IEEE-USA President's Column

 

 
President's Column
November 2006

Keep Your Leading Edge with Education:
Don't Be On the Outside Looking In

As the year comes to a close, I'm tempted to look back on 2006 with satisfaction that we, as a team at IEEE-USA, served as change agents to the profession. Some examples of key inroads made include our emphasis on mid-career education; the Webinar series launched by our Employment and Career Services Committee; and an engineering careers brochure for 11-to-13-year-olds. Other examples are the Entrepreneurs Village, an online portal for hi-tech entrepreneurs to communicate with their peers and to serve as mentors with prospective entrepreneurs; the launch of our Innovation Institute, which should hold its first pilot workshop in 2007; and significant media exposure on engineering-related issues through NPR, CNN, WGBH-TV and The Wall Street Journal.

Yet, another part of me knows that looking ahead is what defines us. In these columns, I've addressed many matters that began as spirited conversations with so many of you, including the need to spur the innovative process in the United States, and the role of K–12 math and science education in filling our pipeline — in anticipation of the retirement of some 80-million Baby Boomers born between 1946-1964. Given the steady erosion of engineering jobs due to offshoring — a subject I spoke on at a 24 October National Academy of Engineers workshop — it seems fitting to devote my last column to one of the key bulwarks against job loss, something over which you have control: continuing education.

I recall speaking with one gentleman, around 50, who was a supervisor of a quality control process group. He had reached the point where he was having difficulty understanding the technical terms in the reports supplied by his staff. He said he had to "do something soon" or he wouldn't be able to keep his job. In fact, several people have shared similar stories, and this is what I say in return: When you reach the point where it's difficult to read technical journal articles in your expected field of expertise, you're in deep water.

A survey of 2500 members this year provided statistically significant feedback pointing to the desire for more continuing education alternatives. Time and money have always been the two ubiquitous obstacles, so IEEE tackled them both. We may now have the best of all possible worlds for the mid-career engineer working 50 to 60 hours a week who needs an infusion of cutting-edge research in a creative, digestible format: It's called Expert Now, and it has enormous potential.

Expert Now, the work of the IEEE Educational Activities Board, Thomson Net G, and so far 15 IEEE Technical Societies, currently comprises 30 one-hour seminars accessible via the Web, featuring content culled from recent technical tutorials presented prior to conferences. You will soon see how polished and professional a product this is. In the words of Barbara Coburn Stoler, managing director of Educational Activities, "They're very easy to learn from and easy to navigate — you can click forward and backward, or pause in one place and go back to it another day. It's visual and interactive, and the voice-over you hear is that of the expert who created the tutorial content. The expert actually goes into a studio and records his or her own script, so that the engineer using the Expert Now seminars is actually listening to the voice of the expert."

Each seminar costs $69.95 and can be used online as often as desired over a 30-day period. Subjects include communications, nanotechnology, computational intelligence, electro-optics, vehicular technology, power engineering and many others that you can read about at www.ieee.org/web/education/Expert_Now_IEEE/modules.html. What's more, each completed seminar counts as .3 CEUs, or 1 PDH, essential for maintaining professional licensure and certifications.

Another answer to the time/money challenge is the Education Partners Program, a special collaboration between the IEEE and such carefully selected and reviewed schools as Polytechnic University, Stevens Institute of Technology, Pace University, Drexel University and the University of Washington. IEEE members get a 10 percent tuition reduction and can earn a master's degree online or take courses and obtain certifications in a format that is every bit as rigorous and effective as a traditional classroom setting. I highly recommend that you consider the EPP as you move forward in your career. For more information, please see www.ieee.org/web/education/partners/eduPartners.html.

Come to our conferences — hundreds of them provided by 42 Technical Societies — and read our journals as additional educational resources. In my visits to every Region and Section, I am pressing these as a major source of current education enabling members to flourish in this globalized economy. We are not going to reverse offshoring merely by saying so, or by law, but if we are diligent about staying at the leading edge of technology and keeping engineering jobs in the U.S., continuing education is absolutely essential.

Want to polish your management skills? In conjunction with AchieveGlobal, IEEE-USA offers Leadership for Results Courses, 29 online courses designed to equip members with the "soft skills" needed to succeed in today's workplace — at lower than retail price. Course modules include "Giving and Receiving Constructive Feedback," "Managing Your Priorities," and "Proactive Listening," among others.

It's ironic that the speed with which engineers advance technology is also one reason why the half-life of our careers is only some five to seven years. Ten years after college graduation, our training is obsolete. My advice is to take one or two short courses per year; one master's level course, and if time permits, a second master's degree.

In the coming months, IEEE-USA will continue pressing for the passage of S.2199, the Protecting America's Competitive Edge (PACE) Finance Act, which would amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to provide tax incentives to promote R&D, innovation and continuing education in science or engineering. A tax credit for educational costs incurred by companies would help employees maintain and improve mission-critical knowledge and skills that feed directly into our country's competitiveness.

As we develop more educational products, alliances and delivery modes at affordable prices, I hope you'll find fewer reasons to put off lifelong learning. Today you're an IEEE member; you don't want to be on the outside looking in.

Updated:  12 February 2008
Contact: Pender M. McCarter, p.mccarter@ieee.org