May/June 2017

PE Report
Engineering Technology? What’s That?

While professional engineers are often viewed as the unsung problem-solvers toiling outside of the limelight, there are other members of the engineering team who may have an even lower profile: technicians and technologists.

According to a National Academy of Engineering report, there is little awareness of engineering technology as a field of study or an employment option in the US.

Even employers of technicians and technologists aren’t always aware. The NAE committee that published the report, which included NSPE member Walter Buchanan, P.E., F.NSPE, conducted a study that found 30% of nearly 250 respondents had never heard of engineering technology education. In addition, one-third of respondents said they did not know the difference between work performed by engineers and work performed by engineering technologists. As the report explains: “Very abstractly, if engineers are viewed as being responsible for designing the nation’s technological systems, then engineering technicians and technologists are the ones who help build and keep those systems running.” NSPE has a more than 60-year history of working with technicians and technologists. In 1956, as the nation came to rely more heavily on machines and automation, President Dwight Eisenhower formed a committee of leaders in science, business, education, government, and labor to address the growing need for skilled workers who could support the work of engineers.

NSPE was involved in the committee’s work and was an early proponent of technicians as part of the engineering team. In 1961, NSPE’s support of technicians led to the creation of the Institute for the Certification of Engineering Technicians, which became the National Institute for Certification in Engineering Technologies 20 years later.

Today, NICET is a division of NSPE. NICET certifies 200–300 new engineering technologists and technicians each month, and since its founding, the institute has issued more than 144,000 certifications. The NAE reports that in 2014 US educational institutions awarded nearly 94,000 four-year engineering degrees, nearly 18,000 four-year ET degrees, and more than 34,000 two-year ET degrees. As of 2013, the estimated number of people with fouryear ET degrees was 480,000. In contrast, the estimated number of people with fouryear engineering degrees was a little over 5 million. There are no data on the number of those with two-year degrees in either ET or engineering.

Some engineering technology graduates become licensed professional engineers. Thirty states allow those with an ET degree from an ABET-accredited program to take the FE and PE exams, according to the report. In the 2010 administration of the FE exam, 2,600 of 45,600 candidates (5.7%) had a four-year degree in ET. Of the 26,600 candidates who took the PE exam that year, 900 (3.4%) had a four-year ET degree. In examining the ET workforce, the committee found steadily increasing employment for technicians and technologists from 1971–2015 but flat earnings. Over the past 40 years, real earned income for technicians and technologists has consistently averaged about $50,000 (in 2015 dollars).

Engineers, on the other hand, saw real annual earnings grow from slightly more than $70,000 in the early 1980s to about $86,000 in 2015.

There was no clear evidence of a shortage or surplus of engineering technicians or technologists, but the committee said there could be market imbalances in certain geographic areas.

Among its recommendations, the committee said the National Science Foundation should consider funding research on factors affecting matriculation, retention, and graduation in ET.

In addition, the committee says research is needed to better understand the reasons for the apparent loose coupling of degree attainment and employment in ET. People with ET degrees work in a broad range of occupations, and those employed as engineering technologists have a diverse degree background. For example, 12% of engineering technologists have a four-year degree in ET, while 39% of them have engineering degrees, according to the National Survey of College Graduates.