HR: 08:00h
AN: ED31E-01 INVITED     [Abstracts]
TI: Future Employment Opportunities for US Geoscience Graduates - a View From Historical Trends
AU: * Keane, C M
EM: keane@agiweb.org
AF: American Geological Institute, 4220 King Street, Alexandria, VA 22302 United States
AU: Milling, M E
EM: mmilling@agiweb.org
AF: American Geological Institute, 4220 King Street, Alexandria, VA 22302 United States
AB: The geosciences in the United States has experienced a number of major booms and busts, but today has become, as a discipline, less dependent on the immediate fortunes of the natural resources industries. However, the actual employment distribution has not changed substantially in the last fifteen years, with the petroleum industry remaining by and far the single largest employer of geoscientists in the United States, and even more as a level of contributing to GNP. However, most of the geoscience professional ranks in industry were filled prior to and during the last major boom which ended in 1986. Most of this workforce is now heading into retirement and though total geoscience workforce demand is not likely to grow; substantial employment opportunities do and will exist as these individuals retire. However, this picture is more complicated than in the past. Most industries, both the traditional geoscience employers, such as petroleum, mining, and environment, and non-traditional, such as telecommunications, are increasingly global in their operations and perspectives. This increasing globalization means that US graduates now compete not only against graduates from other schools in the US, but throughout the world. When coupled with preferences for not hiring people in as expatriates for overseas assignment, US graduates face an increasingly competitive, but rewarding job market. The proverbial leveling of the playing field is also seen in the rapid rise in international membership of traditionally American professional and scientific societies. This internationalization is hardly discouraged within the culture of science, and is one that US students will need to embrace to compete effectively in the future for employment in the geosciences. One major change that will be necessitated is the adjustment of parts of academia to the new realities of preparing students for future employment within the discipline. Currently most US geoscience graduate programs are geared towards training students for the professoriate (of which new job opportunities are slower in coming than the private sector.) In particular, there are a suite of skill sets that geoscience programs could introduce into their curriculum to improve the competitiveness of their graduates.
DE: 6630 Workforce
SC: Education and Human Resources [ED]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005