"?

It is an indisputable fact that the baton of leadership of Christian West was handed over by Britain to US beginning WW2. I argue that as a leader, it is highly essential for American generation to take "keen interest in education not merely of science and technology but entire spectrum ranging from science, history, philosophy, art, humanities etc."

The topic is about "importance of reaching out to kids and getting them excited about science and technology." Where else you do it other educational institution? It is not essential to appreciate historical perspective too?

As a student of history I believe in being ring side spectator and have admiration for all the creative work whether East or West, white yellow or black race. I am a strong believer in learning from History of creative civil societies to avoid "History repeats itself first as tragedy, second as farce " quote Karl Marx.

Lastly nothing was farther from my mind to denigrate what went" wrong in the west?" In fact I have great admiration for their contemporary achievements

Well the answer is hidden with organisations like IEEE i was a member of IEEE and gave up the same as i felt IEEE is not serving any purpose in promoting worth while engineering and is focused on subjects of Academic interest like encouraging development of Hi tech mathematical models only, who will encourage application engineering of these mathematical models and what is the reward for developing a new application with out these highteck models ,the IEEE doesn't have an answer, in spite of taking up this issue several time

The way to get students interested in Engineering is to pay engineers well. As long as Doctors and Lawyers and Professional Athletes and MBAs make multiple times more in salary than Engineers, kids aren't going to be interested, and quite frankly, why should they be?

But yeah, great idea, go and "excite them". Their eye rolling means it's working.

Roger, a comment if I may: You linked doctors, lawyers and MBAs (one well paid group of professions) with Professional Athletes, which group is orders of magnitude divorced from the other group. Current pro athletes make $10,000,000 to as much as $100,000,000 a year, often plus significant additional advertising promotional income. Are physicists still loading lead bars into the particle accelerators, looking for profitable change? Why not into nuclear power plants where there is heavy neutron flux? (Disregard the added radiation). But I take your point re paying engineers (and teachers) better for better performance. Nowadays, it's financial CEOs and bankers who are writing themselves big checks.

You Wrote:"You linked doctors, lawyers and MBAs (one well paid group of professions) with Professional Athletes, which group is orders of magnitude divorced from the other group."

No, not really. The vast majority of professional athletes play in minor and secondary leagues and make salaries on par with doctors, lawyers, etc. Also, there are a small minority of specialist doctors and lawyers that make millions a year. I think the comparison is correct.

There are lots of engineers that make the same sort of money as doctors and lawyers (myself included). Actually most doctors and lawyers don't make that much once they have paid their overhead.

It is really not a matter of pay, it is a matter of math. Even the most motivated students don't want to take on the rigors of math (or even maths). As a result a brilliant hard working student will choose medicine over engineering.

Steve S.,

I think if we were to look up the median salary of a Doctor and compare it to the median salary of an Engineer, we'd find that Doctors make much more. I'm sure you make a comparable salary, but you moved half-way around the world and are in a very hot industry right now (I think you're in the oil industry, is that right?).

I agree people have an aversion to math, but is it really that much harder than medicine or law? I don't know.

I feel like if the average salary of an Engineer doubled tomorrow, more kids would be willing to struggle through the math.

Roger

A major problem with most engineering salaries is that, by it's nature, engineering is at the mercy of large companies, because only they have the resources to carry out the work required.

For this reason, engineers and scientists are basically at the mercy of the "bottom liners" in the companies, which basically means they get screwed.

This is starting to come back and bite the companies as the smart kids are turning away from the profession.

Good point.

I am desperate to be able to go to school and get my Engineering degrees (Electrical/Electronic). It would be nice if I didn't have to work for a living making $8/hour. There is no way I can save money to go back to school - I have to pay cash for school since I am in default for a $4000 loan back in 1990 (when I wanted to be a Nuclear/Plasma Physicist).

I am 100% Engineer material - right here. All I need is the opportunity to prove it. Unfortunately, I feel I'm stuck.

My Yahoo ID: webqsd2008

As a practical, practicing engineer, I always recommend to young people to look for careers that are non-fungible, like plumbing, electrical contracting, or landscaping. Even jobs in law, medicine, accounting, and, yes, engineering are being outsourced to countries with cheaper labor, lax labor and environmental laws, and more efficient forms of public service delivery, i.e. healthcare. Chances are good that your X-ray or MRI was read overnite in Australia or some other country, displacing yet another U.S. worker. The reality is that very few professions that require advanced training and preparation cannot be outsourced. And then you are left holding the student loan baggage for a career that you cannot sustain with reasonable pay. That is the unfortunate future that young people are facing. IMHO.

