Diversifying the Engineering Workforce

Engineering, education to workplace, is not just about technical knowledge. Rather, who becomes an engineer and why says much about the profession. Engineering has a “diversity” problem. Like all professions, it must narrow the gap between practitioners on the one hand, and their clientele on the other; it must become “culturally competent.” Given the current composition of the engineering faculty and the profession’s workforce more generally, it behooves engineering education to diversify while assisting current and future practitioners in becoming culturally competent. Programs that work to diversify engineering are reviewed, with research and evaluation-based findings applied to education and workforce practice.