Jet engine manufacturer Pratt & Whitney on Monday announced a $1.25 million initiative to help establish more diversity in a workforce of engineers that’s largely white and male.
The Scholars Program, designed for underrepresented minorities, will provide four groups of five University of Connecticut students with $10,000 a year for each student, or a total of $40,000, comprising a significant share of the university’s $15,030 annual tuition.
The program offered by the East Hartford-based manufacturer also provides a summer internship at Pratt & Whitney after the student’s sophomore year; a senior design project sponsored by Pratt & Whitney during the senior year; and professional development and mentorship.
“UConn is heavily tied to Pratt. We have so many engineers that come from UConn,” said Chela Gage, global head of diversity, equity and inclusion at Pratt & Whitney.
She would not detail the ethnic or gender makeup of the workforce at the subsidiary of defense and aviation giant Raytheon Technologies Corp. She cited Census data that 15% of U.S. engineers are women and fewer are minority workers.
“What we are intending to do is accelerate that volume, that number,” Gage said.
As employees work remotely, Pratt & Whitney is looking beyond Connecticut for workers, finding employees across the U.S. and globally, Gage said.
The share of science and engineering research doctorates awarded to women in 2019 was 42.2%, though women are 50.1% of the population and 47.1% of the labor force, according to the National Science Foundation.
Underrepresented minorities were awarded 11.7% of science and engineering research doctorates, while making up about a third of the population and labor force, according to the NSF. Asians received 30.9% of science and engineering research doctorates while making up 6.3% of the population and 6.3% of the labor force.
Daniel Burkey, associate dean for undergraduate education and diversity at UConn’s School of Engineering, said the school for the first time has hit the 30% mark for female students admitted to the engineering school.
Overall, 25% of the 3,700 undergraduates at the School of Engineering are women, with the ultimate goal of achieving parity between the sexes, he said.
UConn’s School of Engineering has “done very well” recruiting young women, he said. Students from underrepresented communities, however, are in the “single-digit percentages,” fewer than comparable numbers in the general population, he said.
University recruiters start with students in grade school and continue into high school, looking for Black and female role models who can motivate students to succeed, he said.
In addition to promoting more diversity, recruiters are looking to fortify a workforce that’s losing Baby Boomers to retirement and keep up with demand for military aerospace. And although commercial aviation took a hit from COVID-19, forcing airlines to ground their fleets, air travel is resuming and hiring will be needed to keep pace.
Applications for the first group of students are open and those who are awarded scholarships will be announced in January. Additional freshman groups will be identified each fall until 2024.
Stephen Singer can be reached at [email protected].
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