UIC College of Engineering - Student Development

Preparing our students through Internships, GA positions, and Research Assistantships

September 14, 2009

Executive Summary

• The current economic situation has created a challenging environment as it relates to student development and recruitment.

• In an effort to raise the level of support in this area the COE worked this summer to better understand the issues and opportunities surrounding student intern placement.

• While our findings indicate that approximately 70% of UIC COE students were employed as interns during summer, 2009 there remains significant opportunity to act on student and company feedback to:

– Assist the almost one-third of total students who were employed in non-engineering positions to obtain assignments within their engineering related fields, and

– Better support the estimated 15% of total students who are unemployed and desirous of work.

• Feedback from both students and hiring companies has been helpful in educating us on opportunities to refine our career placement programs.

• Learnings from this initiative reinforces that student development is a multi-dimensional challenge involving engagement by students, COE faculty, Career Center staff and industry partners.

Student Development Profile – National Outlook

• Employers planned to hire 21% fewer interns 2008-09 than prior year.

• Overall, National Association of Colleges and Employer’s (NACE) research respondents reported that more than one-quarter of their 2008-09 interns (26.2 percent) will be students who have served a previous internship with the organization.

• The majority of respondents (77.3 percent) say they use their internship programs primarily as a tool for recruiting entry-level talent.

• Employers extended offers of full-time employment to an average of 67.7 percent of their 2007-08 interns.

• More than four out of five of their offers (83.6 percent), on average, were accepted, making this the highest intern acceptance rate NACE has reported since it began collecting these data in 2000.

Source: NACE Research - March, 2009

Figure 1: Hiring 2009 expectations vs. 2008 actuals

Average # of Hires

Total Percent Change

2008 77 12,908

2009 61 10,119 -21.6%

Student Development Profile – UIC Engineering

• Summer, 2009 COE survey estimates that 68% of engineering students were employed during this period.

• UIC directly placed 18% of students; all in engineering positions.

• Fifty percent of students were placed through non-UIC methods; slightly more than half in engineering related fields.

• The majority of these students applied directly to a company or obtained positions via friends and family connections.

Source: UIC Student Survey, July 2009 – Junior, Senior, Graduate Students

There remains significant opportunity to act on student and company feedback to assist the 23 percent of employed students in non-engineering positions and better

support the half of unemployed students who desire to work.

UIC Engineering Student Development Profile: By Year

• No significant differences in level of employment across years

• However, Juniors significantly less likely to be employed in engineering related positions

Source: UIC Student Survey, July 2009 – Junior, Senior, Graduate Students

Companies are using internship programs as a tool for recruiting entry-level talent expecting them to be “business ready” upon graduation.

UIC Engineering Student Development Profile: By Dept.

• Civil and CS majors have the highest success in placing students in engineering related employment than compared to other majors.

• % students in engineering related work by college

– BioE 59%– Chem E 38%– Civil and Mat. 75%– CS 79%– ECE 67%– MIE 61%

• Bioengineering related students seem to have less access to corporate positions and are primarily placed through faculty contacts.

• Unclear why ECE and MIE students less likely to be employed in engineering related fields; positively impacting this area could have large impact.

Source: UIC Student Survey, July 2009 – Junior, Senior, Graduate Students

Individual engineering departments have unique characteristics requiring closer collaboration between student development staff and department faculty.

UIC Engineering – Unemployed students

• Significant portion of unemployed students not available for work

• Need to audit tools and outreach methods for the Engineering Career Center

Source: UIC Student Survey, July 2009 – Junior, Senior, Graduate Students

Factors behind students inability to obtain engineering employment needs to be further investigated.

Implement a holistic approach to student development

• Target classes with Sophomores & Juniors• Continue to work w/ ENGR student

organizations• Peer advising• Mandatory to attend at least 1 Engineering

Career Prep Day• Facebook, LinkedIn-social media marketing to

build awareness

• Work closely with IEEE,ASME, IIE etc. (school and local chapters)

• Faculty support of career development• Faculty commitment to promote career related

events, internships, etc.• Faculty partnership to build industry relations• Coffee with the Deans/Networking with

Deans/Dept. Heads

• Partnerships with ECE and MIE faculty to work more closely with these majors

• Connect with faculty/industry contacts• Reach out to several of these classes

per/semester

• Career related workshops on-campus• Alumni mentoring• Student organization support/sponsorship

• Expand employer network for EE,ME, and IE industries

• Target alumni in these fields to do more workshops/seminars on-campus

• Student visits at corporate sites

Focus on Sophomore and Juniors

Focus on Sophomore and Juniors Focus on ECE, MIE Focus on ECE, MIE

Areas targeted for action

• Target high impact student segments– Start development in earlier years; strengthen resume and interviewing

skills and educate on the importance of internships– Better understand the drivers behind unemployed students

• Work with individual department to address unique needs and opportunities

• Adapt career placement programs based on student and company feedback and best in class tools and practices

• Develop plan targeting companies to college needs and strengths

COE developing students within UIC

• UIC COE has focused on placing students in a variety of positions on campus

• NSF has funded large opportunities for undergraduates to gain research experience

• Graduate students have been placed according to the table on the right

• The Technology Center continues to be a growth opportunity

Source: [insert source here]

Graduate Employment # Students

Fellowships 27

TA positions 157

RA positions 220

Other (e.g., GA positions)

134

Graduate Employment

UIC Student Development: Technology Center Update

• Revenues Trends:– 2007 $642K– 2008 $785K– 2009 $954K – 2010 $153K (July and August)

• Benefits:– Great support for our graduate students to gain practical experience and

financial aid– Promotes faculty research with our industrial partners and exposes faculty to

market needs.– $159k in discretionary funds generated for the College of Engineering

• Support needed:– There is great value in this program and we encourage our members to

participate.

Tech Center Participation

 Company 2008/09 Student Semesters2009/10 Student Semesters

(summer) AB Member

Motorola 27 11 Yes

Baxter 13 4 Yes

Hoover 8 0 No

PCTEL 11 3 No

UOP 4 2 Yes

Blue Cross 0 1 No

Sargent & Lundy 1 0 Yes

VG Bioinformatics 2 0 No

Servo Tech 3 0 No

Kanvin Int. 1 0 No

La-Co 2 2 Yes

HealthFit Labs 1 0 No

McAndrew,Mallooy 1 0 No

Material Sciences 2 0 No

Arryx 1 0 No

       

Total 77 23  

New Fall 2009 Technology Center Opportunities

• Chicago Transit Authority • Metropolitan Water Reclamation District• Winergy • Navtek• Blue Cross Blue Shield of Chicago• Spot Trading• Bluefire Capital

Top 15 Internship Employers (Fall 2008-Summer 2009)

• Motorola• Baxter• Argonne National Laboratory• UIC Industrial Assessment Center• UOP, A Honeywell Company• PCTEL• MPC Products• Exelon• Hoover Group• Servo Tech, Inc.• Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories• Midwest Generation• IDOT• Northrop Grumman• Panduit Corporation

Average internship salary : • Undergraduate - $15.07• Graduate -$23.73

Advisory Board Internship Hires (Fall 08-Summer 09)

AB Company # Students # Student Semesters

Abbott 1 1

Caterpillar 1 1

Clark Dietz 1 1

GE Healthcare 1 1

La-Co Industries 1 1

Novellus 1 1

Sargent & Lundy 1 1

City of Chicago (CDOT) 2 2

Northrop Grumman 2 3

Argonne National Laboratory 7 7

Baxter 9 18

Motorola 25 32

Total AB Companies 52 69

Non AB Companies 173 193

Total Internships Reported 225 262