Recruitment benchmarking : how to attract students to engineering education

Attracting students to engineering education in Sweden has become problematic in the last decade. Swedish industry needs engineers, but students are hesitating to apply to the educational programmes offered, or choose other study paths. The problem was identified early and dealt with by the Department of Civil, Mining and Environmental Engineering at Luleå University of Technology in Sweden. Since the 1980s teachers at the department have been involved in large-scale recruitment work. They have visited upper secondary schools and told students how great it is to become a professional engineer. Professors, researchers, consultants and teachers have shown students at upper secondary schools what the profession offers. They have shown how to build bridges, railways, sewage treatment plants, and water treatment plants and how they can be built to achieve environmental sustainability. The upper secondary schools have been carefully selected all over Sweden. In addition, regiments and large educational exhibitions have been attended. Behind all these activities is a well-formulated recruitment strategy and an allocation of resources that includes one person employed to organize and take responsibility for the implementation of the activities. The results have been stunning. The Department of Civil, Mining and Environmental Engineering has never had any problems recruiting students in neither downward nor booming trend. While other programmes have suffered and been removed, the yearly intake has been stable and even increased.Godkänd; 2009; 20091214 (andbra)