President's Perspective
By Stan Liberty
President, Kettering University
There’s quite a bit of media buzz these days about whether the United States is going to have enough science and engineering talent in the future. That topic surfaced again during the Management Briefings Seminar in Traverse City, where one of the keynote speakers warned that the United States will soon need 160,000 more engineers. Of course, such proclamations are immediately controversial, because many companies are downsizing the science and engineering workforce at the same time they are pointing to shortages of future talent. Also, there are suspicions that such rhetoric about shortages is simply an attempt to create a rationale for increasing the number of science and engineering immigrants who can be brought into the country.
Others say they can’t find enough qualified science and engineering talent for today’s hi-tech jobs. They point explicitly to the lack of practical and applied experience among today’s science and engineering graduates, and they are growing weary of under- prepared applicants who require extensive on the job learning before developing into productive employees. Kettering, of course, has the answer to this latter problem. It’s called cooperative education. Unfortunately, not enough colleges and universities have adopted this educational model and the demand for this kind of talent is unsatisfied.
Co-op experience is a real gem on a job candidate’s resume right now. That means that providers of co-op education, like Kettering University, have many new friends in the marketplace. One of co-op’s strongest new advocates is The Center for Automotive Research (CAR) in Ann Arbor. CAR executives are singing the praises of co-op and Kettering University, based on 2007 research that they did for the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation and the Mid-Michigan Innovation Team/U.S. Department of Labor Workforce for Regional Economic Development (WIRED) Initiative. Kristin Dziczek, director of CAR’s Program for Automotive Labor and Education, says she could write Kettering’s newest marketing brochure. “Companies told us that ‘Kettering bridges the gap between theory and practice,’ and that ‘Kettering is in a class by itself.’ We even heard that ‘Kettering is a preferred source of hiring,’ and that ‘Kettering students are better than most,’” she explained. The research completed by CAR strengthens our claim that Kettering has the most advanced co-op program in the nation and our reputation in the automotive industry has spread to other industrial sectors.
We haven’t forgotten that it all started when this institution became a part of General Motors and we are constantly reminded that the institution’s status today results from its GMI heritage and the long-standing, beneficial relationship this institution has had with GM. Consequently, our campus community was pleased to have joined with others in Flint to honor GM’s 100th anniversary. Concerts, fireworks, tours of former GM executives’ homes, car shows and parades showcased the Centennial celebration, which included some of the most beautiful cars ever designed and built. One of the highlights of the Flint GM 100th was a keynote address given at Kettering by Jamie Hresko ’87, GM’s vice president for Quality and Kettering’s key executive.
As in the past, General Motors remains Kettering’s largest employer of co-op students and all of us at Kettering are grateful to General Motors for continuing our productive partnership. We extend best wishes to everyone in the GM family during this special Centennial celebration.
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