Gonzaga Debate Institute 2011 Mercury Scholars International Brain Drain da
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Uniqueness – Jobs Low NowNASA trying to avoid brain drain now Thirdage.com 11 (Thirdage.com is a leading life-stage media marketing and consumer insight company: “NASA Faces "Brain Drain" After Final Shuttle Flight” 7-3-2011 http://www.thirdage.com/news/nasa-faces-brain-drain-after-last-shuttle-flight_07-03-2011 MLF 7-5-11) NASA faces fears of a "brain drain" as its shuttle program ends. Experts call the idea of a talent drain the "Team B" effect. "The good guys see the end coming and leave," Albert D. Wheelon, a former aerospace executive and a Central Intelligence Agency official told the New York Times. "You're left with the B students." NASA is seemingly aware of the effect: they've added retention bonuses for skilled employees, perks like travel benefits and more safety drills. But they must face the music: through a variety of cuts in recent years, the shuttle work force has decline to 7,000 works from about 17,000. "The downsizing has been well managed and has achieved an acceptable level of risk," Joseph W. Dyer, a retired Navy vice admiral and the chairman of NASA's Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel told the Times. "NASA and its industry partners did a genuinely excellent job" in planning for the shuttle's retirement, he said. But, he continued: "There's added risk anytime you downsize." The coming flight of Atlantis will be the agency's 135th and final launching of a shuttle. After that, NASA will be left without much in the way of goals: Constellation, a program that would have sent Americans back to the moon, has been scrapped, and astronauts have been steadily leaving the agency. Several experts have cited the Team B effect as the cause of multiple disasters in NASA's programs throughout the mid 1980s and late 1990s: over dozen rockets were destroyed, billions of dollars of satellites were wrecked, and two catastrophic failures in the shuttle program, in 1986 and 2003, resulted in the deaths of 14 astronauts. Experts point more to design flaws and management failures than with a dearth of qualified individuals. NASA's Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel warned of the effects of aimlessness should the agency lose its way: in January, the Panel's annual report warned that "the lack of a defined mission can negatively affect work force morale" and said that the loss of big missions might have "increased the potential for risk," undermining "the ability to attract and maintain the necessary skill sets needed for this high-technology venture." There is an engineering shortage now. McAward, Kelly Engineering Resources, Vice President and Product Leader ‘10 (Tim, September 1 2010, Kelly Engineering Resources, Vice President and Product Leader Aerospace Engineering Online “The Future of Engineering is Here” http://www.sae.org/mags/aem/8789 7/6/11 BLG) Quite simply, in comparison to lifetime earning potential, few career paths come close to engineering, as engineers are among the highest paid professionals in the world, year after year. However, according to the 2009 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data, there were only 1.6 million engineers working in the U.S. last year, accounting for a shockingly low 1.3% of the nation’s total workforce. As engineering talent shortages continue throughout the globe, while demand remains exceedingly high, there has rarely been a more opportune time for college students and recent graduates to obtain highly meaningful and rewarding engineering positions than now. So, how will you react to the opportunities that are currently available for you? What will you do today, tomorrow, and well into the future to positively impact the industry as a whole? Finally, what can you do to ensure the future of engineering is bright for upcoming generations? At the same time, as you prepare for your future within the field, what trends should you look for? What can you do today to achieve success tomorrow? By considering the following three recent engineering trends, you can adapt to various changes within the field and accomplish your career goals.
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