Industry 2000
Camino al éxito profesional

Importance of Industry 2000
Michael K. Masten

All of us recognize career training is a very important subject. Each of us must travel our own career path, and this journey will no doubt have many hills, valleys, detours, and turns. All of us have received advice somewhere along the way from our parents or grandparents to tell us "Any road will get you somewhere, but, without a plan you are probably going to be disappointed in the final destination!".

Let’s step back to the early founders of IEEE. They clearly recognized the importance of engineering technology, and they recognized the impact that it would have on mankind. Even though they didn’t have a crystal ball to foresee all the future developments, they could see the need for an organization to serve as an advocate of technology and to help facilitate its dissemination. That’s what IEEE is all about!

However IEEE’s founders also recognized the importance of helping engineers who were going to be the leaders to advance this technology. So, from the very beginning, IEEE emphasized professional assitance of engineers... and "career development" has been an important part of that assistance. The early founders of IEEE didn’t know the details of today’s global marketplace, nor the information age, but they knew advancements were coming, so they started looking at career development programs.

IEEE has a long history of looking at these kinds of issues, and Industry 2000 is just one example. About six years ago, the Educational Activities Board had a program that addressed three fundamental questions:

1. Can we look an engineering discipline and identify the critical skills and knowledge that’s necessary for someone to succeed in that particular field?

2. If we can identify critical skills, is it possible for an engineer to evaluate (or assess) his/her level for these skills?

3. If we know what the critical skills are, and if we can determine the gaps in our skills, what can we do about it?

This early IEEE program was already thinking about "prescriptions" for correcting skill and acknowledge gaps and helping engineering careers. I won’t go into the results of that program, except to say, that it’s part of the heritage of today’s Industry 2000 workshops!

Many people will tell you that Industry 2000 is one of the most important IEEE programs within the last few years. The objectives of the original Industry 2000 workshop were two-fold:

1. What’s the nature of the problem? Why is it that engineers can’t keep up with the technology that they’ve chosen as a career?

2. What can they do about it? How can IEEE help?

There were many recommendations and many results from the original Industry 2000; as you participate in a continuation of this series, I would like to issue you the same challenge I give the original Industry 2000 workshop three years ago. What I said at that time applies equally well today. "This business of technical vitality (or career planning) is vitally important. The good news is that IEEE recognizes that it’s important, and is willing to help. So my challenge to you is, don’t miss this opportunity because you can make a difference for yourself and for other engineers that will come after you. Listen to the Industry 2000 panel discussions, ask questions, and take the breakout sessions seriously!"

NoticIEEEro - Nº 23 - enero - marzo/97

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