Introduction
The United States‘ microelectronics workforce is in dire need of developing and retaining highly skilled workers to carry out some of the nation’s most vital functions in defense and development. In an effort to revitalize U.S. manufacturing and supply chains and to ensure national security, the Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors Act of 2022 was created to provide $52.7 billion for semiconductor research, development, manufacturing, and workforce development (The White House, 2022). In order to successfully burgeon the workforce of tomorrow, critical education and development efforts are immediately required.
The workforce needs assessment within this specific study was conducted to assess the skill needs of those hiring in various areas of the Defense Industrial Base (DIB) microelectronics engineering workforce. Conducting ongoing workforce needs assessments within microelectronics is crucial for U.S. economic and defense security. Previous workforce needs assessments have been conducted at a variety of levels, including those that are sector specific—to identify existing strengths and future problem areas of the workforce, infrastructure, and technology at National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) (National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 2024)—and industry specific—to identify the skill and knowledge needs of the quantum industry (Hughes et al., 2022). This project leverages a unique ecosystem of public–private–academic (PPA) partners that examines evolving areas within microelectronics engineering and is concerned with preparing university graduates with the knowledge, skills, and abilities to support the microelectronics engineering field.
There is rapid and continuous change in practice within engineering that makes education and training of professional and technical skills an increasingly difficult feat (McMasters, 2006). Technical skills are the technical processes of a specific field (Yawson & Greiman, 2016). Given the nature of the field, technical skills are unique to their respective branches of engineering, such as mechanical, electrical, and aerospace (Fleming et al., 2024). In addition, workforce skill requirements often change because of globalization and shifts in labor dynamics, such as automation, and technical change, such as the introduction of artificial intelligence and machine learning (Li, 2024; Manyika et al., 2017). Some researchers have developed methods of identifying the related skill gap using assessment tools (Cruz & Saunders-Smits, 2021) that can inform training programs (Antonucci & d’Ovidio, 2012). Identifying the various unique technical skills necessary is hazardous and complex due to the fact that technologies rapidly evolve, are erratic, and are not predictable (Gelderblom et al., 2012; Li, 2024).
Professional skills are the other key disconnect between the skills engineering students obtain in university and the skills recent graduates utilize on the job. Professional skills are an integral part of learning outcomes, as outlined by the Accreditation Board of Engineering and Technology (ABET) criterion (ABET, 2021). Beyond engineering, professional skills such as lifelong learning and creativity have been identified as extremely important to educating students to adapt and succeed in an ever-changing future workforce (World Economic Forum, 2020). Professional skills specific to engineering education have been identified as the ability to work in multidisciplinary teams, oral and written communication, creative thinking, and more (Fleming et al., 2024). A variety of professional skills, such as components of communication and teamwork, are named as the key to success and employability for the future engineer (Fleming et al., 2024). This research aims to answer previous calls to identify professional and technical skills needed for success in engineering workforces (Souppez, 2023) and—specifically within the scope of this project—technical and professional skills needed within microelectronics engineering. This work contributes to scholarship by bringing in previous frameworks, making them relevant to the present day and to the context of the microelectronics engineering workforce and the DIB. The following section identifies those frameworks this study utilized.
Literature Review
The field of engineering education has been described as a pendulum swinging between developing understanding of the theoretical sciences and learning to practically apply engineering skills (Seely, 1999; Sorby, Fortenberry, & Bertoline, 2021). Over time, tensions between the practical and theoretical have propelled engineering education into the technical focus taught today (Noble, 1979; Sorby, Fortenberry, & Bertoline, 2021). The terms “hard skills” and “soft skills” used to define technical and professional skills, respectively, came from military engineering education in the 1970s (Parlamis & Monnot, 2019) and, ever since, have an implied connotation that “soft skills” are not as important (Berdanier, 2022). This has prompted scholars to call for the use of the term “professional skills” rather than “soft skills” (Shuman, Besterfield-Sacre, & McGourty, 2005; and more recently, Holloway & Linvill, 2023). However, the term “soft skills” is still widely used in industry, and this negative connotation persists (Berdanier, 2022; Parlamis & Monnot, 2019).
There has been a move toward the integration of professional skills with technical skills through accreditation policies over the years. Early widely adopted accreditation requirements for the integration of professional and technical skills were seen in the ABET Engineering Criteria 2000 (EC 2000), which still closely resemble ABET standards used today (Akera, 2017). EC 2000 were adopted partially as a response to “a shift from defense to commercial competition” that was significantly impacting engineering employment on a global scale (Shuman, Besterfield-Sacre, & McGourty, 2005, p. 43). In 1997, ABET adopted the new criteria (Criterion 3) that included 11 outcomes that can be broken up into five technical skills and six professional skills (Shuman, Besterfield-Sacre, & McGourty, 2005). There have since been multiple iterations of professional skills recognized by ABET for inclusion in accredited engineering programs. Other engineering accreditation boards have similar policies. These accreditation skill requirements demonstrate the desire for engineers who can integrate professional and technical skills.
