Educating Arkansas’ next generation of engineers and supplying the state’s workforce needs is the focus of Vision 2035, a 10-year industry initiative by the University of Arkansas’ College of Engineering.
Details of the project — designed to grow the number of engineers graduating from UA, expand research, facilities and partnerships and keep local talent in the state — were outlined Thursday at an event at the Capital Hotel.
An independent study by Heartland Forward predicts there will be approximately 58,000 open engineering jobs in Arkansas by 2038. Heartland Forward discovered that doubling the number of engineering graduates, research spending and patents could generate roughly $3.9 billion in additional annual economic impact for the state, as well as support 19,000 new jobs, according to a UA news release.
“Vision 2035 is about more than one college or campus … (it is) about Arkansas’ workforce, the people who will build high demand, high impact and high paying jobs in the industries that are growing here right now, and in the ones we hope to bring here next,” said Kim LaScola Needy, dean of the College of Engineering at the Fayetteville campus.
The program will begin its first phase with the STEM Roots initiative, a three-year, six-county program aimed at training teachers who will shape future engineers.
“Today, too few students finish high school ready for a STEM path,” Needy said. “The number of students who opt out of STEM more than double(s) between fourth and eighth grade. By the time students reach us, many have already decided, sadly, that engineering isn’t for them. That’s why one of our first investments in Vision 2035 is in K-6 education.”
The STEM Roots programs will be available in Miller, Lafayette, Columbia, Ouachita, Union and Ashley counties where 35 elementary schools and 20% of the region’s elementary school teachers will be equipped with resources and skills to strengthen the engineering pipeline, the news release said.
The program is expected to add nearly 1,300 STEM-ready graduates to the pipeline over the next decade.
“For a $3.1 million investment over three years, we can fund the entire pilot in all six of these counties,” Needy said.
Arkansas Secretary of Commerce Hugh McDonald said employers are searching for people with specialized talents in areas such as robotics engineering, systems automation and aerospace engineering, as well as knowledge in artificial intelligence and cyber technologies.
“According to one organization, the American Council of Engineering Companies, in 2022, 184,000 engineers left the workforce, but we only produced 166,000 graduates. … That represents a structural gap of 18,000 … engineers per year, and it will worsen without intervention,” McDonald said.
Alongside the K-6 STEM program, Vision 2035 will also produce more than $60 million in undergraduate scholarships and graduate fellowships and add 50 new tenure-track positions and 20 endowed chairs, following close behind the UA’s 150 Forward Reaching Higher campaign, focused on strengthening the institution’s impact throughout the state.
Dan Brown, executive vice president of advanced technology steelmaking at U.S. Steel and chief operating officer of Big River Steel Works, said his three companies have invested about $11 billion in northeast Arkansas.
“We’re going to continue investing money in Arkansas. Arkansas wants jobs, they want business, they want industry and it keeps branching out to customers and suppliers in different areas. But we need talent … If we don’t bring up talent and we don’t make a decision within the next 10 years of this initiative — which is fantastic — to get more women and men involved in engineering, construction, all types of engineering, we’re going to be dead in the water,” Brown said.
An earlier version of this story was updated to include the correct amount U.S. Steel has invested in northeast Arkansas.
