Applying The Theory Of Planned Behavior: Recruiting Underrepresented Minorities To Engineering And Engineering Technology

There is mounting evidence that the United Sates will soon experience a shortage of qualified high-tech workers that will jeopardize the country’s economic future. It is imperative that we recruit more women and minorities into engineering to prevent the anticipated shortage. Clearly, past recruiting strategies have had only moderate success, so a more holistic approach must be taken to encourage women and underrepresented minorities to consider engineering or engineering technology as an attainable career goal. Outreach programs that focus only on the targeted groups may not be doing enough. The Theory of Planned Behavior describes three main factors that directly affect a person’s intentions to behave in a particular manner, such as enrolling in an engineering or engineering technology college program. Once a person intends to engage in an activity, s/he will typically proceed unless some mitigating circumstances arise. The three main factors affecting intentions are 1) the person’s attitude toward the behavior or activity, 2) the perceived subjective norms regarding the behavior, and 3) the difficulty of engaging in the activity. We have implemented an outreach project that is directed at all of the factors described above to help recruit non-traditional students into engineering and engineering technology careers. We are showing high school students that engineering can be fun, engaging, and possible for them through high school clubs and competitions, affecting their perceived behavioral control. We are informing them about careers, job outlooks, and college programs, thus affecting their attitudes. Moreover, we are meeting with parents, teachers, and counselors to educate the community on the opportunities available to these students, affecting the subjective norm for these students. We believe that all of these activities will encourage non-traditional engineering students to strongly consider a career in engineering. In this paper, we will provide details of the project, and measured results of our efforts to date.