However, there is a pattern in science and engineering of separating social or professional aspects from technical aspects in academia and the workforce. This separation of the technical and social often exists in engineering as a hierarchy such that “technical dimensions are highly valued and social ones are far less valued or even irrelevant” (Leydens & Lucena, 2017, p. 50). Yet, engineering design, the hallmark of engineering practice, is the application of technical knowledge in social contexts that addresses complex challenges involving “people and technical issues simultaneously” (Jesiek et al., 2019, p. 1). The authors use the term sociotechnical throughout the paper to acknowledge this merging of the social, or professional, and technical spaces within engineering education (Jesiek et al., 2019; Leydens & Lucena, 2017). After interviewing early-career engineers, Jesiek and colleagues (2019) identified existing sociotechnical practices in the engineering field and found that, although they have sociotechnical exposure in education and practice, early-career engineers rarely experienced intentional teaching and learning related to the intertwined nature of the social and technical aspects of engineering. When isolating communication as a desirable professional skill for engineers, Leydens (2012) points to the sociotechnical nature of engineering communication, explaining that communication cannot be purely technical and neutral and that engineering communication is not simply stating the data. Effective engineering communication requires a sociotechnical approach to interpret and relay data, facilitate knowledge transfer between groups, and relieve constraints of a narrow engineering identity (Leydens, 2012). Both examples provide context as to why integration of technical and professional skills in engineering education is vital.
Professional skills are expected to be developed through experiential learning opportunities, such as research positions and internships, and taught through formal curricula, such as problem-based learning, lab work, and engineering design project (Fleming et al., 2024; Woodcock, Callewaert, & Millunchick, 2021). Experiential learning approaches provide real-world opportunities for using professional skills in technical positions (Brunhaver et al., 2018; Goller et al., 2020) but generally lack the opportunity for formalizing the learning about professional skills that formal curriculum might provide (Souppez, 2023; Winberg et al., 2020). Formal curriculum provides opportunities to learn and internalize knowledge about professional skills (Chen, Kolmos, & Du, 2021; Winberg et al., 2020), but sometimes the chosen methods do not transfer well to the complex problems of industry (Chen, Kolmos, & Du, 2021; Jonassen, Strobel, & Lee, 2006). Calls to shift the focus in engineering education from “course content to the development of students as emerging professionals” (Shuman, Besterfield-Sacre, & McGourty, 2005, p. 42) have led to better instruction on professional skills and the integration of professional and technical competence, but more work is needed to overcome the barriers for instructors to implement high-quality activities and projects that help students translate their learning into practice (Chen, Kolmos, & Du, 2021; Souppez, 2023).
The authors make the case for the importance of developing students’ professional skills as they pertain to their technical skills in engineering education. As Shuman, Besterfield-Sacre, and McGourty (2005) noted, “After ten years, these same drivers—rapidly changing technology, particularly information technology, corporate downsizing, out-sourcing, and globalization—that provided the impetus for the professional skills are, if anything, even more critical today” (p. 43). Being able to identify the skill gap—both technical and professional—allows educational institutions, industries, and their partners to find ways to close the skill gap for the existing and future workforce (Adepoju & Aigbavboa, 2020; Assaad et al., 2022). Today, instead of preparing students to be globally competitive, the pressure is on universities to prepare engineers to work in industry within the United States, which no longer relies on piecewise foreign manufacturing. The need for professional skills, as previously argued by Shuman, Besterfield-Sacre, and McGourty (2005), is still just as relevant when addressing the shortage of U.S.-trained engineers as when preparing students for a globalized workforce.
Conceptual Framework
This study employed career readiness as the conceptual lens through which a microelectronics workforce needs assessment was conducted to explore technical and professional skills that students need to be career ready for internships and professional positions in microelectronics engineering. A conceptual framework is useful for describing the findings of this study by grounding them in relevant concepts or knowledge (Magana, 2022). Professional skills defined in this study have two components related to engineering student outcomes: (1) process and awareness skills and (2) behavioral characteristics. These two concepts were put into conversation to identify what it means to be ready to succeed in an engineering career. The following section details how these concepts relate to career readiness in the current study.
Process and awareness skills come from engineering professional skills and are fundamental to being a career-ready professional. Shuman and colleagues (2005) placed emphasis on professional skills in engineering education to “add sufficient value to U.S. engineering graduates so that price does not become the primary determinant of who is hired in the global marketplace” (p. 43). ABET subsequently reframed professional skills into a group of process and awareness skills. Process skills refer to those necessary to function as a professional on a daily basis. Awareness skills require an understanding of broader contexts in which individuals function as professionals. Table 1 provides information about how Shuman, Besterfield-Sacre, and McGourty (2005) delineated the process and awareness skills yet integrated with updated ABET student outcomes (ABET, 2021). However, the process and awareness skills alone do not cover the scope of what is required to succeed as a microelectronics engineer today.
ABET Professional Skills Reframed as Process and Awareness Skills (ABET, 2021; Shuman, Besterfield-Sacre, & McGourty, 2005)
| Process Skills | Awareness Skills |
|---|---|
| Communicate effectively with a range of audiences | Consider the impact of engineering solutions in global and societal contexts |
| Function effectively on a team | Acquire and apply new knowledge as needed, using appropriate learning strategies |
| Recognize ethical and professional responsibilities |
The behavioral characteristics of successful engineers must also be considered, as this project aims to identify qualities for career readiness. Lucas and Hanson (2014, 2016) defined behavioral characteristics by two categories: engineering habits of mind and dispositions for lifelong learning (see Table 2). The engineering habits of mind are divided into six elements, including systems thinking, problem-finding, visualizing, improving, creative problem-solving, and adapting (Lucas & Hanson, 2016). These elements are utilized in engineering education efforts as early as kindergarten in order to ensure that theory-based science, technology, engineering, and mathematics curriculum is coupled with behavioral characteristics needed to learn how to be an engineer (English, 2021). The dispositions for lifelong learning include the following seven elements: curiosity, open-mindedness, resilience, resourcefulness, collaboration, reflection, and ethical consideration (Lucas & Hanson, 2014). The concepts of engineering habits of mind and the dispositions for lifelong learning are used together to provide a framework for looking at the behavioral aspects of career readiness. In the following section, the elements of the conceptual framework are detailed in relationship to the methodology.
