Fostering Flexibility in the Engineering Work Force

The pace of development of new technology and the rate at which resulting new products and services enter the marketplace have been steadily accelerating since World War II. Moreover, in this period not only markets but also finance, investment, and industry have become increasingly global in nature. Industrial operations— research, design, development, production, distribution, sales, and service support—even for single products, now take place with less and less regard for national boundaries. In the global economic and industrial complex that is evolving, the engineering enterprise in all nations is constantly challenged to excel in developing and applying new technologies, bringing forth new products and serving new user and societal needs and wants. Thus, in the meetings and forums of the National Academy of Engineering it has been widely recognized that flexibility and adaptability are important qualities for engineers and are destined to be even more important in the future.