There is a lack of information on the expectations of employers hiring into entry-level or pre-workforce training programs in natural resource fields and if new hires meet those expectations. This project hopes to shed light on the degree to which expectations of employers, students, and field program directors align with regard to workforce readiness in natural resource fields. The ESA/USGS Cooperative Summer Internship Program provided a base to begin this exploratory effort. This study involves three components: 1) A literature review to gain insight into science workforce preparation; 2) A set of categories of job skills identified to analyze employer, student, and pre-workforce training expectations; and 3) Considerations for a preliminary design of the post-internship survey. The categories for the job skills and the post-internship student survey were derived from the literature review and the job descriptions provided by the 2019 participating USGS sites. The objective of the student survey is to gain data on student perceptions of the skills they used at the internship and how well they felt prepared for it by their field program experience. These exploratory efforts are expected to yield a more robust survey instrument for the future and to guide further study.
Results/Conclusions
The purpose of the project is to investigate if there is alignment between employer expectations, field training, and student outcomes. We found a potential gap in transferable, field, and office skills expected by employers and offered by field training programs. We also found a greater need for more research focused on field experiences to gain greater clarity of undergraduate workforce preparation.
From the limited literature available, we know that there is a need for research to be done on careers in field research. We have attempted to contribute to this need by exploring the alignment between employer expectations and the skills of incoming graduates. The next step of this study will focus on analyzing the data collected from the survey and comparing it to the information gathered. We hope the study will serve as a reference for educators, students, and employers by offering insight into the relationship between student skills and employer expectations within the framework of workforce preparation.