Workforce Priorities in the New Year
Consumer and corporate cutbacks will
significantly affect nearly every community, including ours. With this
in mind, ASME has directed more resources to workforce issues and the
role of engineers as it becomes more decentralized and fills the generation
gaps. More and more engineers will work independently and sometimes
remotely, with emphasis on connecting professionally with teams and
associates dependent on knowledge and accessibility. Knowledge has and
will continue to provide the competitive edge.
|
Thomas M. Barlow
|
I’ve spent considerable time this year, as your president, talking
about the growth of distance learning and continuing education opportunities,
and how this helps to close the generational gaps and geographical distances.
ASME has long considered the importance of staying connected through
professional networks that nurture innovation. At the same time, ASME
global growth has served to expand the reach of its members. The sharing
of learning networks benefits engineers individually and serves to address
the needs of business and industry.
Our strategic priorities for engineering workforce development have
set goals to expand the capacity and effectiveness of the workforce
through several initiatives that focus on students and early career
engineers. These include promoting collaboration with other engineering
societies to increase public awareness, and radically changing how engineering
students and early career members experience ASME in all facets of their
participation and encounters. ASME will continue to offer professional
development programs aimed at preparing a global engineering workforce
at every career phase, and we will explore how to better define professional
development in today’s marketplace.
ASME offers mentoring programs, a solid professional practice curriculum,
a digital library and online learning capabilities, as well as conference
opportunities, short courses, career forums, and ventures such as certification
through Engineering Management Certification International (EMCI) and
participation in the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology
(ABET) evaluations.
ASME’s online forums, such as ASME PeerLink, are readily accessible
to all interested members and can help in building communities and opportunities
for global networking from any desktop. Of course, taking full advantage
of these forums depends on self-motivation and communication skills
on the part of participants. Our initiative to continually improve the
ASME experience will require continuous dialog and feedback, both from
within ASME and with those who partner with us.
I hope that ASME provides an opportunity for you to reach out, make
connections, receive training and make the changes needed for success
in today’s workforce. Collaboration has become a key component
to reshaping how we work, conduct our business and live our lives. As
we set our sights on the new year, ASME’s strategic priority on
workforce initiatives will help us to identify new opportunities and
business practices that enable engineers, everywhere, to better negotiate
through difficult economic times.
On this front, ASME and our many volunteers will continue to assess
our programs by setting goals and reviewing budgets in the upcoming
months. I fully appreciate that planning for the 2010 fiscal year will
require hard work on everyone’s part, and I look forward to sharing
the new year with you and seeing what actions we can set into motion
together.
Thomas M. Barlow
ASME President, 20082009
back to columns