Trends in Knowledge and Skill Expectations for New Human Factors Professionals

Abstract

This study was a replicate of two prior studies on the knowledge and skill expectations for new human factors/ergonomics professionals in the current labor market. Five and four years have passed since new HF/E professionals and their employers were last surveyed. In the rapidly changing work domains it is important to track the changing expectations to detect trends and to continually revise academic curricula to better provide future HF/E professionals education that meets them. Both new professionals and their employers were surveyed for this study. The results are compared with the past surveys. In addition, the relevance of the new core competencies of the Board of Certification for Professional Ergonomics were examined against the workplace expectations.

Student Perspectives on Changing Requirements for Human Factors Engineering Education

“…Rantanen & Moroney (2012, 2011 discussed skill needs for new human factors professionals, while Rantanen et al (2013) proposed a jobs database for tracking skills needs in industry. Rantanen (2016) extended the discussion to trends in job skill needs. Innovative methods for providing aspiring HF professionals with job-relevant skills have also been discussed.…”

“…Overview of Human Factors/Ergonomics/User Experience core competencies as part of the BCPE certification process in2016and 2019 (BCPE, 20162019) …”

The Education of the Human Factors Engineer in the Age of Data Science

“…HFE educators continue to seek input from industry and the wider research community in an effort to keep the curriculum both current and relevant (e.g., see Rantanen 2016;Rantanen, et al 2016;and Rantanen et al 2018). Hannon et al (2019) pointed out that HFE has continued to focus on "first generation" automated systems.…”

So, You Want to be a Manager? How to Know When and if to Make the Move

“…Prior HFES panels (Rantanen et al, 2013(Rantanen et al, , 2016 have focused on preparing students for industry, fine tuning specific skills needed to get that first job in industry (Shapiro et al, 2003), or shared tips on how to be successful in industry (Madathil et al 2019). In this panel, we will bring the discussion past the point of preparing for and succeeding in industry as an individual contributor and focus our discussion on later career decisions and the challenges that occur as you decide how to grow in your career.…”