Board 334: Master's Individual Development Plans as an Essential Tool in Workforce Development

Deborah Silver; Elizabeth Friedman

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Conference: 2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Baltimore , Maryland
Publication Date: June 25, 2023
Start Date: June 25, 2023
End Date: June 28, 2023
Conference Session: NSF Grantees Poster Session
Tagged Topic: NSF Grantees Poster Session
Page Count: 4
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--42942
Permanent URL: https://strategy.asee.org/42942
Download Count: 91

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Paper Authors

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Deborah Silver Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

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Deborah Silver is the Executive Director of the Professional Science Master’s Program at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. This program offers the Master of Business & Science (MBS) degree which is a combination of a science master’s with courses in business and includes many engineering disciplines. She is also a full professor in the Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Rutgers. From 2008-2010 she served as Associate Dean of Continuing and Professional Education for the School of Engineering. Her area of research is Data Visualization and, most recently, graduate science education and workforce development. She has over 125 publications and her research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, NASA, the Department of Energy, the US Air Force, Department of Education, and the Department of Labor.

Prof. Silver is a member of the Board of Directors of the National Professional Science Master’s Association and has previously been the Vice President. She is also a member of the Board of Governors for Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Computer Society (2021-) and a member of the IEEE Visualization Steering Committee (2020- ).

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Elizabeth Friedman The University of Illinois, Chicago

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Abstract

The recent National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine report on Graduate STEM Education for the 21st Century discussed PhD and master's degrees in the sciences. The report recommends two broad and especially compelling career-related actions for STEM master's degree programs: (1) the creation of Individual Development Plans (IDP) and (2) the provision of Career Exploration opportunities. However, while IDPs have become more prevalent in PhD and Postdoctoral programs, they are not at all common in science and engineering master's programs. The short time frames to completion and the intensifying workforce development aspects of STEM master's degrees present distinctive conditions that mandate the creation of specialized IDPs for students in these programs. Furthermore, the IDPs developed for PhD candidates are not really relevant to master's students.

Using an IDP encourages students to plan well in advance and empowers them to create personalized educational pathways, a habit that will serve them well in graduate education and in becoming intentional lifelong learners. Second, experience with an IDP acclimates the students to personal development plans/assessments widely used in the workplace and to the necessity of ongoing planning and awareness for continuous learning about the workplace. Furthermore, it helps students become aware of transferable skill acquisition. And, lastly, the use of IDPs will enhance the graduate experience and career preparation for an increasingly diverse master’s population.

In this poster, we will present the initial IDP templates that have been developed as part of the NSF grant and discuss its use in engineering master’s programs.

Citation
Format

Silver, D., & Friedman, E. (2023, June), Board 334: Master's Individual Development Plans as an Essential Tool in Workforce Development Paper presented at 2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Baltimore , Maryland. 10.18260/1-2--42942