Behavioral Characteristics Exhibited by Successful Engineers
| Engineering Habits of Mind | Dispositions for Lifelong Learning |
|---|---|
| Systems thinking | Curiosity |
| Problem-finding | Open-mindedness |
| Visualizing | Resourcefulness |
| Improving | Resilience |
| Creative problem-solving | Reflection |
| Adapting | Collaboration |
| Ethical consideration |
To gain an understanding surrounding the development of engineers who work in microelectronics, the authors asked the following:
Research question: What professional and technical skills do microelectronics engineering professionals who hire interns and entry-level engineers consider essential for success in these roles?
Methods
This study is part of a larger initiative to support the national effort to develop a microelectronics engineering workforce in the United States. To better understand employer expectations for students entering internships and entry-level professional positions, an exploratory workforce needs assessment was conducted using qualitative interviews with workforce professionals from partner organizations. This approach allowed participants to provide thick, rich descriptions (Lindlof & Taylor, 2002) of the technical and professional skills required for success in microelectronics internships and entry-level roles. The study focused specifically on the perspectives of those responsible for hiring recent graduates from engineering programs.
Participants
Following institutional review board approval, participants were recruited from a microelectronics engineering workforce development project. The pool of participants was based on predetermined partners working with a large-scale microelectronic engineering workforce development project. Eligible participants were individuals involved in hiring interns and/or new graduates within the microelectronics engineering field. These participants represented a diverse set of PPA partners, including industry, private and government contractors, and government agencies. Participation was voluntary and unrelated to the partners’ project affiliation, and verbal consent was received from participants prior to their interview.
Six participants meeting the study criteria were individually interviewed, a sample size supported by existing literature as sufficient for qualitative inquiry (Hennink & Kaiser, 2022; Malterud, Siersma, & Guassora, 2016). Hennink and Kaiser (2022) suggest that five to 24 interviews typically provide sufficient data in qualitative studies, while Malterud, Siersma, and Guassora (2016) emphasize that when participants hold highly relevant knowledge, fewer interviews are needed to achieve meaningful insights. All participants had relevant hiring experience in the DIB and offered deep expertise and insight into the technical and professional skills needed across hardware, software, testing, and systems management. Pseudonyms were assigned to protect participant identities (see Table 3).
Study Participant Demographics
| Participant | Pseudonym | Job Sector |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dale | Government agency |
| 2 | Melissa | Government agency |
| 3 | Marcel | Government contractor |
| 4 | David | Government research laboratory |
| 5 | John | Private industry - aerospace |
| 6 | Dominic | Private industry – semiconductors |
Data Collection
Semistructured interviews were used to collect data, enabling participants to openly discuss professional and technical skill requirements, the work environment, and expectations for interns and new hires. The one-on-one interviews, consisting of 12 open-ended questions, were conducted over four months via in-person, telephone, and virtual methods. All interviews lasted approximately one to two hours and were audio-recorded, transcribed using Zoom, and reviewed by the research team for accuracy. In total, the interview transcripts yielded 58 pages of typed, single-spaced text for analysis.
Data Analysis Procedures
Data analysis followed a phased, thematic analysis approach informed by Braun and Clarke’s (2006) framework and Creswell’s (2014) qualitative methods. Initially, two researchers independently reviewed early transcripts, taking high-level notes to assess the need for interview protocol adjustments. Minor revisions were made before the remaining interviews were conducted. A second, in-depth review was conducted by the full research team using established frameworks (ABET, 2021; Lucas & Hanson, 2016). Transcripts were independently coded by each researcher, then collaboratively reviewed to reach consensus on code definitions and structure. The team manually organized codes into higher-level themes using a shared spreadsheet, supported by a word frequency query conducted in NVivo software, to verify that saturation was reached and all significant codes were captured.
The final analysis produced seven key themes: (1) application of knowledge, (2) communication, (3) leadership, (4) lifelong learning, (5) resilience, (6) systems thinking, and (7) teamwork. These themes align with established frameworks from ABET (2021), National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) career readiness definitions (NACE, 2022), Lucas and Hanson (2016), and Woodcock and colleagues (2021) to collectively inform a workforce development framework that identifies essential career-readiness skills for microelectronics engineering professionals. The findings and examples illustrating these themes are detailed in the subsequent sections.
Findings
This study examined the professional and technical skills needed for entry-level microelectronics positions as identified by professionals in the field. Seven key professional skill themes emerged as critical for success: application of knowledge, communication, leadership, lifelong learning, resilience, systems thinking, and teamwork. Each theme is supported by participants’ descriptions of technical and professional expectations. In the following sections, quotations are the actual words of participants. Some sentences have been edited out, and extraneous words have been removed for clarity and flow. See Appendix for the list of themes with their definition and full participant exemplar quotations.
