Building an engineering technology workforce

How common is it for engineering students to persevere to near the end of their training and then quit the program? Is it possible to leave the university without a degree and still work in an engineering-related position? The present research shows that a significant proportion of engineering technology majors may leave the university when they have three or fewer courses remaining for completion of their degree (i.e., "near-graduates"). Near-graduates lacked significantly more engineering-major courses than general education courses for degree completion. A significant proportion of this group gained employment in engineering-related positions but at a significantly lower proportion than graduates. Engineering technology students who graduated had significantly higher GPAs than near-graduates; however, GPA did not significantly correlate with holding an engineering-related job for either graduates or near-graduates. Our findings suggest that greater efforts should be made to guide and mentor near-graduates to degree completion . The findings are pertinent to college administrators and human resources personnel.