Exploring the Impact of Global Undergraduate Experiences on Engineers' Career Pathways and Approaches to Engineering Work

探索全球本科经历对工程师职业道路和工程工作方法的影响

• 批准号: 2308607
• 负责人: Kirsten Davis
• 金额: $ 38.86万
• 依托单位: Purdue University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-08-15 至 2026-07-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2308607&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Exploring; Impact; Global; Undergraduate; Experiences

In the increasingly globalized world, it is essential that engineering graduates develop the knowledge and skills to be successful in this environment. This project will work towards achieving that goal by exploring how global experiences during the undergraduate years and beyond may connect to global career outcomes. Several studies have explored the development of global engineering competency and related skills within the context of undergraduate engineering programs, but we have little information about the long-term impact of global experiences and the career pathways that students follow after they enter the engineering workforce. This project will advance our understanding of the formation of engineers by providing insights on the impact and value of global experiences for engineers by gathering data from engineering graduates at various stages of their careers. Findings from this project will lead to recommendations for the design of global programs for engineering students and can provide motivation for continued investment in development, implementation, and improvement of access to such programs. In addition, our research on how the formation of engineers continues after graduation can inform professional development support for practicing engineers to continue global learning throughout their careers. Understanding how we can support global learning for engineers both during and after the undergraduate years improves our ability to develop a globally competitive and innovative workforce.The purpose of this project is to explore the impact of global undergraduate experiences on engineers’ career pathways and approaches to engineering work. We will conduct a multiple-case study of three long-running global engineering programs to address three research questions: 1) How do global career outcomes compare between engineers who participated in global programs as undergraduate students and those who did not? 2) What global experience, global self-concept, and career choice variables are predictors of global career outcomes? 3) How do global experiences during the undergraduate years and after entering the workforce influence engineers’ approaches to engineering work and career choices? To address RQ1 and RQ2, we will administer a survey about career trajectories, career outcomes, and global experiences during and after college to all the alumni of the three programs which will be the cases for this study. Based on the survey response, we will identify a comparison group within each case with similar composition of disciplines and industry sectors by recruiting engineering alumni from the same university and administer the survey to this group. To address RQ3, we will conduct interviews with participants from the global programs and comparison groups to understand participants’ approaches to engineering work, global career outcomes, and experiences they believe prepared them to engage in a global work environment. Finally, we will make a cross-case comparison by developing case summaries and holistically comparing the findings. This project will contribute new insights about global career outcomes in engineering, the nature of global engineering work, and the ways in which engineers engage in lifelong global learning. Our results will lead to recommendations for the design of global engineering programs for students and global professional development opportunities for practicing engineers. The project will be informed by both an academic advisory board and industrial advisory board. The academic advisory board is comprised of researchers and practitioners of global engineering programs, while the industrial advisory board is comprised of individuals with 80+ years of combined engineering work experience, including training and recruiting new engineers. Through our industrial advisory board and dissemination plan, we plan to communicate our results broadly in the industry setting to increase industry and university collaborations related to the formation of global engineers.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

在日益全球化的世界中，工程毕业生必须发展知识和技能才能在这种环境中取得成功，该项目将通过探索本科生及以后的全球经验如何与全球职业成果联系起来，努力实现这一目标。多项研究探讨了本科工程课程背景下全球工程能力和相关技能的发展，但我们对全球经验的长期影响以及学生进入工程劳动力项目后遵循的职业道路知之甚少。将通过提供以下方面的见解来加深我们对工程师形成的理解通过收集工程专业毕业生在职业生涯各个阶段的数据，了解全球经验对工程师的影响和价值。该项目的调查结果将为工程专业学生的全球项目设计提供建议，并为持续投资于开发和实施提供动力。此外，我们对工程师毕业后如何继续培养的研究可以为执业工程师提供专业发展支持，以便他们在整个职业生涯中继续进行全球学习。本科毕业后，我们提高了培养具有全球竞争力和创新能力的能力该项目的目的是探索全球本科经历对工程师职业道路和工程工作方法的影响。我们将对三个长期运行的全球工程项目进行多案例研究，以解决三个研究问题：1。 ) 本科生期间参加全球项目的工程师与未参与全球项目的工程师之间的全球职业成果如何比较？ 2) 哪些全球经验、全球自我概念和职业选择变量是全球职业成果的预测因素？本科期间和进入职场后的经历影响着工程师为了解决 RQ1 和 RQ2，我们将对这三个项目的所有校友进行一项关于职业轨迹、职业成果和大学期间和毕业后的全球经历的调查，这将成为本研究的案例。根据调查答复，我们将通过招募来自同一所大学的工程校友，在每个案例中确定一个具有相似学科和行业组成的比较组，并对这个组进行调查。为了解决 RQ3，我们将对来自不同领域的参与者进行访谈。全球计划和比较组以了解最后，我们将通过制定案例摘要并全面比较研究结果来进行跨案例比较，他们认为参与者的工程工作方法、全球职业成果以及经验将有助于他们融入全球工作环境。关于工程领域的全球职业成果、全球工程工作的性质以及工程师参与终身全球学习的方式的见解我们的研究结果将为学生提供全球工程项目的设计建议，并为执业工程师提供全球专业发展机会。该项目将由学术顾问委员会和行业顾问提供信息。学术顾问委员会由全球工程项目的研究人员和从业者组成，而工业顾问委员会由具有 80 多年工程工作经验的个人组成，包括通过我们的工业顾问委员会培训和招聘新工程师。计划中，我们计划在行业环境中广泛传播我们的成果，以加强与全球工程师培养相关的行业和大学合作。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响进行评估，被认为值得支持审查标准。