Application of Knowledge
Application of knowledge is the ability to connect previous skills and knowledge from necessary learning contexts to real-world situations (Woodcock, Callewaert, & Millunchick, 2021). This was a frequent theme as participants discussed the experiences they looked for in entry-level professionals or their willingness to learn in applied settings. The following examples broadly fell into the category of having some type of applied experience (e.g., internship, research experience, on-the-job training). On-the-job experiences allow professionals to apply knowledge in the context in which they work. Melissa, a participant from a government agency, discussed how she looks for new hires who have a willingness to learn from others. She shared, “We need folks who are willing to learn and who are going to come in and have the right attitude there’s so much on the actual program side that they have to learn and understand.” David, a study participant from a government research laboratory, discussed the advantages of applying knowledge gained from coursework to workplace structures, processes, and technologies. David said:
…getting a chance to get into a laboratory at least once, ideally twice during their undergrad, and even if they’re in grad school…just to really kind of home in on what specific types of work they want to do.
Melissa also captured the difficulty of hiring students without applied learning experiences. She stated: “When we just hire folks who haven’t had an internship…they’re often lacking that big picture piece.” Participants acknowledged that, while internships in their direct areas were limited, students who have laboratory or other applied learning experiences beyond the highly theoretical elements of the classroom are preferred. This notion was supported further by the idea that professional skills are often learned and improved via internship experience outside of the classroom.
Furthermore, participants connected students’ development of professional skills, such as communication, to the application of technical knowledge. Specifically, one cannot simply hold technical knowledge to be a successful engineer. One must also utilize professional skills to distill technical knowledge into meaningful contexts. For example, Melissa stated:
We have to be able to take very complex [technical] problems, whether it’s microelectronics or packaging, and we have to be able to communicate to our leadership why it matters…those are really, really key skills to have, and they’re not always easy skills to get.
For Melissa, professional skills and technical skills are in relationship with one another—the two cannot be separated, and an engineer’s success relies on both sets of skills working together in a complimentary way.
Communication
Communication requires using both verbal and nonverbal messages to generate meaning and exchange information, ideas, and perspectives across various contexts and audiences (ABET, 2021; NACE, 2022). This theme best demonstrates the dependent relationship between professional and technical skills. All participants underscored the need for strong communication skills, especially when explaining technical information to those with different expertise. Clear communication is essential for working across disciplines and with leadership. John, employed in private industry within the field of aerospace, stated the following when he discussed his role as a software engineer: “…the ability to speak, to distill technical information…to somebody with a different technical background, is really important.” Multiple participants mentioned the value of being able to communicate the “big picture” to different audiences and distilling information across various levels of management or in parallel with other team members. As Melissa discussed (see Application of Knowledge), communication is an essential skill. She further stated, “Good communication skills are super, super important.” Melissa noted that communication skills can be developed in a variety of ways, including when students network at professional conferences, stating, “Being able to talk in a big group, and present, and answer questions on the spot. Those are really, really key skills…” Participants made it clear that communication is a professional skill intertwined with technical skills because communication is the medium through which the technical is best transferred. In addition, participants made it clear that communication is a necessary skill for a career-ready engineer in microelectronics engineering.
Leadership
Leadership involves supporting an inclusive and collaborative environment that encourages team members to acquire tasks that utilize their strengths in order to work toward a shared goal (ABET, 2021; NACE, 2022). Leadership was viewed as a developmental skill that starts with team engagement and grows into project leadership. Participants looked for signs of leadership potential in new hires, such as group involvement or leading student organizations. Melissa explained, “…you can’t just go into your office and work for three months and then emerge with some result. You have to engage with others on a daily basis…we’re looking for future leaders in science and engineering.” Similarly, David discussed leadership as a professional skill that allows an individual to be sufficiently knowledgeable about the technology so that they may lead a project from a level of understanding, stating, “…we are looking for someone to very quickly develop…leading research and development or testing capability.” Although new professionals may still require honing of their leadership skills, they are expected to develop that skill very quickly and be able to lead across multiple areas.
Lifelong Learning
Lifelong learning is continuously identifying and addressing personal educational needs by acquiring necessary knowledge or training in order to maintain competence and consistently contribute to the field (ABET, 2021). Participants stressed that continuous learning is essential because of the rapid evolution of the microelectronics engineering field. Marcel noted:
There is no way that you are going to be exposed to everything that you will be exposed to in the workplace in academia. You have to have an ability to learn something on your own…we are continuously learning. There has to be an ability to learn and the ability to continuously keep up.
Additionally, the microelectronics field is unique because there are some technologies that require special government clearance for access. Because of this constraint, continuous learning is critical to the success of the job. As Dale discussed, “Since what we do is a lot of things are either sensitive or they don’t exist in the open…we are looking for people [with] willingness to learn.” Participants stressed that new hires must be adaptable, self-directed learners. Participants also discussed resilience as it relates to perseverance.
