American Geosciences Institute Releases 2014 Status of Recent Geoscience Graduates

Alexandria, VA - The American Geosciences Institute has released the 2014 Status of Recent Geoscience Graduates, which highlights the impact of booming enrollments and the challenges for students face in matching their education to the demands of the current hiring in the geoscience-related industries.

“Understanding the skills, knowledge and experiences of geoscience graduates is important because of upcoming changes to the geoscience workforce,” report author Carolyn Wilson said, referencing a large population of baby boomers approaching retirement age. “This research has not been conducted prior to 2013 and it’s important we are able to characterize what a geoscience graduate looks like, and what they know.”

Many trends from 2013 are echoed in the 2014 study, and there was a 60% increase in participation from the geoscience community in this year’s study. However, 2014 did see the graduation rates of women increasing to almost equal or higher than that of men. Also, a Latino/Hispanic population dominated the percentages of those who self-identified as members of an underrepresented population.

Two key trends continued in 2014, with an increasing number of geoscience graduates not participating in internships, and a shortage of available spaces to attend field camps and courses during the course of their studies. Both trends impact potential employability as work and field experiences remain top employer preferences.

Social aspects of geoscience student experiences are also explored. Many students are drawn to geoscience by an appreciation of the outdoors, enjoying the interdisciplinary nature of the science, the influence of role models, and job security. Consistent with the 2013 report, students who graduate with master’s degrees tend to find jobs with higher annual salaries than doctoral candidates and those with salaries higher than $90,000 are exclusively employed in the oil and gas industry.

When asked about what picture is emerging from researching recent geoscience graduates Wilson said, “Since this kind of research has not been previously done, we are now able to provide supporting data to the often anecdotally cited issues, most of which are neither new or surprising, only now we are able to back it up.”

To download the report: http://bit.ly/1xwNOpf