Now in his sophomore year, his classes are teaching him the basics of engineering and how important it is for him to seek out a co-op, internship or engineering-related, entry-level job in a down economy.

Maniaci is one of about 3,700 MSU students currently pursuing some sort of an engineering degree at the university, according to MSU officials.

As current engineering students look to the future, job prospects appear promising for the time being, with a substantial percentage of recent MSU engineering graduates employed in the field.

But officials said if competition for available positions increases in the coming years, it will become tougher to break into the field.

The ongoing shortage of qualified engineers across the U.S. currently leaves many more jobs than candidates, according to College of Engineering officials.

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, the number of engineers entering the workforce annually from U.S. colleges and universities has stalled at about 120,000 per year across the past two decades.

The shortage
There are numerous plausible reasons for the shortage of engineers.

Bernadette Friedrich, director of student advancement in the College of Engineering, said a possible reason could be the aging engineering population.

“In some industries, as much as 70 percent of the engineering workforce could retire within the next five to 10 years,” Friedrich said.

Keri McCarthy, Disher Design and Development’s technical recruiter, said her company hires engineers from all disciplines, from mechanical and automotive to medical engineers.

Disher Design is based in Zeeland, Mich.

McCarthy constantly is searching for degree-holding engineers who can step into jobs.
“Currently, we have 80 engineers all working on different projects,” McCarthy said. “We’re always looking for top talent, and I’d like to receive a lot more hires.”

McCarthy said she commonly hears students say things such as, “My dad was an engineer,” or “I was really good at math,” which leads her to believe a factor of the shortage could be that students might not be exposed to enough of what engineering really entails in college.

Maniaci, part of a group of students working on an introductory LEGO robot in an Intro to Engineering Design class, said he thinks the job market soon will be much more competitive.

“It’s not going to be a shortage for very long,” Maniaci said. “They always say robots are going to take over the world … well … somebody has to program them.”

MSU’s plans
Friedrich said she thinks the problem lies in how engineering is marketed.

She said rather than being sold for “solving the world’s problems” or “working on the next big thing,” schools focus too much on math and science.

To combat this disinterest, College of Engineering officials said they offer many programs geared toward K-12 students, in hopes of enticing them into the field.

“There are always going to be (MSU) projects targeting (K-12) STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) students,” said Drew Kim, assistant to the dean for recruitment and K-12 Outreach.

Kim said MSU’s most valuable tools for enticing younger audiences into engineering are the LEGO robotics classes launched in 2003 and VEX robotics classes introduced in 2008 because of popular demand by K-12 students.

Friedrich also is concerned that math and science instruction is too intimidating for some college students, causing them to discontinue engineering studies.

“As a whole, we need to enhance the math and science learning that happens in K-12,” she said.
Timothy Hinds, College of Engineering Cornerstone and Residential Experience academic director, said he hopes the growing number of engineering students will surpass the number of job openings in the coming years.

While Hinds said he thinks MSU’s hands-on approach is unique, he said the increases in MSU’s engineering students — and the adjustments that go with them — are the same in other universities across the nation.

Student aspirations
Friedrich said more than 95 percent of MSU engineering students who graduated between August 2011 and May 2012 are “settled” into their next step, with about 80 percent employed and about 14.5 percent attending graduate school.

“Engineering students from Michigan State University are doing well in the job market,” Friedrich said, adding the average student receives multiple job offers.

About 74 percent of engineering students have accepted positions in the Midwest, with about 66 percent of those students accepting jobs in Michigan, Friedrich said.

Should the shortage of available engineers end, officials said competition for jobs
will increase, making it more difficult to enter the job market.

Officials stressed that co-ops and internships are crucial to an engineer’s undergraduate education, despite the abundant job opportunities today.

“It’s very hard for us to hire individuals who haven’t done at least some sort of internship,” McCarthy said. “The more practical experience they can get, the better off they will be.”

Disher Design and Development offers several cooperative experiences for undergraduate students, and McCarthy said many other corporations do as well.

Engineering freshman Derek Malackowski, who plans to specialize in biomedical engineering, said his instructors already have stressed the importance of co-op experiences and internships in his first few weeks at MSU.

“They’ve talked about how co-ops and internships help you with your job and how they help you narrow down what you want to do with your field,” Malackowski said.

Hinds said in a competitive market, those without significant experience will struggle to find a job.

“In engineering, we don’t have entry-level positions for graduates anymore,” Hinds said. “Our graduates are expected to have their entry-level experience before they graduate.”