Current scholarship views organizational socialization as a learning process that is primarily the responsibility of the newcomer. Yet recent learning research recognizes the importance of the social interactions in the learning process. This study investigated how newly hired engineers at a large manufacturing company learned job-related tasks…

This report is the successor to "Help Wanted: Projections of Jobs and Education Demand through 2018," in which researchers examined the connections between educational attainment and educational demand in the labor market. In this report, the authors update the jobs projected to be available through 2020, using a macro-micro modeling…

While every state continues to experience the impacts of the economic downturn and resulting recession, it will be many years before people understand the full nature and causes of the financial crisis. But it appears that one of the contributing factors to both the crisis and the anemic nature of the recovery has been the weakened position of the…

This publication presents experimental estimates of completion and attrition rates for the latest commencing apprentice and trainee cohorts. Such up-to-date estimates are possible by applying a "life tables" methodology to simple cross tabulations of commencements, completions and cancellations/withdrawals. The resultant cross-sectional…

Participatory design (PD), or the collaboration between software engineers and end users throughout the design process, may help improve CALL design practices. In this case study, four ESL learners, a software designer, and a language teacher created and evaluated a series of paper prototypes concerning help options in computer-based second…

This ethnographic study investigated the mathematical disposition of engineers. Structural engineers in two firms were observed in everyday practice. Observation and interview data were analyzed to elucidate the role of mathematics in solving engineering problems and the engineers' perceptions of the status of mathematics relative to other…

For recent high school graduates, life is tough. In the past year, one in four young high school graduates was unemployed and over half were underemployed. In the past decade, recent high school graduates' wages have fallen by 12 percent to just $19,400 annually in 2011, below the poverty threshold for a family of four. The downward plight of high…

This case-study research investigated how newly hired engineers at a large manufacturing company learned what they were expected to do during their first year on the job, as well as how they were expected to do their work and why it was done that way (the social norms of the organization). Two major findings challenge and extend the traditional…

Like many young men, Ty Kropp had no idea what he wanted to do when he graduated from high school. Courses he took as a computer design/manufacturing (CDM) technology student at the Ulster County Career and Technical Education center in Port Ewen, NY, gave him valuable skills that opened the door to his dream job at Orange County Choppers (OCC), a…

"Science and Engineering Indicators" (SEI) is first and foremost a volume of record comprising the major high-quality quantitative data on the U.S. and international science and engineering enterprise. SEI is factual and policy neutral. It does not offer policy options, and it does not make policy recommendations. SEI employs a variety…

Seventy-one professional fine artists and 147 engineers completed Sternberg's Intellectual Styles Questionnaire (R. J. Sternberg & R. K. Wagner, 1991). Artists preferred less external input in their work than engineers preferred, and engineers were more inclined to prioritize their thinking. Artists preferred devising their own plans significantly…

This qualitative study tracks the journeys of four career changing women in STEM fields as they pursue a Master of Arts in Teaching degree and transition into teaching positions. Through analysis of archived writing, journaling, photo elicitation, interviews and member-checking, the study analyzes participants' thinking and learning at the…

While engineering educators have engaged in many endeavors aimed at advancing engineering education and practice, much of this work has focused on broad curricular issues. Few studies focus on what it means to be an engineer or the process of what it takes to learn to engineer. In the last decade engineering educators have begun to focus on…

While the Milwaukee region's economic base is rooted in its manufacturing history, many believe that the region's future prosperity will be tied to its ability to successfully transition its economy into one that is based on knowledge and innovation. Indeed, fostering innovation has become the call to action for business and political leaders…

This annual publication provides a summary of training activity in apprenticeships and traineeships in Australia, including information on training rates, completion rates, attrition rates, training within the trades and duration of training. The figures in this publication are derived from the National Apprentice and Trainee Collection no.63…