We will produce more engineers and scientists when the economic incentives and market forces exist to attract more students to these difficult fields. In fact, just the opposite is happening. At the moment, these professions are moving rapidly overseas to the low cost countries just like manufacturing jobs did in previous decades. Incentives are further suppressed by all the H1B's.
EngrMgr @ cnn.com
I never bought a credential. I won awards doing what comes naturally to me. I am a software engineer. Now, I can't get a job because some nimrod coded "if only MIT select this resume" as part of their candidate selection algorithm. Now I watch projects fail, poor results, and off-shoring as I stand on the sidelines scratching my head and blaming the "business of degrees".
Knowledge, expertise and REAL TALENT aren't something you buy. NIMRODS. I think MOST of our Presidents, famous musicians, artists, and such NEVER HAD A COLLEGE DEGREE.
OutNasa @ cnn.com
..throughout modern history, there is a tendency to tout a career choice or field as a long-term career. The truth is, it almost always fails to be and is usually done at the peak of that career's value.
There was a time that being a butcher was an excellent local career choice. Until suddenly, no one went to the local butcher as the big grocery store became the supplier (this mainly due to the advent of the automobile which made such travel inconsequential).
In the 70's there was talk of electrical engineering being the field to be. Manufacturing of electronics. In fact, IBM let Microsoft own DOS because HARDWARE was the place to be. Then that all became automated and outsourced, suddenly you can buy an entire computer for less than the operating system. How things have changed.
The two big ones mentioned now is healthcare (in particular, nursing) and software.
Let's look at nursing as I believe it's ahead of the IT curve right now. I have been amazed by how many friends I have who are back in school pursuing nursing degrees. At least 6, and I don't have that many friends. LOL
My wife is a nurse. Let me give you some insights on that career path. Her hospital won't hire any nurse without prior experience. Is this unusual? Nope, come to find out that few are. I've met a number or recently graduated nurses. They've done their four years. Made the grade. Taken on the debt with the thought that they were entering a field in which they'd be guaranteed a job and not have to worry about unemployment. It wasn't a glamorous career, it's dirty, messy and hard work. But at least they'd always have a job, right?
Well, every nurse I've met who has graduated in the past year is still trying to find a job. That's right, they've sent out resumes to dozens of hospitals. No job. As I said, my wife's hospital will only hire you if you've got a number of years of experience. Right now there are enough nurses floating around many regions that hospitals don't want to hire and train a new nurse.
Oh and yes, there are many nurse positions in certain cities and regions. Where they hired highly-paid travel nurses.
But that's changing, and it's also largely because of seasonal clientèle numbers. They don't want to add full time permanent staff. So they bring in an expensive travel nurses to cover 2-3 months when they're more likely to have higher number of patients (summer for accidents) and (holidays for heart attacks).
http://nursinglink.monster.com/benefits/articles/193-why-cant-new-nurses-find-jobs [monster.com]
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2010-07-09-1Anurses09_ST_N.htm [usatoday.com]
I expect the IT industry to soon follow the same slope...
by PortHaven on Friday January 27, 2012 @ slashdot
The simple fact of the matter is, it is impossible to judge someone's ability to do the job you want them to do based on a resume and interview. A degree is slightly better, but as we all know the vast majority of people with those degrees have proven nothing more than that they are good at memorizing things for tests. Actually being competent in a working environment is something entirely different. The entire system is flawed to its core. Many people refuse to be misleading in their interview or on their resume and think that shows integrity... when all they really get shown is the door.
When employers hire people... they hire the people that aggressive at selling themselves as a product... People that are fluent and at ease in an interview. If that person also happens to be good at the job... great! Despite what many people think, if you bluff your way into a job your not qualified for, you don't just get fired immediately. The manager doesn't want to look like a fool for hiring the person and usually they can hang onto the job for as long as they'd like to. Raises and promotions are another thing.
The basic problem with the workforce today is employers have no idea what they need, and even if they did, they have no way of finding out who has the skills they actually do need. Simple as that.
by Charliemopps on Thursday June 21, 2012 @ slashdot