Oh you got me laughing as I was born and raised here is Australia, firstly our hospitals are in such a mess the federal government has threatend our state governments that it will take over the hospitals and run it centrally from Canberra, secondly our Doctors keep saying how few of them are, trouble is I see plenty near the coffee machines and nurses ... So getting to look at a local's(natives) XRAY is a 4 hr task so hardly beleive they be looking at yours(being that your not paying them) and adding extra work to their coffee rounds ...

So you need to think better before posting ... as for Engineering ... I currently work as an electronic engineer and feel that the pay is pretty meek compared to sportsman, after all hitting a white ball into a hole is so much more important then bridge that stays up or a automatic doors or air bags in ya car ... come on people... lets face it if ya want to drop that dinosuar from 200 meters you need a guy and a club and a white ball ...

From:

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/16/business/yourmoney/16hosp.html?pagewanted=all

"It didn't take long for some nighthawk companies to use radiologists stationed overseas, in places where it is day during America's night. One company, Nighthawk Radiology Services, has stationed 15 American radiologists in a building near the Sydney Opera House in Australia. A few radiology practices in the United States have bought houses in Europe, and their members take turns living there.

From nighthawk services, it was just another step to put the night readers in countries with lower costs. Besides the two companies in India, Infinity Radiology, based in Dallas, is using some radiologists in South Korea."

Do some research before you post.

I am a young person interested in engineering. I am a car fanatic, have been since birth. In high school when I was supposed to be paying attention to the subject at hand, I was drawing and "engineering" parts for cars and motorcycles, before i knew what an engineer did. I've thought of many great ideas and had rough sketches and dimensions of pleanty of parts before I ever heard of them. But the main reason I believe young people are not too interested in engineering is beacuse they do not really know what engineers do. If I had known what engineers do 5 or 6 years ago, I would have paid more attention in Math class and would probably be one today. Now I'm a 21 year old mechanic.

At 21 it is not too late!! Go pursue the degree! Sounds like you would be great.

Its hard to find a good starting point. I have no college education and I work 50 hours a week, usually late afternoon into the late evening. It sucks because I know i would be good at it.

From parents with technical backgrounds, I hear that none of their college age students is interested in engineering. And from these parents, and others with engineering backgrounds, none are interested in their own present jobs that are called engineering. All express disappointment in the lack of appreciation; the mundane mostly clerical tasks; the unending demands to sacrifice to meet unconsidered and inconsiderate, seemingly unnecessary deadlines, or to recover from management blindness. The feeling of accomplishment or of solving interesting problems has been stripped away. As business destroys the 'profession', who, young or old, wants to be an engineer now.

I do! I love being an engineer. I have great fun, I solve interesting problems, and I get paid handsomely..... and one of my five kids has decided to pursue engineering as well (one language, one music, one design, one medicine, and the last one engineering).

"Why don't you knock it off with them negative waves and say something righteous and hopeful for a change?"

Interesting that only the guy living in Malaysia is happy with his engineering career. In the US it is difficult to prolong an engineering career past fifteen years (true engineering, not project management or other administrative tracks). A lot of kids see engineer adults unhappy and even laid off. TV shows them that other jobs make more money (sports, entertainment) while being fun and no hard math and science requirements (too bad TV doesn't explain the exceptional talent and luck also necessary). Kids who do any career research find that sales and management get bigger bucks, again without the hard coursework. But most kids don't really make any plans, so they barely get through High School and end up unqualified or financially unable to go to engineering school.

There ARE kids interested in engineering. But fewer of them pursue it once they realize that the hard work is not rewarded very well. TV and movies still portray engineers as the kind of people kids don't want to be (stuffy downtrodden nerds). Parents no longer promote engineering as a career since they know most jobs get outsourced. All of this has been going on since the 1980s, so there is an ingrained disillusionment against engineering. But, if some kids weren't still interested in engineering despite its reputation, we'd no longer have any college engineering programs left by now.

Not to throw cold water on this subject, but most of the "major" problems facing mankind are due to lack of population control. In technologically advanced countries the standard of living is way beyond what is actually needed to have a comfortable life in this world. If there hadn't been this misperception that the world represents unlimited resources forever... and if people could have had the perspective that they are all on the same boat in space and figured out how to get along rather than kill one another, we might not be afraid of a lack of "engineering" talent. Taming nature where required doesn't require more technology. The real question is: Do you think there is a purpose to life and if so what is it? This then sets the stage for how to plan for our species to live in this world.

i agree im 15 and i dont no of many kids that want to be engineers. i want to go into sustainable engineering, i hope to find the answer to climate change i want to own my own business and become a millionaire. i have my career planned out hopefully it goes that way. by the way i hope i dont sound arrogant