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Posted: Sunday, 08 February 2009 1:27PM Survey: Few Kids Interested In Engineering Careers

A new national study finds that more than 85 percent of kids ages 8-17 are not interested in engineering careers and parents are not encouraging them. The study of youth and adults was conducted by Harris Interactive on behalf of ASQ (American Society for Quality). American girls ages 8-17 say their parents encourage them to become actresses more often than engineers. Alarming, considering organizations including the National Academy of Sciences and the National Science Foundation project a shortage of 70,000 engineers by 2010. Based on the survey, kids aren't interested in engineering because: * They don't know much about it (44 percent). * The "geek" perception is still at work as they think engineering would be a boring career (30 percent). * They don't feel confident enough in their math or science skills (21 percent) to be good at it -- despite the fact that the largest number of kids ranked math (22 percent) and science (17 percent) as their favorite subjects. * Only 20 percent of parents have encouraged or will encourage their child/children to consider an engineering career -- despite the fact that 97 percent of them believe that knowledge of math and science will help their kids have a successful career. Other careers that parents encouraged girls to think about include doctor (33 percent), lawyer (25 percent), teacher (31 percent), veterinarian (23 percent), nurse (20 percent) and business executive (17 percent). Boys (24 percent) are significantly more likely than girls (5 percent) to say they are interested in an engineering career. To get more kids interested in engineering, ASQ will offer a free Webinar called "Real World of Engineering" available at www.asq.org/education beginning Feb. 16, during National Engineers Week. The Webinar will be available for viewing the next 12 months. Starring in the Webinar are ASQ members and engineers Cheryl Birdsong-Dyer with Sprint/Nextel discussing cell phones and Chuck Kanapicki with American Bridge/Fluor Enterprises discussing bridge building. ASQ has more than 14,000 engineer members who are concerned about ensuring a work force of skilled, highly educated engineers for the future. The ASQ/Harris Interactive survey was conducted among 1,277 U.S. 8-17 year olds and 2,196 adults. "It's clear that there is a low level of interest and knowledge about engineering careers for both parents and children," said Maurice Ghysels, chair of ASQ's K-12 Education Advisory Committee. "Educators and engineers need to work more closely together to get students excited about the profession and spotlight interesting role models."

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