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by John Vasko -
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Last year, AIChE announced the launch of its new center dedicated to careers and skills development, the Institute for Learning and Innovation. Over the course of the past year, we've educated hundreds of learners via Academy course and webinar offerings, offered more than 50 internships and other opportunities for learning through practice, and conducted six AIChE Career Discovery™ workshops with nearly 400 students and professionals participating.
We're excited about the progress we've made with ILI, and we've only just begun. This year, coinciding with the 2021 AIChE Annual Meeting and its theme “Building the Bridge in 21st Century Education: Chemical Engineering Industry + Academia,” we're happy to announce a new and expanded, online home for the Institute for Learning and Innovation.
You can still reach it by visiting aiche.org/ILI, but once you're there you'll notice we've made it easier for you to find where to begin or continue your career journey. You can click on any of the areas of advancement (explained further below) or find content geared to your career stage. If you're visiting as an employer or educator, you'll also find pages explaining how you can partner with ILI.
If you're unsure where to begin, Career Discovery is a good place. It's the home of all things career-related, including resume building, career coaching, networking, interview coaching, and our job board. But it's more than that. Our career insights tool allows you to enter an occupation and location to instantly see data and insights that will help you plan your next career move. You can see the industry outlook, wages, and required skills for a particular job.
Finally, AIChE Career Discovery™ workshops allow participants to build a skills grid and determine their "five futures." ILI created this benefit in collaboration with a PhD chemical engineer and corporate veteran who has had multiple career pivots. Learn more at aiche.org/ILI/career-discovery.
...rather than asking learners the question “what do you want to do?”, we think it is better to ask “what types of things might you like to do in the next five to ten years?” Using this approach, we then identify the skills and experiences you might need to get there. —Monty Alger
Whatever your career stage, AIChE Academy continues to be the definitive resource for engineers to acquire or sharpen their skills with courses and webinars in chemical engineering, process and hydrogen safety, bioengineering, sustainability, and professional development. Offering more than 150 courses in asynchronous and face-to-face formats (both virtual and in-person) and hundreds of webinars, Academy is your educational anchor to learning new skills or training new teams. In 2021, look for hundreds of new micro-courses and topics that include data analytics, software programming languages applicable to engineers, and equity, diversity, and inclusion training. Learn more at aiche.org/ILI/academy.
When looking for a promotion or applying for a new role, you need a way to distinguish yourself from other candidates. AIChE’s credential programs can help by demonstrating that your skills are up to date. After you have completed select Academy curricula (or courses), AIChE Credential validates your proficiency with potential employers, in disciplines such as process intensification, safety, sustainability and many others. Learn more at aiche.org/ILI/credential.
Through Practice+, learners can put their acquired skills to the test by applying them to practical problems. In addition to the RAPID Manufacturing Institute’s internship on process intensification, AIChE’s ILI has partnered with Dow and EDM Electronics on internships in the area of data analytics. In addition to internships, Practice+ offers opportunities for undergraduate students to hone their skills through competitions such as Chem-E-Car, ChemE Cube, and others. Learn more at aiche.org/ILI/practice-plus.
Involving employers and educators
We like to think of ILI as a connector between hiring managers, students, professionals, and professors. We’re looking to partner with organizations to provide in-company training or create new Practice+ internship opportunities. If you’re university faculty, you can find resources to help educate yourself and your students in areas like process safety. Or if you’re a K-12 teacher, you’ll find modules to help guide your classes. Learn more about how employers and educators can get involved.
With you every step of the way
In support of AIChE’s passion to promote lifelong learning across the profession, our vision goes beyond a laundry list of courses and aims to address learning more holistically—from the classroom to boardroom, from learning to doing, from career discovery to skills development.