EER Seminar Registration Winifred Opoku 3/17/26 3:00 pm-4:00 pm (EDT) | Presentation Room 1180, Duderstadt Center & Zoom
Portrayals of Engineering and Technical Roles in an Engineering Workforce Development Program: An Embedded Qualitative Case Study

Abstract:
U.S. competitiveness in advanced manufacturing depends not only on engineers, but on an interdependent engineering and technical workforce that includes engineering technologists and technicians. Yet, how federally funded engineering workforce development (EWD) programs define, differentiate, and communicate the value of engineering and technical roles remains underexamined. Positioned within engineering education research that examines pathways, professional formation, and the education–workforce interface, this study investigates how a national, federally supported EWD initiative constructs and portrays engineering and technical occupational roles through its public-facing program materials and leader narratives. Drawing on qualitative document analysis and semi-structured interviews within an embedded qualitative case study of a national EWD initiative, the study applies a sociocultural value-systems lens to examine how patterned beliefs about knowledge, skill, and expertise are enacted at the programmatic and organizational level. Findings reveal consistent distinctions in how roles are framed across dimensions of work, worker, and occupation, with implications for engineering pathways, learner identity formation, and program alignment across educational and workforce contexts. By foregrounding the often-overlooked roles of technologists and technicians, this work contributes new empirical insight to engineering education scholarship and extends EER conversations beyond degree-centric models to include federally supported workforce pathways relevant to contemporary manufacturing practice.
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