The Engineering/Engineering Technology Divide in the United States

The industrial revolution that took place in the second half of the nineteenth century in the United States fostered the need for a technically competent work force that was capable of serving the needs of an economy that in turn was developing new technologies at a rate unsurpassed in the history of humankind. At the engineering design level, the founding of the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) and the Engineering Council for Professional Development (ECPD) as an accrediting agency in the mid 1930’s were reflective of the efforts of higher education to respond to this need for quality assurance in the educational preparation of engineers. In 1980, ECPD metamorphosed into the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET). At the technician level, the response was less organized and more diffuse, with the emergence of many post-secondary trade schools in the first half of the twentieth century. Such schools were highly focused upon the requirements of a specific industry, and were almost always private, for-profit entities outside the realm of the public education system. Rarely were they concerned with prior educational achievements; that is, they frequently did not demand a high school diploma or its equivalent for admittance. Nevertheless, within the realm of the subjects taught, these trade schools promoted rigorous standards, recognizing that their own sustainability was contingent upon producing graduates who possessed the technical competence that industry required.