Resilience
Resilience is persevering through adversity and learning from failure to maintain one’s passion and commitment (Wilkins-Yel, Simpson, & Sparks, 2019; Woodcock, Callewaert, & Millunchick, 2021). Through the process of rebounding after experiencing a challenge, an individual comes to understand that persisting is an opportunity to grow and further develop knowledge. Melissa emphasized her expectations for how a new hire will conduct themselves when they experience a challenge, stating, “We need students who are willing to go try a project, [even] if they don’t understand it… Don’t come back and say, ‘I didn’t do it [be]cause I didn’t get it.’ At least try it.” Participants shared that the complexity of and fluid changes within microelectronics engineering serve to foster resilience as people grow and develop in their professional roles within the field.
Systems Thinking
Systems thinking involves synthesizing information and recognizing patterns to ultimately see the interconnectedness between systems and parts (Lucas & Hanson, 2016; Woodcock, Callewaert, & Millunchick, 2021). Participants expected new hires to understand how their work fits into the larger system. Systems thinking was especially important for graduate students who should connect their expertise to broader project and policy goals. As Dale explained, “…be able to understand the bigger picture…[as a] authoritative expert with their area but also…Like be able to understand how it relates to the whole overall big picture.”
Importantly, communication directly correlates with the ability to engage in systems thinking, because of the frequent need for engineers to communicate the “so what” component of their work (Leydens, 2012). This requires a big picture view and the ability to know when to cover breadth and depth of the needed information. Systems thinking is often thought of as a technical skill. However, the need to apply systems thinking to the higher, nontechnical goals and people within the project necessitates looking at systems thinking through a professional skills lens.
Teamwork
Teamwork is building and maintaining a collaborative environment by appreciating diverse viewpoints, creating an inclusive environment, and sharing responsibilities in order to effectively meet objectives (ABET, 2021; NACE, 2022). Teamwork was described as essential for success in microelectronics, wherein complex problems require collaborative solutions across organizations and specialties. Melissa summarized, stating, “It’s very much a team environment and it’s very collaborative…multiple times a day you have to come together with other team members to talk about what’s happening.” This theme further illustrates how the career-ready engineer comes together with others, utilizing a professional skill (i.e., teamwork) to engage in technical microelectronics engineering skills.
Discussion
This study aimed to understand current microelectronics workforce needs to improve programming and curriculum for engineering students and address the growing concern for U.S. workforce development by asking the research question, “What professional and technical skills do microelectronics engineering professionals who hire interns and entry-level engineers consider essential for success in these roles?”
Performing an exploratory qualitative workforce needs assessment allowed the research team to identify desired technical and professional skills and competencies needed to be a career-ready microelectronics engineer. This information was used to improve student career readiness in an academic microelectronics engineering workforce development program and, as a result, the workforce of tomorrow. The rich understanding that comes from interviewing experts in a given industry contextualized and identified gaps within the given conceptual frameworks.
While there is a history of separating technical and professional skills in engineering education and prioritizing technical skill development, this study found that professional skills are inextricably intertwined and cannot be separated from technical skill development in order for students to be developed into workforce-ready microelectronics engineers. This study captured the essential need for professional skills within engineering organizations, focusing primarily on the expected skill set of interns and entry-level engineers within one field: the field of microelectronics.
The findings highlighted seven skills that are critical to a new hire’s technical knowledge, including application of knowledge, communication, leadership, lifelong learning, resilience, systems thinking, and teamwork. The commonality across all interviewed participants was a strong connection between technical and practical skills. Participants were guided to discuss the necessary technical skills required for developing students to be career-ready for microelectronics engineering positions postgraduation. During those discussions, participants continuously returned to professional skills as the mechanism by which engineers are able to effectively utilize technical skills. Technical skills were not discussed by participants without noting the combined professional skills.
The application of knowledge theme further emphasizes the need to shift engineering education to include refining students as holistic emerging professionals (Shuman, Besterfield-Sacre, & McGourty, 2005, p. 42). The ability to apply classroom learning to real-world experiences is yet lacking in current formal curriculum (Chen, Kolmos, & Du, 2021), and much of that experience includes utilizing professional skills such as communication and critical thinking. Opportunities for applied learning are critical because they allow students to situate their learning and understanding within real-world cases. While internship experience may reduce this gap (Woodcock, Callewaert, & Millunchick, 2021), students may feel “overburdened” in their internships because of being inadequately prepared with job-specific expertise (Goller et al., 2020). Thus, higher-education institutions cannot rely on internship experience alone to make students career ready. Rather, career readiness that utilizes the application of knowledge must begin in the classroom, where technical and professional skills can be fused for the first time.
Communication and teamwork are salient career-ready markers noted by participants that relate to previously identified process skills (ABET, 2021; Shuman, Besterfield-Sacre, & McGourty, 2005). Every participant noted that communication is vital to success. John positioned communication as a central bridge between technical and professional skills—communication skills make it possible to successfully distill technical skills into understandable information. Melissa cited academic conferences as a method of honing communication and teamwork skills. Conferences are a place where students might first be introduced to communicating technical information in a professional way. Successful career-ready preparation might involve involving students in opportunities such as conferences or similar professional presentations. Communication and teamwork skills are required for career readiness and can be honed through such an opportunity.
Notably, it is not the previously mentioned identified skills alone that make a career-ready graduate. Participants situate these professional skills alongside the desire for lifelong learning, which allowed us to further emphasize that knowledge does not stagnate, similar to awareness skills (ABET, 2021; Shuman, Besterfield-Sacre, & McGourty, 2005) and a disposition to pursue lifelong learning (Lucas & Hanson, 2014). Lifelong learning was marked by all participants as a skill that both undergraduates and graduates need. Given the rapidly evolving landscape of technology, the field of microelectronics is one of constant learning, and, as Dale and Marcel shared, adaptability is required. The knowledge students obtain in school is limited by its current moment in time and the bounds of the institution itself. Thus, a career-ready employee will be open to continuous learning to ensure long-term success.
