Data-Driven Insights About the Future Aerospace Workforce: Survey of Aerospace Student Attitudes

Transcription

1 Data-Driven Insights About the Future Aerospace Workforce: Survey of Aerospace Student Attitudes Dr. Annalisa L. Weigel, Lecturer, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Director, Fairmont Consulting Group June 2013

2 Survey of Aerospace Student Attitudes Motivation Replace anecdotes and hand wringing with real data Goals Assess student perceptions about their education and the aerospace industry, motivations for studying aerospace, job and career aspirations, and job offers and acceptance Explain why students take job in the aerospace industry Over time, create a true longitudinal data set spanning college and early career stages 2

3 Instrument Design and Data Collection Data gathered in 6 areas Initial interests in aerospace (pre-college) College experiences Career expectations Desired job attributes Perception of aerospace industry Demographics Survey population Sophomores and seniors (or their equivalents) Eventually, students 3 and 5 years out from graduation Web-based survey takes 30 minutes Average response characteristics ~620 students from 21 schools participated each spring 80% male, 20% female 96% US Citizens, 4% foreign nationals 76% Caucasian, 24% non-caucasian

4 Results Agenda Pre-College Experiences College/University Undergraduate Experiences Job and Career Expectations 4

5 Exciting Innovative Challenging Competitive Interesting Cutting Edge Advanced Space Defense High Tech Difficult Growing Awesome Complex Fun Airplanes Expensive Cool Large Technical Aerospace is Exciting Literally! 120 Using the first one, two, or three words that come to mind, how would you describe the aerospace industry? (n=528)

6 Age of Aerospace Inspiration How old were you when you first became interested in aerospace? (n=426) years old 7% 22+ years old 1% years old 30% 5-9 years old 35% years old 27% 6

7 Age of Aerospace Inspiration How old were you when you first became interested in aerospace? (n=426) years old 30% years old 7% 22+ years old 1% Students interested in aerospace before turning 14 are more likely to 5-9 years old 35% have a positive impression of the aerospace industry during college. Women are more likely than men to become interested in aerospace after turning years old 27% 7

8 Does Engineering Run in the Family? How many family members or close family friends are engineers? (n=431) 5-6 people 4% 3-4 people 12% 7-10 people 1% people 0% 15+ people 1% 0 people 40% 1-2 people 42% 8

9 Does Engineering Run in the Family? How many family members or close family friends are engineers? (n=431) 5-6 people 4% 3-4 people 12% 7-10 people 1% people 0% 15+ people 1% No correlation with 0 people positive impressions of the aerospace 40% industry, or propensity to enter the industry upon graduation. 1-2 people 42% 9

10 Results Agenda Pre-College Experiences College/University Undergraduate Experiences Job and Career Expectations 10

11 Progress Towards the Engineer of 2020 (Longitudinal Data) How has your college time contributed to your skills and experiences in the following areas? (n=110) Sophomores Seniors 11

12 University Influences (Longitudinal Data) Please indicate whether each of the following has influenced your desire to work in aerospace: (n=110) Sophomores Seniors Strong Positive Influence Positive Influence Negative Influence Strong Negative Influence 12

13 University Influences Internship/Co-op students are three times as likely to have a positive impression of the aerospace industry Seniors and Sophomores are different Seniors are more likely to have a negative impression of the aerospace industry Seniors are more likely to feel that their engineering classes give them a negative impression of the aerospace industry Minority students who have been positively influenced by faculty are more likely to have a positive impression of the aerospace industry Participating in aerospace related organizations, hands-on experiences, and summer internship/co-op experiences all have more positive effects on female respondents than male respondents 13

14 Results Agenda Pre-College Experiences College/University Undergraduate Experiences Job and Career Expectations 14

15 Tenure at First Organization How long would you expect to stay with the first company / organization you work for after graduation? (n=480) At least 10 years 11% At least 6 months 2% At least 1 year 35% At least 5 years 52%

16 Staying in Aerospace (Longitudinal Data) How likely are you to stay in an aerospace-related job for your whole career? (n=110) Sophomores Seniors Very unlikely 11% Very unlikely 11% Unlikely 12% Very likely 41% Unlikely 17% Very likely 42% Likely 36% Likely 30% 16

17 Desired Job Attributes (Longitudinal Data) Please rank your top four job attributes (n=110) Sophomores Seniors First Choice Second Choice Third Choice Fourth Choice

18 Salary Benefits Location Perception of Aerospace Compared to Other Industries Job security Educational opportunities Flexible schedule Work/life balance Project variety Challenge Excitement Work environment / culture Leadership opportunities Recognition of personal achievements Sense of direct contributions Working with hardware Other How does aerospace compare to other industries on the following job attributes? (n=460) 100% 80% 60% 40% 20% 0% -20% -40% -60% -80% More favorably Less favorably

19 What Can the Community do to Inspire and Attract the Future Workforce? Provide more opportunities for internships and co-ops Craft inspiring and productive internship/co-op opportunities Encourage students to partake Redesign the college engineering education experience How can we both excite students about our industry while providing them the fundamentals they need? Step up efforts that inspire students in the primary grades Long-term investment with large rewards for our community Consider implementing programs targeted at specific ages and genders 19

20 Acknowledgements Survey design and data collection Dr. Scott Uebelhart, Ryan Daspit (MIT) Data analysis Ryan Daspit (MIT) Tommy Leung, Caroline Lowenthal, Antonio Tugores-Garcia, Benyue Liu, Mauricio Gomez Diaz, Brian Matthew Yutko (MIT) William Michael Butler (Virginia Tech) Survey distribution Aerospace Department Chairs Association (ADCA) Aerospace engineering department heads around the country 20

21 Data-Driven Insights About the Future Aerospace Workforce: Survey of Aerospace Student Attitudes Dr. Annalisa L. Weigel, Lecturer, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Director, Fairmont Consulting Group June 2013