Career pattern and competences of PhDs in science and engineering in the knowledge economy: a UK cas

1
Career pattern and competences of PhDs in science
and engineering in the knowledge economy a UK
case

• Hsing-fen Lee
• Marcela Miozzo
• Philippe Laredo
• 2 July 2009
• PRIME Conference

2
Background

• In the knowledge economy, knowledge production is
  widespread and distributed across a host of new
  places and actors (David and Foray, 2002)
• Changing rationale for the demand of scientists
  and engineers in the knowledge economy (OECD,
  1991 1992 2000)
• Old rationale scientists and engineers working
  in the conventional technical occupations
  (academic/public research, RD departments in
  manufacturing) is crucial to competitiveness
• New rationale in the knowledge economy, the
  demand for scientists and engineers will be high
  as technologies are widely spread and many
  sectors outside the conventional technical
  sectors need scientists and engineers to absorb
  new technologies, despite
• Change in industrial structure Employment in
  manufacturing in the UK 29 in 1978 11 in 2007
• Change in the way of doing RD in industry Open
  innovation research outsourcing
• Number of highly qualified doctorates doubled
  between 1996 and 2007 in the UK

3
Research Questions

• Little is known about the employment sectors of
  the most highly trained personnel in science and
  engineering, science and engineering (SE) PhDs,
  and how exactly their knowledge and SE doctoral
  education contributes to the knowledge economy.
• What are the career paths of SE PhDs in the
  knowledge economy?
• If SE PhDs are likely to work mainly outside the
  conventional technical occupations, as suggested
  by the knowledge economy literature, how do their
  competences contribute to the knowledge economy
  through their employment in other occupations?

4
Hypotheses (1)
5
PhD Competences

• The UK officially stated purposes of doctoral
  education scholarship and training in research
  skills (CVCP, 1998).
• Substantive knowledge
• Factual knowledge such as knowledge of facts,
  events, data, concepts, rules, laws and theories.
  
• Procedural knowledge
• Learned skills or modifiable cognitive operations
  

6
Measuring PhD Competences in Different Employment
Sectors

• Individual knowledge co-evolves with the
  knowledge of the division(s) of labour the
  individual has been in (Kogut and Zander, 1996) .
• In a competence-based perspective of career
  development (DeFillippi and Arthur, 1994)
• There is a broader dependence of organisational
  competences on individual career behaviour.
• An individuals competences are defined through
  matched employment settings that recognise their
  potential contribution.
• As every PhD leaves university with a certain
  level of knowledge, a key diversity results in
  PhD competences in different sectors comes from
  the different structures in the use of knowledge
  in different divisions of labour.

7
Structures in the Use of Knowledge by Career Path

• Academic/public research
• Quality publications peer recognition
  reputation within the scientific communities
• Technical positions in manufacturing
• Clear goals team-work product development
  parallel development time to market
• A strong culture to publish in some companies
• New employment in the knowledge economy
• Dedicated managers project/general management
• Consultants ability to apply a particular
  toolbox in well known context clients from
  various sectors/industries inter-disciplinary
  and transferable skills

8
Hypotheses (2)

• Perception of the usefulness of knowledge
  acquired from PhD
• Cross-sectional
• Longitudinal
• Perception affected by experience in different
  sectors H3a
• Perception not affected by experience in
  different sectors H3b

9
Data

• A survey on PhD training and retrospective
  employment history (covering 7-10 years
  employment history) was conducted between April
  and July 2008.
• Sampling frame A list of PhD graduates awarded
  during 1998-2001 by the University of Manchester
  in science and engineering disciplines with UK
  and other EU addresses.
• 596 questionnaires sent 512 UK and 84 EU
  addresses.
• 102 responses 45 undelivered questionnaires
• Response rate 19.20 for UK addresses 15.3 for
  other EU addresses. Overall 18.51.

10
Measures
11
Results (1) The Dominance of New Employment in
the Knowledge Economy
Row percentage Column percentage
12
Results (2) Different Competences Mix for
Different Career Paths
For each type of knowledge acquired from doctoral
education, the likelihood of ranking the type of
knowledge as at least somewhat important rather
than not important by career path logistic
regressions
(1) plt0.01, plt0.05, plt0.1 (2) N268
13
Results (2) Different Competences Mix for
Different Career Paths
The likelihood of ranking at least somewhat
important rather than not important in each
type of knowledge acquired from doctoral
education between technical positions in
manufacturing and new employment in the knowledge
economy logistic regressions
(1) plt0.01, plt0.05, plt0.1 (2) N186
14
Results (3) Competences Shift When Changing
Career Paths
15
Results (3) Competences Shift When Changing
Career Paths, but Movers Do Not Have the Same
Views as Stayers, and Hold Different Views
Depending on Where They Come from
plt0.01, plt0.05, plt0.1
16
Conclusions

• New employment in the knowledge economy as
  dominant career path for SE PhDs.
• Specific to the UK?
• Modern SE doctoral education provides different
  sets of competences for different career paths.
• To some extent, the use of knowledge in a later
  job depends on working experience in previous
  jobs in different career paths.
• Subject specific knowledge for movers from
  academic/public research
• Project management skills for movers from
  technical positions in manufacturing
• The notion of procedural knowledge raises several
  issues
• The uniqueness of the PhD path to acquire such
  knowledge
• The portfolio nature of procedural knowledge
• The articulation between procedural knowledge and
  substantive knowledge