ASME Community College Engineering Pathways Program

Project Overview

Project Description

The main objective of this project is to help ASME‘s Community College Engineering Pathways (CCEP) Program determine best practices for tracking students post-graduation and utilize one of these best practices to track students.

Officially launched in May 2021, ASME’s CCEP Program strives to increase participation in the engineering and technical workforce among those who have been historically underrepresented in technical fields, by increasing access to technical careers to help build a larger and more qualified skilled technical workforce. By 2026, ASME is anticipating engaging with over 80 community colleges and 1,500 community college students.

As ASME prepares to scale up this program to meet its 2026 goals, ASME needs a better understanding of the impact the CCEP Program has on post-graduate outcomes by tracking approximately 225 students post-graduation.

Primary responsibilities include:

• Determining best practices for tracking students post-graduation.
• In consultation with program staff, utilizing one of the best practices to track 225 students post-graduation.

Impact

The outcomes of the research project will help identify effective tactics for ASME to drive associate degree completions, increasing transfer rates from 2-year colleges to 4-year colleges, and entry into the engineering workforce for students at two-year colleges. This information will also help to inform best practices in the scale-up of the CCEP program and in the design and implementation of similar workforce development programs.

Eligibility Criteria

Skills / Experience:

• Required:
  • Research
  • Data Analysis + Statistics
  • Interviewing / User Research
  • Technical writing and documentation
• Desired:
  • Helpful to have knowledge of US higher education
  • Persistent and critical thinking

Discipline:

• Any engineering/technical discipline

Preferred fellow location (all projects can be completed remotely):

• Any, but ability to meet virtually with program staff (based in the USA) as needed in Eastern Time zone

Time zone compatibility (when the Fellow should be available for meetings):

• EDT (UTC-4)