Abstract:
|
The Metrology profession, like the majority of engineering related occupations in the U.S., is facing a recruitment dilemma of epic proportions. It is a disturbing fact that today's young folks are less apt to enter into an engineering discipline. As a result, prospective candidates to backfill positions vacated by retiring baby boomers are becoming increasingly scarce. The Metrology profession is especially impacted by this shortage as many young people are unacquainted with Metrology at a time in their lives when they are making career decisions. To address this issue NCSLI has teamed with ASQ's Measurement Quality Division (MQD) to develop job descriptions for calibration technicians, calibration engineers and Metrologists for inclusion into the U.S. Dept. of Labor's Standard Occupation Classification (SOC) system. The SOC is used by Federal statistical agencies to classify workers into occupational categories for the purpose of collecting, calculating, or disseminating data. Users of SOC data include government program managers, industrial and labor relations practitioners, students considering career training, job seekers, vocational training schools, and employers wishing to set salary scales or locate a new plant. SOC job descriptions for calibration / Metrology practitioners are inaccurate, inadequate or entirely missing. Update of the SOC occurs once every ten years and is the basis for occupations being added to the U.S. Dept. of Labor's Occupational Outlook Handbook (OOH). The OOH is a nationally recognized source of career information, designed to provide valuable assistance to individuals making decisions about their future work lives. The current edition of the OOH does not contain any calibration / Metrology related occupations descriptions. This paper will review the Metrology Job Description survey results and the job descriptions that were derived from the survey and submitted to the U.S. Dept. of Labor for inclusion into the SOC.
|