Scholarly Significance and Practical Implications
This study contributes to scholarship using a workforce development framework that expands previous knowledge by situating it within a current, microelectronics engineering context. Not only does this study combine portions of previous frameworks (Lucas & Hanson, 2014; Shuman, Besterfield-Sacre, & McGourty, 2005), but also it makes the previous findings relevant to the present day. Arguably, the contemporary engineering landscape is different today than it was in 2005 and 2014, but this study brings those frameworks in conversation with the present day by merging portions of them into an updated framework with these seven necessary skills.
The findings make it evident that a career-ready graduate heading into the microelectronics workforce requires these skills for success. Previous workforce development and workforce needs assessment work has been conducted in the broad engineering context (Assaad et al., 2022; Chang, Lutz, & Brown, 2020; Leandro Cruz & Saunders-Smits, 2022). Professional skills are known to make a competent engineer (Fleming et al., 2024; McMasters, 2006; Shuman, Besterfield-Sacre, & McGourty, 2005). The World Economic Forum (2020) has cited professional skills similar to the ones identified in this study (e.g., lifelong learning, interpersonal skills, creativity) as critical for quality education in today’s economic climate. Ultimately, it is clear that professional skills are still needed. However, this study makes it evident that a career-ready graduate heading into the DIB and microelectronics workforce requires these skills.
When an employer cannot meet their needs because current and prospective employees do not have the desired qualifications or experiences, skill gaps occur (Gelderblom et al., 2012). Skill gaps, whether they be professional or technical, are the result of an underprepared workforce facing rapidly advancing technologies. Higher education, government institutions, and industries should collaborate to identify skill gaps in specific workforces and improve training and education efforts to circumvent oncoming economic impacts of skill gaps due to the Fourth Industrial Revolution (Adepoju & Aigbavboa, 2020; Antonucci & d’Ovidio, 2012; Maisiri, Darwish, & van Dyk, 2019).
The findings in this study support the notion that creating a career-ready engineering graduate requires a shift in education that includes sociotechnical practice. It is clear that communication plays a role in all seven themes. Communication is positioned by participants as a central bridge between technical and professional skills. Participants’ responses indicate that technical and professional skills are inextricably woven together and cannot be separated within the microelectronics profession. As Leydens (2012) identifies, engineering communication is sociotechnical in nature and cannot be purely technical on its own. Many participants’ discussions of technical and professional skills were in tandem with one another, which identifies the need to have both the professional and the technical—or the sociotechnical—in order to be a career-ready engineer in microelectronics. An effective, successful engineering graduate would require a sociotechnical perspective to learning.
Practically, because professional and technical skills are intertwined and cannot be separated, PPA institutions must work together to develop successful engineers. In the academic context, this would include encouraging and supporting participation in internships and other sources of exposure for professional skills, including the opportunity to present research at conferences and engage in various forms of networking with professionals. Practice with these types of activities allows students to connect professional skills to core technical curriculum in applied and practical ways. For private institutions, this means continuing to participate in workforce development programs to identify skills that students need and make clear the explicit (rather than implicit) expectations of professionalism for internship/co-op students. Furthermore, private institutions should offer training and resources to develop employees if those expectations are not met. Lastly, public or government partners should serve as liaison and motivator for academia and industry institutions to keep in communication about expectations and the outcomes of workforce development efforts.
Limitations and Future Directions
This study was not without limitations. The pool of participants for this study was based on predetermined partners working with a large-scale workforce development project. While this led to a fruitful opportunity to have a glimpse of leaders’ perspectives in the microelectronics industry, which is not common, it led to a small sample size. Therefore, it is important to not overgeneralize the findings.
This project includes the unique tie of a PPA partnership. It is possible that strengthening the PPA relationship may achieve the goal of developing workforce-ready graduates. Despite decades of research, this study provides evidence that these critical professional skills are still lacking in recent graduates. Further research, which this ongoing large-scale project aims to achieve, needs to identify the gaps between the PPA partnership and work to combat the barriers contributing to an unprepared workforce. This project aims to improve higher education curriculum through applying the information gathered here and refining workforce development and curricula-building efforts.
The missing piece in the given project was the perspective of faculty and students. In order to capture the whole picture, it is necessary to identify what skills faculty and students perceive to define technical and professional skills and their relation to succeeding as an engineering professional. This would enable us to see whether there is an alignment in expectation of employers and universities when it comes to focusing on professional skills. This can be understood by looking at how and where these skills are discussed within the student curriculum. Recent work has aimed to achieve this goal (Beagon & Bowe, 2023). This work should be continued and linked to the PPA partnership to allow for targeted efforts within the workforce development spectrum as a whole—from public to academic.
In addition, the intersection between technical and professional skills is not concrete and would only benefit from further study. Recent graduates, after having a year or two in their workplaces, should be probed to examine how their higher education experiences may have better prepared them for their careers. This would include examining whether they had internship experience, whether their career/degree trajectory aligned, and/or how they perceive their academic success to have influence on their workplace success.
