A growing engineering industry skills gap takes hold as the demand for digital and tech skills explodes.
Siemens Digital Industries Software has sponsored this post.
It’s not surprising or new – the need for highly skilled engineers is reaching an all-time high, driven by the requirement to continuously improve everything from medical devices to automotive design, artificial intelligence, robotics, data analysis and more. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, engineering employment is expected to grow 7% over the decade from 2021-2031, while SAE International forecasts that one in three engineering roles is expected to remain unfilled through 2030, due to the workforce’s lack of relevant technological skills.
And as the technologies in the engineering industry continue to advance, this gap will only grow wider if left unaddressed.
“The shift toward more automation and simulation, digitization, the use of data – all these technology-driven changes are speeding up,” says Sean Gallagher, director at Huron Consulting Group. “This places demands on professionals to stay current by keeping up with these shifts and the changing demands of the job market.”
Add in demographic changes from workers aging out of the occupation and retiring, and the result is an innovative industry that needs skilled engineers at a rate outpacing the amount of talent graduating from colleges and universities.
From undergraduate degrees to licensure and continuing education, becoming an engineer takes time.
“The pipeline to become an engineer — and depending on the type of engineering, to become licensed — is a long one,” Gallagher says. “So, there are only so many people who are qualified to fill these jobs. And there’s a lot of demand for these jobs.”
If this skills gap isn’t addressed, Gallagher says, this could lead to waning progress.
“We won’t have enough engineers to build the things we need, the pace of innovation will slow down, you’ll see shortages and other undesirable events in the job market,” he says. “A skilled engineering population is at the core of so many different industries and areas of the economy and society. Historically, that’s why national governments and employers, colleges and universities, all these stakeholders around the world, worked to develop the engineering workforce and invest in that important pipeline of talent.”
Closing the gap with microcredentials
One emerging path forward to help close the engineering skills gap is microcredentials.
The term ‘microcredential’ is something of a catch-all, Gallagher explains. It describes a credential that is more compressed than a macro-credential (e.g., a traditional college degree).
“What we’re talking about is a skill-focused, targeted, short educational program,” he says.
These microcredentials can be issued by colleges and universities, but also by companies, non-profits, and training organizations. Because of the focused and targeted nature of microcredential programs, they can be a useful way for engineers to refine and verify their understanding of specific skills — whether that’s AI programming, change or process management, or a specific software or tool — without the time investment and expense of degree programs. And because microcredentials are designed around industry needs, they can bridge the gap between engineering theory and practice, and provide upskilling and reskilling opportunities for engineers looking to expand their capabilities.
Moreover, in the wake of pandemic-era shifts to online education and a desire for flexible learning opportunities, many microcredential programs are fully digital and can be completed online. This means they are accessible, affordable, and easily shareable on a resume or LinkedIn profile through verifiable achievements in the form of digital badges and certificates that link to information about the credential and completion confirmation.
These digital microcredentials also slot in well with the shift toward more inclusive hiring strategies that encompass a focus on prioritizing skills and talent assessments, rather than strictly hiring based on degree achievement.
“Most major engineering employers have all kinds of excellent internal training,” Gallagher says. “But if those don’t result in a credential of some sort, how can a worker use that, in terms of portability and recognition in the job market?”
Microcredentials fill this niche, giving workers a way to present and demonstrate their abilities, and giving hiring managers an easily verifiable way to assess candidates’ skills during the hiring process.
In short, microcredentials are key to closing the engineering skills gap, by providing greater visibility into the skills engineers possess, making it easier to digitally share and verify proof of these skills, and ensuring engineers are up to date with the most current training and information for their field.
For a deep dive into how microcredentials bridge the skills gap in engineering, read the Huron-produced and Siemens-sponsored white paper Addressing the engineering skills gap with credentials.
