In the late '70s, Bolles predicted we would outgrow the idea that there were three stages (or three boxes) in our lifespan -– the learning stage, the work stage and the retirement stage. Bolles suggested that we were moving into a time when those stages would merge, and we would experience lifelong learning, work and play.
Industry and government reliance on outside contractors to conduct the continuing education of the workforce or to act as corrosion consultants is ultimately unsustainable as these outsiders learned their trade in the industries and agencies that are now buying in their services and that are no longer employing (and hence training) their successors. This situation is aggravated by the retirement of the few people with corrosion expertise and the near absence of corrosion engineering experience in new hires emerging from graduate and undergraduate engineering programs (Source: The National Academies, USA).
When we deal with "life" assurance or extension of any asset, experience in approaching the problem decides the quality of finding feasible technology answers. We need to look at "History". How do we get this history? It is the knowledge of pioneers who have spent their entire career in corrosion science and engineering domain.
Being a "corrosion consultant" and a new hire, I understand the concern of lost knowledge. The answer has generally been "Knowledge is lost, and re-learned" but this is inefficient and wasteful. There isn't much employment opportunity here in this field as many of the experienced choose to stay on longer. The only way to save knowledge is the bring in apprenticeships in my opinion. Combining apprentices with recent graduates will keep past knowledge and new ideas intermingled and the industry healthy.
However...I am cynical that this will happen.
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Engineering
- Materials Engineering