Conclusion
Most notably, this work includes voices that are not always reachable in academic workforce development programs. This work aims to bridge the gap between technical and professional skills in the workforce by seeking input from all levels of career development. The PPA partnership is a unique and new perspective that allows for a harmony of workforce development efforts and is useful to both academics and industry professionals.
In summary, being an engineer has traditionally been looked at through the lens of a person’s technical skills and theoretical understanding. However, the professional ability of today’s engineer is viewed through the lens of their professional skills and technical skills. In this study, this evolving perspective was realized through conversations with employers as part of a microelectronics engineering workforce development project. These employers emphasized the importance of having a strong technical understanding in an area of focus but also discussed at length the importance of professional skills in the delivery and application of technical knowledge.
Seven professional skills were pulled from the study as areas of focus: applied experiences, communication, leadership, lifelong learning, resilience, systems thinking, and teamwork. These skills corroborated previous research discussing attributes of an engineer beyond theoretical understanding, showing that these skills are important for microelectronics engineers and the doing of engineering as a profession. As the needs for workforce development programs increase, intertwined in the technical and theoretical understanding is the need for robust development of professional skills. It is the comprehension and engaging of these skills that make up today’s engineering professional.
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Appendix Participant Exemplar Quotations Organized by Theme with Definition
| Theme and Definition | Participant Exemplar Quotation |
|---|---|
| Application of Knowledge The ability to connect previous skills and knowledge from necessary learning contexts to real-world situations (Woodcock et al., 2021). |
“We need folks who are willing to learn and who are going to come in and have the right attitude, and what I mean by that is, they don’t come in assuming, ‘Well, I got my degree and I know it all. And why aren’t you putting me on the best project?’ It’s, you got your degree and it’s a fantastic base. But there’s so much on the actual program side that they have to learn and understand. And so, just being willing to come in and learn and being open minded and know that they’re going to get to learn from some phenomenal experts who’ve done this for 40 years and know more than they do. …When we just hire folks who haven’t had an internship with us yet, or in general and just did a research project or just built one device, they’re often lacking that big picture piece. …We have to be able to take very complex [technical] problems, whether it’s microelectronics or packaging, and we have to be able to communicate to our leadership why it matters. Our leadership doesn’t always care what the engineering is or what the physics is. They care [about] what does it mean to my system? Is my system going to work or not work? Is it going to cost me a lot of money to fix it? And so, having good communication skills to be able to translate a hard problem into the ‘so what.’ Being able to talk in a big group and present and answer questions on the spot…those are really, really key skills to have, and they’re not always easy skills to get. But that would be a big focus.” –Melissa, Government Agency “I mean, just internship experience, you know, getting a chance to get into a laboratory at least once, ideally twice during their undergrad, and even if they’re in grad school, maybe once if they’re in grad school, just to really kind of home in on what specific types of work they want to do.” –David, Government Research Laboratory |
| Communication Using both verbal and nonverbal messages to generate meaning and exchange information, ideas, and perspectives across various contexts and audiences (ABET, 2021; NACE, 2022). |
“Good communication skills are super, super important. …Being able to talk in a big group, and present, and answer questions on the spot. Those are really, really key skills to have. And they’re not always easy skills to get, but that would be a big focus. If we can get students to go to more conferences and start talking to folks when they’re undergraduates or graduates at conferences, that’s a big help.” –Melissa, Government Agency “…if you are capable of being a good communicator, you are head and shoulders above the competition. So, the ability to speak, to distill technical information–well, I wouldn’t say necessarily to a non-technical person, but to somebody with a different technical background, is really important. So, being able to talk to a mechanical engineer about how your software works and about why you designed it that way, and about why their request to do something isn’t a good idea, even though it seems like a good idea to them. …Having that communication skill set is really important.” –John, Private Industry, Aerospace Software Engineer |
| Leadership Supporting an inclusive and collaborative environment that encourages team members to acquire tasks that utilize their strengths in order to work toward a shared goal (ABET, 2021; NACE, 2022). |
“If we see something in [a new-hire’s] background where you have experience interacting in a group setting of any type… It could be, you’re a leader in a student organization. …Anything where it’s obvious that you don’t shy away from engaging with people. Because in what we do, you can’t just go into your office and work for three months and then emerge with some result. You have to engage with others on a daily basis because we work together in small teams. The other thing is ultimately, the goal of any person that works at [the company] is potentially [going to] become a leader of a project. So, we’re looking for, you know, future leaders in science and engineering.” –Melissa, Government Agency “For graduate level interns, we’re really looking for some specialized experience in pulsed power plasma physics, radiation transport, radiation measurement. [Be]cause for graduate student interns, we are looking for someone to very quickly develop into a, you know, where you’re leading research and development or testing capability.” –David, Government Research Laboratory |
| Lifelong Learning Continuously identifying and addressing personal educational needs by acquiring necessary knowledge or training in order to maintain competence and consistently contribute to the field (ABET, 2021). |
