Interview with Educator AND Employer for Sustainable Energy:“From Student-to-the-Sustainability Field”

Student still choose the field for social consciousness. “Astounded by students commitment – thought a lot had disappeared”

Students come from technical science and engineering, and “learn new fields when come in.”

Some leave the field for better jobs, but would stay if they could – “no one has left because of loss of idealism.” Can be due to “maturing” into responsibilities, e.g. family.

“Most people will give up something (money, location, etc.) to work in the field.”

“Most people who have left (working in the group), have left for opportunities, whether in or out of the field. Time in the field gives them value.”

“People that come out are able to talk about they did.”

Field provides a “range of skill sets.”

One weakness of some students is “sometimes need to get them to see the bigger picture,” not just project activities.

Say

Think:Those choosing to work in sustainable energy have an innate strong social consciousness.Money not a driver for students entering the field.Money can be a driver for students to leave the field, but they would stay if they could afford to stay.Students have diverse technical interests coming into the field, and they expand their technical skills considerably during their studies.Feel:Students should see a range of sustainability projects around the world to understand opportunities and challenges better.Students would benefit from working on real-world projects to better understand the complexity of the overall sustainability problems.Potential employer do not understand the inherent broad skill sets that students in the field possess.

Interview with Educator AND Employer for Sustainable Energy:“From Student-to-the-Sustainability Field”

Think & Feel

Interview with Educator AND Employer for Sustainable Energy:“From Student-to-the-Sustainability Field”

A tech-focused PhD engineer well-respected in the sustainable energy field who is able to design, coordinate and execute complex, national and international

projects in the laboratory and in the real world.

To show students and employers the value, breadth, and depth of sustainable energy studies for training across varied technical areas and for tackling important

societal and environmental problems.

Stakeholder

Needs a Way

Problem Statement

BecauseThis will continue to attract students from a broad range of field and from new

non-tech fields such as sociology and anthropology; help current students understand better where & what jobs might be available to them inside and

outside the field, based on their training; and show employers the versatility of students trained in sustainable energy.