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State's pool of technical talent is shrinking

BY ENRIQUE (RICK) AINSWORTH

Despite California’s financial turmoil, the state continues to lead the nation in economic growth and innovation, largely through the human capital that drives its technological prowess. Recently, the California Council on Science and Technology reported that California has 18% of the national science and engineering (S&E) workforce, but produces only 9% of the technical graduates the state needs to retain its competitive edge. This is a national concern because of a growing imbalance between the nation’s need for engineers and technologists on the one hand and its production of them on the other.

Human capital, particularly high-end technical talent, is critical to maintaining the nexus between manufacturing, research and development, innovation and economic growth. The United States is slipping in this area. The country imported 165,000 foreign scientists and engineers at the height of the 1990s technology boom. But today global technology companies are beating a path to India, where there is plenty of low-cost engineering and technical talent. Last October, Forbes magazine reported that in 2003 India produced more than 260,000 engineers, a number likely to double by 2010. China is on a similar fast track.

The council report determined that California’s output of engineering graduates fell by 13% over the past decade. A key reason cited for this decline is the low participation of students of color in S&E preparatory subjects and their underutilization in these disciplines. Of the state’s 6 million-plus K-12 students, 52% are Latino and African American. They will soon be the majority of college-going seniors. Yet fewer than 80 students from these groups enroll annually to study engineering at UCLA and UC Berkeley, and there’s been a systemwide decline in their numbers.

What can be done to reverse this anomalous trend? First, realize that eliminating UC K-12 initiatives from the state budget is a move in the wrong direction. Second, expand effective K-16 urban and rural partnerships to provide the necessary human capital that will increase the number of urban and rural students entering undergraduate programs in engineering and the physical sciences.

On May 1, UCLA will once again host the Mathematics, Engineering, Science Achievement (MESA) Day. Some 400 urban high school students and their teachers will participate in engineering, science and mathematics contests supported by engineering companies, school districts and four other universities.

But MESA’s future is uncertain. In his proposed budget, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has targeted the program for elimination, a step that would erode the human capital needed to develop engineers and scientists. Instead of jeopardizing the state’s future, the governor’s policies should create a social environment conducive to maintaining California’s competitive advantages as a leading global economic region.

Ainsworth is director of the Center for Excellence in Engineering and Diversity at the Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science.