A lack of familiarity with engineering as a profession is a significant barrier to getting teenagers to pursue engineering careers, according to a survey of teens commissioned by Intel Corp. Yet, exposure to facts about engineering, including the breadth of what engineers actually do and, specifically, how much money they earn, leads more than half of teens to say they are more likely to consider engineering as a career.
 
Roughly 60 percent of teens are more likely to consider engineering after learning about the career's earning potential. The majority of teens are also influenced by understanding what engineers do, such as playing a role in rescuing the Chilean miners who were trapped in 2010, delivering clean water to poor communities in Africa, designing the protective pads worn by athletes and constructing dams and levees that keep entire cities safe.
 
A critical step to creating more engineers is nurturing an interest in high school, or earlier, so there is a healthy pool of engineering students entering college.
 
"The results of this survey show the importance of providing teens with opportunities to gain knowledge about engineering," said Intel CIO Diane Bryant. "We need to offer teens real-world, hands-on engineering experience and interaction with engineers, like that found in robotics programs and science competitions, to improve the likelihood that they'll get hooked on the subject and pursue it in college."

Study highlights:

• While the majority of teens have not considered a career in engineering, those that have are motivated by their perception that it will be interesting.
• Nearly two-thirds (63 percent) of teens have never considered a career in engineering.
• Seventy-four percent of teens that have considered engineering, have done so because they think the field would be interesting, perhaps because they are more aware of the impact engineers have on the world.
• Almost one-third (29 percent) of teens do not know of potential job opportunities in engineering and 13 percent do not think that majoring in engineering in college will lead to any more job opportunities than any other major.
• Twenty percent of teens have no idea about engineering's impact on the world.
• Financial facts are particularly persuasive: 61 percent of teens are more likely to consider engineering after learning that engineering majors make an average annual income of $75,000; while more than 50 percent are persuaded by the fact that the unemployment rate amongst engineers is more than 4 percentage points lower than the national rate.
• Don't dumb down what engineers do. Try to reframe the difficulty of engineering as a positive challenge, a badge of honor to be worn proudly when successful.
• Make engineering feel less remote and more personal. Give a face to engineers to help inspire and create a sense that "if they can do it, I can do it."

 
This survey of U.S. teenagers was conducted online between Oct. 11 and 18, 2011, by Penn Schoen Berland on behalf of Intel. Participants included 1,004 teenagers ages 13 to 18. The margin of error is +/- 3.06 percent.
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