In response to the realization that qualified applicants' choice of a career in chemistry is declining, we investigated the factors involved in chemistry and chemical education career choice. Building on the social cognitive theory (SCT) and the social cognitive career theory (SCCT), this research examines the personal, environmental, and…

Teachers with professional experience are important for improving students' learning experiences and understanding of practical industry skills in engineering. This study explores why upper-level professional engineers decided to enter teaching with their Master of Arts in Teaching or Master of Teaching programmes and how pre-service teachers with…

There is a recognised lack of women participating in engineering and STEM in most western countries. However, it is desirable for engineering cohorts to have a broad diversity. Hence, girls need to be encouraged into all engineering fields, but especially those traditionally dominated by men such as civil, mechanical and software engineering. A…

Background: Women are underrepresented in the field of engineering within academic and professional settings. Based upon premises outlined by social role theory and goal congruity theory, a key factor that contributes to this underrepresentation is a gendered societal belief that there is a disconnect between engineering (seen as more agentic, or…

There is a considerable lack of women in the engineering disciplines at tertiary level in New Zealand. This is an economic issue because innovation and creativity in engineering are supported by diversity which directly and indirectly supports the New Zealand economy. Improving diversity in engineering will also improve equity. Literature suggests…

This small-scale exploratory qualitative study examined the career decision-making process of six talented engineering university graduates in Hong Kong. The aim was to investigate major influential factors and barriers that impact their career aspirations and their persistence in remaining in that career. Semi-structured interviews were conducted…

Background: Given the disparities in gender representation, efforts are needed to make engineering education more inclusive and attractive to young people. It is important that those entering engineering education are making this decision with sufficient understanding of what it means to be an engineer. This study explored how lower secondary…

Demand for engineering-interested and proficient high school graduates continues to grow across the nation. However, there remains a severe gap in college participation and employment in engineering fields for students with learning disabilities (SWLDs). One potential way to encourage SWLDs to consider engineering as a profession and promote the…

Underrepresentation of females in the field of engineering is overwhelming and posing a serious concern to the human race, especially in the developing countries. This has grievous impacts on the socio-economic and environmental growth and development of the nation. The paper seeks to investigate: (i) female students' knowledge of the fields of…

It is well-known that engineering is a key profession for both economic and social development. This is as true for China as it is for other countries which are in the process of development. However, what are the economic incentives for young people to enter the profession today? Currently, there are many studies of the rate of return to…

In this paper, we describe our solution to predict student STEM career choices during the 2017 ASSISTments Datamining Competition. We built a machine learning system that automatically reformats the data set, generates new features and prunes redundant ones, and performs model and feature selection. We designed the system to automatically find a…

Medicine and engineering are two of the most sought after professions in India. However, despite the popularity of these two professions and structural issues in the tertiary education system, not much is known about the correlates of working as a doctor or an engineer. In this paper, we use unit-level data from a nationally representative sample…

This paper is positioned at the junction between the requirements of the manufacturing industry for a significantly increased number of professionally registered engineers in the UK employment pool and the excellent work which is ongoing in and around the education sector to encourage more young people to follow a career in this field. Higher…

Motives behind occupational choice of graduates in two tertiary training programs for Israeli ultraorthodox (Haredi) women, practical engineering (PE) and teaching (T), are explored. Five hundred and twelve participants (278 PEs and 234 Ts) answered a questionnaire referring to 13 potential work motives. The main findings are as follows: (a)…

Research on factors affecting the prestige of engineering and blue-collar occupations in Russia shows that, in addition to such things as intrinsic interest and expected income, young people's views are influenced by the kinds of people who typically go into various kinds of occupation.