1. Christopher M. Keane American Geosciences Institute 9 December 2018
AGI Update
Christopher M. Keane
American Geosciences Institute
9 December 2018

2. General Workforce Updates
Enrollment dynamics
Employment shifts
Skills and quality gap issues
Surviving the fundamental changes underway

3. Most current enrollment data though 2016
Most current enrollment data though Seeing the decline in throughput of the shale gas driven students.

5. Current & Future Geoscience Workforce
50,000
100,000
150,000
200,000
250,000
300,000
350,000
2006
2008
2012
2014
2016
Total Number of Employed Geoscientists in the United States by Year
US BLS indicates a need for 90,000 MORE FTEs by 2024.
Number of Geoscientists
This is the current workforce curve from BLS. We haven’t done the 2016 numbers yet – that will be done as part of the 2018 Status of Geoscience Workforce report.

6. Employment Sectors over Time MS Recipients, 2013-2017

7. Workforce Skills Development
This is the quantitative skills results from the recent Exit Survey. The ~25% of UG students that do advanced maths is mostly a single cohort of students. Also note the poor exposure to statistics for doctoral students.
One of the big issues we have had indicated to us by employers is the need for Linear Algebra and DiffEqs. Not so much for the actual math itself, but DiffEqs enable understanding of fluid systems and advection/diffusion dynamics as well as thermodynamics. And without linear algebra, the students are ineffective at comprehending multivariate systems.

8. Why Quantitative Skills?
Critical learning
DiffEq – Fluid Systems
Linear Algebra – Multivariate Systems
Statistics – Data Analytics/ML
Ability to be lane-shifted during downturns
Critical reactionary workforce for changing market

9. Is Machine Learning a Threat?
Only if we do not evolve!
Traditional occupations are disappearing (loggers, interpreters, etc)
Move towards the “augmented geoscientist” – who focuses on domain problem solving with robust tools at their disposal.

10. “With every retirement we destroy a geoscience job
“With every retirement we destroy a geoscience job. With every new hire we are creating a geoscience job we can’t even begin to describe. The new hires will define these jobs of the future.”
- Daniel Malchuk, BHP at PDAC 2018

11. Career Compass Project
Laying out pathways for careers
Freely Online, Looking at Distribution Options to Departments

12. Geoscience Online Learning Initiative
Expanding suite of online modules for geoscience professional development
Ideal for majors and professionals
Earn CEUs/PDHs from AIPG/IGI/EFG
Ethics, writing, advanced environmental geoscience, etc.
On-demand and webinar course
Whole class option for CEUs at steep discount

13. AGI Academic Associates Program
Relaunch of prior AGI effort in formal support of Geoscience Departments
A suite of products and services for an annual membership
All AGI workforce reports and publications
Dedicate roundtable on overarching geoscience issues
Opportunities for students: VPS vouchers, best senior thesis, etc.
Designed to be tightly complementary with AGU Heads & Chairs
2YC, single department, and campus-wide levels

14. Key AGU Sessions
U11A. Moving the Needle Together: Valuing Nontraditional Approaches to Faculty Tenure, Promotion, and Advancement. Monday 8a. Convention Center 202A
PA42A-03: How Emerging Technology are Changing Geoscience Work. Thursday 11:05a. Marquis 3-4
ED31B: Graduate Student Experiences, Preparation and Pathways into the Workforce. Wednesday 8a. Marquis 1-2
ED33F-1134: Preliminary Investigation of the Structure and Nature of Geoscience Graduate Programs in the United States. Wednesday 1:40- 6p Posters

15. Geoscience Student Exit Survey
Did you get your Exit Survey Invite?
Take a look at the final report from last year
Watch the recording of the 5-year sequence analysis

16. For more information