The Third Path: A New Approach to Industry-based Undergraduate Engineering and Technical Education in the United States

ABSTRACT

The driving forces changing how we work and the jobs that we do are impacting organizations of all sizes across all sectors. The global pandemic has accelerated the pace of change and disruption to a level not experienced before. The combination of Industry 4.0, the Fourth Industrial Revolution and COVID-19 are creating a new sense of urgency to drive collaboration between industry and education. In 2022, academic institutions offer three paths to prospective engineering students, which students qualify for via standardized testing;Path 1) 4-year bachelor degrees with “R1” research focus typically following on to postgraduate degrees and careers in research or academia. Path 2) 2-year associate degree (community college) typically leading to a career based on a technical skill or trade. Path 3) 4-year bachelor degree with industry focus typically leading to careers in technical-based industries This paper presents a new approach to the “third path,” the industry-based bachelor degrees. The new approach is an alternative to the traditional programs currently offered by the majority of engineering schools in the United States. The traditional academic approach is failing to fill the talent pipeline. Academic policies and practices are unable to keep pace with the exponential growth of technology, the evolving motivations of a four-generation workforce (soon to be 5 generation) and the unpredictable development of new engineering business models [1-4]. The global competitiveness of the United States is at risk, the stakes are too high to stay on the traditional course. The authors contend that paths 1 and 2, despite shortcomings of their own, are in far better shape than the third path, so they are not addressed in this paper. This paper, written more like a position paper, proposes a new model for the third path;it is based on extensive research that was discussed in prior publications by the same authors [10,11,24-26]. The Third Path model proposes revised roles for the four key stakeholders involved in undergraduate engineering and technical education. The stakeholders are 1) Industry (United States), 2) Academic institutions, 3) Federal and State Governments, and most importantly 4) next-generation student-engineers and technicians. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2022.