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This Speakout has not been edited.

Aerospace industries, like Lockheed Martin, and telecommunication companies, like Avaya, are having trouble hiring knowledgeable and well trained new engineers. Because of problems like these, organizations throughout the country have sprung up to work with our educators to help alleviate this shortage, and to do it soon. Such an organization exists today in the Denver area; and this problem is also being addressed by our state government.

The US universities that are educating prospective scientists, engineers, and mathematicians, are finding that their undergraduate and graduate populations have a growing percentage of foreign nationals in their graduating classes.

In years past many of these foreign nationals stayed and became productive members of our economy. In those times there was no demand for their work "back home." Today, that’s not the case. Most are returning to their country of origin either to serve in new industries or to teach in their country’s new universities. I recently heard Governor Ritter report that 1000 universities are under construction in China today.

Yes, we are beginning to lose the world-wide edge in the educational areas of mathematics, science, engineering, and technology. I have listed mathematics first because this discipline is the basis on which to build upon in order to develop competency in the other three. The reduction in the interest of collegiate technical majors in the young generation today is a result of our not motivating them at an early age in the "fun," logic, and yes, the beauty of math. Middle-school and high school math and science classes are conducted by math- and science-trained teachers. This isn’t necessarily the situation in grades K-through-6. Before the children become interested in girls, boys, malls, text-messaging, etc.; that’s the time to get them introduced to the concept that math and science are interesting and challenging courses of study. Don’t force-feed our school children; lead them to their highest potential in the subjects in which they have an interest.

Dick Nace is a resident of Parker.

READER COMMENTS

You "fellers" are right. I'm with you!!! I agree!!!
Now what?

High tech careers are starting to look like oil industry careers: perpetual boom and bust. Management is either hiring anyone with a pulse and then working them half to death or laying off everyone with enough years of experience to have become expensive and working the survivors half to death.

Any college student bright enough to do well as an engineer or an information technology specialist is also smart enough to figure out that these are losing propositions.

High tech careers are starting to look like oil industry careers: perpetual boom and bust. Management is either hiring anyone with a pulse and then working them half to death or laying off everyone with enough years of experience to have become expensive and working the survivors half to death.

Any college student bright enough to do well as an engineer or an information technology specialist is also smart enough to figure out that these are losing propositions.

High tech careers are starting to look like oil industry careers: perpetual boom and bust. Management is either hiring anyone with a pulse and then working them half to death or laying off everyone with enough years of experience to have become expensive and working the survivors half to death.

Any college student bright enough to do well as an engineer or an information technology specialist is also smart enough to figure out that these are losing propositions.

High tech careers are starting to look like oil industry careers: perpetual boom and bust. Management is either hiring anyone with a pulse and then working them half to death or laying off everyone with enough years of experience to have become expensive and working the survivors half to death.

Any college student bright enough to do well as an engineer or an information technology specialist is also smart enough to figure out that these are losing propositions.

I must agree, there is no shortage of highly skilled workers - there is a shortage of companies willing to pay these workers. By importing H1B workers they get something akin to serf labor - a person who cannot change jobs or quit without being deported. I have long advocated that any outside workers brought in must be paid exactly what it would cost to have a US citizen to the job. In addition, such workers should be allowed to switch jobs if they get a better offer. Both of these requirements would quickly quiet the statements about lack of qualified people. I personally know several highly qualified engineers who choose not work rather than accept the small salaries being offered. They have changed their life styles to allow them to live of the savings they accumulated when companies did pay what they were worth.

It's ironic that Dick Nace cited Avaya in his article. Avaya currently has a hiring freeze on and has been firing engineers and even some managers in preparation for its takeover by private equity firms. And Avaya's new owners will probably fire even more engineers.

It's become a mantra that we have a shortage of scientists and engineers in the US. Nace's article shows how out of touch with reality the people who recite this mantra are.

Corporate management in the US is openly hostile towards its engineers. Executives see engineers as costs to be cut and few managers even know how to measure an engineer's output. They know only the cost but not the value.

It won't do any good to develop our young people's interest in engineering because as they grow up they will learn how our society - and especially corporate management - treats engineers.

If we want more engineers our society and corporate culture will have to change to value engineers.

There is no shortage of highly skilled workers for these jobs. There is a shortage of jobs that offer a pay and benefit rate equivalent to the education, training, and experience of the workers who are available and ready to work, who live locally, and who take pride in what they do.

The only reason these companies claim they can't find workers is because they are not willing to invest the resources to attract and keep them. They are not willing to pay the going rate. Instead they try to circumvent the market by fishing overseas for cheap labor (via H-1Bs) or fresh college graduates. When this cheap labor gains experience and demands appropriate compensation, they are sent packing.

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