Resources for Ongoing Professional Development

Abstract

Young engineers face four challenges as they move out of school and into the workplace: turning a collegiate education into professional practice, developing career skills, keeping abreast of developments in engineering, and maintaining skills at a functional level. The knowledge and abilities of all of the engineers, technicians, technologists, and administrators within an organization represent a considerable pool of talent, and structuring the organization to use these talents for professional development is one step toward meeting continuing education challenges. Mentoring is one traditional format for training and can assist younger engineers in the technical transition between college and practice. Individual engineers should be encouraged to make presentations at forums about outside seminars, short courses, and workshops that they have attended. Likewise, engineers working on projects that involve new locations, updated codes, innovative materials, or unusual challenges can present the unique aspects of these projects. A university exchange program can provide a professor to deliver a specialized lecture to an organization; a senior staff member, in turn, delivers a lecture to the professor's students. Product distributors and support personnel are generally willing to make presentations about new software, engineering materials, and other proprietary products.