This topic spotlight page explores ECR:Core and ECR:BCSER research projects focused on characterizing, developing, and sustaining the non-academic STEM workforce.

These investigations illustrate how the workplace can function as a learning environment outside of academia. Focused subtopics have included understanding barriers to entry and persistence in the STEM workforce, alignment between educational preparation and industry requirements, and trends shaping the future of STEM employment (e.g., in response to evolving technologies such as artificial intelligence). The findings inform theories about how individuals learn and train throughout their lives, in addition to how they select and pursue their career pathways.

The topic highlights below emphasize connections to two other ECR research areas on broadening participation in STEM and STEM learning and learning environments. This organizational scheme aims to help researchers in identifying new bridges between their existing work in other areas to possible extensions for studying the non-academic STEM workforce. However, explicit connection to other research areas is not a requirement for funding; some projects have focused more narrowly on workforce development only, such as understanding how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the STEM workforce.

Topic Highlights:

Broadening Participation

The broadening participation subtopic focuses on factors at the individual and/or organization levels that positively or negatively influence non-academic STEM workforce.

Transition To Workforce research focuses on understanding transitions from educational settings to employment.

• Connections Matter: Accessing Information About Education and Careers in STEM
• Committed to STEM? Examining Factors that Predict Occupational Commitment Among Asian and White Female Students Completing STEM Us Postsecondary Programs
• Looking Beyond College: STEM College Seniors on Entering the Workforce and the Impact of Race and Gender
• What's Next? Soon-to-be STEM Graduates on Their Post-Graduate Plans
• Designing Effective Internships: A Mixed-Methods Exploration of the Sociocultural Aspects of Intern Satisfaction and Development
• Finding a Job: An Intersectional Analysis of Search Strategies and Outcomes Among Us STEM Graduates
• Creating Our Gendered Selves-College Experiences, Work and Family Plans, Gender Ideologies, and Desired Work Amenities Among STEM Graduates
• Preparing Justice Involved Youth for Transition: Employer Perceptions

In Workforce research examines the diversity of experiences of individuals within the STEM workforce. 

• Women's Attraction to Coding Boot Camps
• Women in Coding Boot Camps: An Alternative Pathway to Computing Jobs
• Coding Boot Camps: Enabling Women to Enter Computing Professions
• Systemic Inequalities for LGBTQ Professionals in STEM
• Engineering Ableism: The Exclusion and Devaluation of Engineering Students and Professionals with Physical Disabilities and Chronic and Mental Illness
• The Intersectional Privilege of White Able-Bodied Heterosexual Men in STEM
• Queering Methodologies in Physics Education Research
• Making Merit Work at the Entrance to the Engineering Workforce: Examining Women's Experiences and Variations by Race/Ethnicity
• The Role of Giving Back and Two-Eyed Seeing for Engineering & Computer Science Indigenous Students Transitioning to the Workplace

STEM Learning and Learning Environments

The STEM learning and learning environments subtopic studies workplace learning and performance in a contemporary STEM environment and connects them to STEM learning principles.

Transition To Workforce research focuses on understanding STEM workforce preparation, exploring the alignment between postsecondary curricula and industry needs.

• Collaborations Between Industry and Academia for Future Workforce Development: Construction Practitioners' Perspective
• Practitioners' and Instructors' Considerations in Workforce Development Collaborations: Inputs for Graphical User Interface of a Technology-Driven Matching Platform
• Instructor-Practitioner Collaborations via a Web Platform - Design and Practitioners' Intention-to-Use
• Usability Evaluation of a Web-Based Platform for Connecting Professional and Educational Communities: Instructors' Perspective
• Through Their Own Eyes: The Implications of COVID-19 for PHD Students
• Reconsidering College Student Employability: A Cultural Analysis of Educator and Employer Conceptions of Workplace Skills
• Impact of Industry Experience on Faculty Teaching Practices in STEM
• Occupational Credentials for Jobs in the Subbaccalaureate Economy: The Case of the Emerging Energy Sector in Ohio
• Don't Count Them Out: PHD Skills Development and Careers in Industry

In Workforce research studies the relevant knowledge, skills, and professional competencies necessary for successful STEM careers.

• Characterizing Mathematical Problem Solving in Physics-Related Workplaces Using Epistemic Games
• Spewing Nonsense [or Not]: Communication Competence and Socialization in Optics and Photonics Workplaces
• Characterizing the Details of Spatial Construction: Cognitive Constraints and Variability
• Integration of Mathematics and Communication in Physics-Intensive Workplaces
• Models of Math Use in Non-Academic Workplace Settings
• Fine-Grained Activity Recognition for Assembly Videos
• The Importance of Deciphering Tacit Knowledge in Apparel Product Development for Explainable AI Proposed Steps for Increasing Digitalization in the Apparel Industry
• Fit Models' Roles in Identifying Fit Issues in the Apparel Technical Design Process and Implications for Improving 3D Virtual Fitting
• Hidden Factors that Influence Success in the Optics Workforce

Photo by Allison Shelley/Complete College Photo Library