Colleges, foundation hatch plans to fill job demand
Harvesting homegrown engineering talent is tough, but school and industry leaders in the Fort Wayne area have efforts under way to help them reap the cream of the crop.
Two major hurdles are that many college graduates quickly discover engineering isn’t the career for them, and others prefer to live in large cities.
IPFW professor Donald W. Mueller Jr. is undeterred. As chairman of the department of engineering, he acknowledges the challenges but said a new civil engineering program and retention push should help attract students to the profession.
“There is no question we have the capacity for more students,” Mueller said.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics expects overall engineering employment in the nation to expand by 11 percent by 2018 with most of the growth coming from research and development, and consulting services.
A survey this month by the National Association of Colleges and Employers, based in Bethlehem, Pa., reported that engineers can expect an average starting salary of $58,970. Other careers studied were computer science and liberal arts, which pay $59,750 and $34,747, respectively.
Recognizing the value of well-paying jobs to northeast Indiana, the Questa Foundation for Education last month announced a $120,000 contribution to an initiative to keep local talent. The money will pay for a loan forgiveness program for students studying selected fields including engineering.
Steel Dynamics Inc. CEO Keith Busse employs all types of engineers. Busse said he is convinced such jobs are crucial to the region’s vibrancy and that high schools play a big part.
“That’s when an emphasis on math and science needs to begin,” he said. “It will result in a more skilled local workforce. We can’t be a nation of burger flippers.”
Mueller said students opt out of engineering studies for many reasons.
“We’re in a community where there are a lot of competing interests for students’ time,” he said. “They have families, and many of them are working real jobs already. Engineering is a challenging degree.”
That helps explains why the number of students pursuing the major declines dramatically after the freshman year. For example, in 2009, two of northeast Indiana’s colleges – IPFW and Indiana Tech – had 88 combined engineering graduates. And though the institutions list 700 freshmen enrolled for engineering this fall, officials know those numbers won’t hold.
“I’m not trying to discourage students, but some of them have unrealistic expectations and don’t have the understanding to get them there,” Mueller said. “You have to be willing to put in the work. There’s no question about that.”
‘Tons of résumés’
Meanwhile, figures at Trine University in Angola seem to indicate a better success ratio.
Trine had 67 engineering students graduate last year and has 87 freshmen pursuing the major this fall.
Engineering Resources Inc. credits Trine for many of its local hires.
“They’ve been great to work with,” said Kurt Heidenreich, president of Engineering Resources, 9835 Auburn Road in Fort Wayne.
“Right now, we have tons of résumés from all over to pick from, but when the economy turns around, we’ll have trouble getting candidates, I’m sure.”
Beggars can’t be choosy, so the choice between working in northeast Indiana and going unemployed is a no-brainer. But when this recessionary era ends, larger metropolitan areas will be the first pick for many students, Heidenreich said.
“Unless you have something keeping you here, like a family, most young people want to go to the bigger markets,” he said. “When they get a little older and settle down, they may look at Fort Wayne because it’s a great place to raise kids.”
Some students might view regions such as northeast Indiana as less cosmopolitan than other places, but “once they get here they’re usually surprised at what we have,” Busse said.
“They’re looking for cultural activities, but they find out we have that and our cost of living is good,” he said.
James Welch is a civil engineer and 2009 graduate of IPFW. He is married and has an 11-month-old son.
“I kind of wanted to go, but my wife wanted to stay here because her family is in Ohio,” said the 28-year-old, also a Buckeye State native.
Welch said some of his former classmates simply didn’t “realize that engineering is lot of hard work” and dropped it for other fields of study. A combination of long hours and demanding coursework results in some students bailing out of the major, he said.
Fort Wayne business and regional advocates don’t like to hear that. During the Vision 2020 Regional Economic Summit in June, about 1,000 attendees tried to flesh out ways to encourage students to take up high-skill jobs.
Steel Dynamics is trying to do its part. The company gave $300,000 to establish a state-of-the-art energy engineering laboratory at Indiana Tech. The lab will provide students with equipment for instruction in alternative energy sources like wind, solar, geothermal, hydrogen fuel cells, ethanol and other biofuels.
Professor Dave Aschliman, dean of the college of engineering and computer sciences at Indiana Tech, said some engineering students are intrigued by the profession because of its potential benefits to society, particularly infrastructure.
“I see a growing interest by students of all ages to do something about the environment,” he said. “They feel they can have an impact as an engineer.”
