Post CoVID-19 Challenges and Solution for Engineering Technology Recruiting and Outreach

Abstract The unexpected COVID-19 situation over the past two years presented substantial challenges for most educational institutions in terms of recruitment and outreach activities. Starting in Spring 2020, in-person events were postponed at *** with virtual sessions taking their place. Due to mass vaccination and strong preventive measures, we are seeing an increase regarding in-person events and prospective student tours in Fall 2021. However, enrollment has decreased and reaching high school students is still somewhat challenging. Here at ****, we have taken some great measures to increase participation in recruiting events and organize outreach activities. This paper will share our efforts and reasoning for this. Hopefully, this will encourage other educational institutions to implement similar plans to return to their recruitment and outreach activities. Engineering Technology is hands-on, and it is important for potential students to come see our state-of-the-art lab facilities. Our department organized Saturday@Sam and ExCEL@SAM events in conjunction with our campus Visitor Services where 300+ students had the opportunity to visit the SHSU campus. Among the visitors, 80+ students were interested and visited our department to learn about Engineering Technology programs. The SkillsUSA 2021 Annual Fall Symposium was one of our most prominent events this past fall, and 350+ students and educators attended and had a successful day exploring career options. Some of the career options students were able to learn more about were wielding, health science, nursing, manufacturing, and cosmetology. Our department understands building a strong industry network for our graduating students is important; thus, planned and organized several industry guests visits to the department in hopes of potential future collaboration. This fall one Tesla employee associated with the new Austin plant recruitment process visited our department, met our faculty, saw our lab facilities, and spoke to a group of students. We also had shorter industry visits from Dr. ***, Division Chief Medical Officer of HCA; Mr. ***, Service Line Director with GE; and Mr. ***, SVP Chief Information and Digital Officer of PSEG. The faculty and students met these individuals and discussed several possible project collaborations that will enrich their companies and enable our students to get involved in real-life work experience. In addition to all the above activities, the ETEC Ambassadors for the Department of Engineering Technology, faculty members, and our undergraduate coordinator for career and technology have attended multiple recruiting events in person. For example, traveling to several high schools to share about Department of Engineering Technology programs and showcasing some exciting hands-on projects completed by our students. We believe these steps will help us get back on track with where we want to be with enrollment.