With Stevens’ Support, ASME Foundation Wins Federal Grant for Registered Apprenticeship Program in Mechanical Engineering Technology

Hoboken, N.J., July 26, 2024—The ASME Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, has been awarded a $3.975 million four-year grant from the U.S. Department of Labor to develop and implement a national apprenticeship program in mechanical engineering technology. The ASME Registered Apprenticeship Program (RAP) will provide additional education and training for 270 community college engineering graduates and place them into entry-level engineering technician positions. The grant period runs from July 1, 2024, through June 30, 2028. The first training cohort is scheduled to begin in April 2025; applications will open in January 2025.

ASME will collaborate with Stevens Institute of Technology, the National Institute for Industry and Career Advancement (formerly the National Institute of Innovation and Technology), and SimInsights to launch the program. The ASME RAP will engage community colleges, employers, and local workforce boards to assist individuals who have completed associate degrees but still lack critical skills to bridge their skills gaps. The program will ultimately lead participants to a role as a mechanical engineering technologist or technician. ASME will initially develop the RAP for job roles in manufacturing and advanced manufacturing. Over the course of the grant period, ASME will expand the RAP for roles in clean energy, supply chains, semiconductors, and nanotechnology.

“This is an exciting initiative,” said Jean Zu, the Lore E. Feiler Dean of the Schaefer School of Engineering and Science at Stevens. “We have a long history with ASME because it was founded at Stevens in 1880. We renewed our partnership in 2019 and since then have reinforced our collaboration through key initiatives. This new program is one of the most impactful results of our effort.”

Using a “Learn While You Earn” approach, the ASME program will contribute to the development of a skilled, retainable, and sustainable workforce and includes strategies to address diversity, equity, and inclusion. The program will consist of 144 hours of related training instruction for participants who have completed a two-year degree in engineering or a closely related field of study. As a key partner in the project, Stevens will contribute in the following ways: 1 Serve as the Required Technical Instruction (RTI) provider for the length of the grant period. 2. Collaborate with grant partners, specifically employer partners and community college partners, to develop and align curriculum with industry needs. 3. Provide the required technical instruction for the registered apprenticeship program, including the recruitment and training of course instructors and delivery of course content. The instruction will be accredited by The Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET), and will include a combination of augmented reality and virtual reality (AR/VR) instruction developed through SimInsights. The instruction will be in addition to at least 2,000 hours of on-the-job learning with workforce partners. The National Institute for Industry and Career Advancement is responsible for deploying a strategy to build the talent pipeline to support strategic industry sectors and is the nation’s leader in semiconductor talent pipeline development. The $3,975,420 Federal grant will finance 85% of the cost of the ASME program and 15% or approximately $600,000 will be financed by non-governmental sources.

The DOL’s Apprenticeship Building America grants, announced July 11, “will help build the skilled, diverse workforce needed to support President Biden’s Investing in America agenda, including the Inflation Reduction Act, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the CHIPS and Science Act, and reach communities across the country through 52 grantees located in 32 states.” "This milestone grant addresses the critical shortage of skilled technical workers that puts our national economy at a disadvantage for innovation and progress," said Stephanie Viola, executive director of the ASME Foundation and managing director of ASME Philanthropy. "Apprenticeships are a proven pathway to well-paying technical jobs for diverse community college students and will help close the engineering employment and equity gap, boost economic competitiveness, and significantly advance global sustainability." According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, more than three million technical jobs are currently unfilled in the United States, including approximately 3,700 job openings for mechanical engineering technicians projected each year with an average starting salary of $60,000. Contributing to the employment gap is a severe equity gap, with women representing only nine percent of U.S. mechanical engineers and people of color only 11 percent. The ASME Foundation’s philanthropic programs in engineering education, career resources, and innovation support aim to correct these inequities by empowering more people from underrepresented groups to pursue technical careers. The ASME Registered Apprenticeship Program is an extension of ASME’s Community College Engineering Pathways program, which connects community college and career technical education (CTE) students to opportunities for specialized training, internships, apprenticeships, and jobs. At the same time, it provides resources to community colleges to expand their employer networks and align curricula to the needs of local and national employers. A companion program, HBCU Engineering Pathways, helps engineering students at historically Black colleges and universities expand their professional networks, participate in ASME student sections and activities, and connects employers to graduates of HBCUs and other minority-serving institutions.

About Stevens Institute of Technology
Stevens Institute of Technology is a premier, private research university situated in Hoboken, New Jersey. Since our founding in 1870, technological innovation has been the hallmark of Stevens’ education and research. Within the university’s three schools and one college, 8,000 undergraduate and graduate students collaborate closely with faculty in an interdisciplinary, student-centric, entrepreneurial environment. Academic and research programs spanning business, computing, engineering, the arts and other disciplines actively advance the frontiers of science and leverage technology to confront our most pressing global challenges. The university continues to be consistently ranked among the nation’s leaders in career services, post-graduation salaries of alumni and return on tuition investment.

About ASME Foundation
The ASME Foundation is the philanthropic arm of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), supporting an array of programs in three core pillars: engineering education, career engagement, and global development. With the goal of empowering tomorrow's technical workforce, the ASME Foundation advances equitable access both to professional opportunities and to engineering innovations that improve quality of life. For more information, visit www.asmefoundation.org.

About ASME
ASME helps the global engineering community develop solutions to real world challenges. Founded in 1880 as the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, ASME is a not-for-profit professional organization that enables collaboration, knowledge sharing, and skill development across all engineering disciplines, while promoting the vital role of the engineer in society. ASME codes and standards, publications, conferences, continuing education, and professional development programs provide a foundation for advancing technical knowledge and a safer world. In 2020, ASME formed the International Society of Interdisciplinary Engineers (ISIE) II & III LLC, a new for-profit subsidiary to house business ventures that will bring new and innovative products, services, and technologies to the engineering community. For more information, visit www.asme.org.

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