“There is no way that you are going to be exposed to everything that you will be exposed to in the workplace, in academia. And even if you do an internship, that’s just one thing. So, you have to have an ability to learn something on your own. So, you know if you took a lot of micro-, let’s say you took a lot of circuitry, and then you get to this job and then all of a sudden, the packaging becomes important. You have to be able to pick up papers relating to packaging and be able to integrate that information and apply it. …We are continuously learning. So, people who think they can go to school get a degree and then go work and coast on their knowledge they learned from school, are sadly mistaken. You know this is a field that’s constantly changing, right? …This is a, you know, just think of microelectronics 20 years ago and microelectronics now. So, there has to be an ability to learn and the ability to continuously keep up.” –Marcel, Private Industry “…their willingness to learn[…]you cannot just go or look up as you know, and try to find out - I mean, yeah, sure, you can find out like what we do, kinda. But since what we do is a lot of things are either sensitive or they don’t exist in the open, you know, open media or environment per se. So we are looking for people that, who can go get the job done, at the same time willingness to learn, you know, because like, I mean, I thought I did quite a bit before I joined, especially on the commercial sector and then once I got cleared, I mean it was just eye-opening regarding the different areas that we touch, and what I had to learn, so. So, willingness to learn, that will be one of the big things that we will look forward to from the candidates.” –Dale, Government Sector |
| Resilience Persevering through adversity and learning from failure to maintain one’s passion and commitment (Wilkins-Yel et al., 2019; Woodcock et al., 2021). |
“We need students who come in, who are willing to go try a project that they’re given and it’s okay if they don’t understand it or they don’t get it right. But don’t not try it, don’t come back and say, well I didn’t do it [be]cause I didn’t get it. Well, at least try it. And then we’ll walk you through it. Most people are happy to sit there and help you understand it as long as you’ve shown some initiative or you went and looked up some answers and tried to get it. It’s the ones who we give them a problem and then they come back three weeks later and say, well, I haven’t started [be]cause it didn’t make sense. That’s doesn’t work, it’s a very fast paced environment and you gotta be ready to just try it.” – Melissa, Government Agency “You know, computer simulation tools also take time to learn. …currently, there’s not really best practices for any of it, so it’s all something you learn on the job. That’s the number one skill that people learn, like how to define their system well. Sort of secondary, would be I think it’s totally fair to say that you don’t know a lot about in specific family of microelectronic devices coming into work. I think that’s–I mean obviously for some, if you’re going to come in as an RF [radio frequency] engineer, if you’re coming as a software engineer and you’re just working with devices …it’s probably okay to just have a general understanding of how a computer interfaces with devices, and then learn the details of the devices you’re working with you know, on the job. [Be]cause, of course, there’s too many devices to like, have a class where you learn how every single one of them works, so yeah.” –John, Private Industry, Aerospace Software Engineer |
| Systems Thinking Synthesizing information and recognizing patterns to ultimately see the interconnectedness between systems and parts (Lucas & Hanson, 2016; Woodcock, 2021). |
“So, what we look for when we’re bringing in brand-new entry-level folks [is] for people who have done research projects, who have really good critical thinking skills, which sounds very, you know, cliche, but it’s true. Have they done research? Can they dig down into a problem? Do they have a good understanding that there is a big picture design and what they do is just, you know, is a piece of it, but it impacts the big picture design?” –Melissa, Government Agency “At the same time a person that, who can, not just within that expertise areas, but also correlate to the other technologies within microelectronics, and be able to extend their expertise, technical expertise, per say…also be able to manage the program, be able to understand the bigger picture …they definitely got to be authoritative expert with their area but also same time be able to advise the additional strategy at the policy level. As well as any needed subject matter expertise from the other organizations, or other program office they will be able to work and also network with them to solve the problem. And also, be able to guide basely is a road map within in a technical area, as well as even so far out as a policy, making functions, they’ll have to cover it with their engineering background. …Like be able to understand, you know, how it relates to the whole overall big picture, too, that’s the other thing. Because some people get caught up with the like, you know, high performance, chips, this and that, and then they don’t see the whole picture, and next thing you know, businesses started for designing for the car and they ended up kinda just creating the computer. Yeah, it’s a supercomputer, but it’s doesn’t have the wheels or… Don’t miss the purpose of the, you know, vehicle, per se.” –Dale, Government Sector |
| Teamwork Building and maintaining a collaborative environment by appreciating diverse viewpoints, creating an inclusive environment, and sharing responsibilities in order to effectively meet objectives (ABET, 2021; NACE, 2022). |
“It’s very much a team environment and it’s very collaborative. While you may get a project. Where you can go off and kind of research it on your own or go through the data on your own, multiple times a day you have to come together with other team members to talk about what’s happening, what the impact is, what does that mean for the design, what does that mean for the program schedule. And as I mentioned before, we have a lot of experts that we pull in from all over the industry, from national labs [and] agencies and we all work together weekly, if not daily, to work through very complex physics problems. So, it is not a field. For us, it’s not a field where you just get to go off and hide in the closet. You really do have to be willing to work with others.” -Melissa, Government Agency “The ability to engage with people from varied backgrounds. Where in our in our case You know we’re a very flat organization, so we all have to come together and be able to do what we do, so being able to interact with people from varied backgrounds [and] have experience interacting in in a group setting of any type…[Be]cause in what we do, you, know you can’t just go into your office and work for three months and then emerge with some result. You have to engage with others on a daily basis [be]cause we work together in small teams.” –David, Government Research Laboratory “So, I think we’ve already mentioned this the interpersonal relationships are actually critical. We can’t have people that don’t get along with others. It’s a teamwork environment.” –Marcel, Private Industry |