The World is Going To Need a Lot of Engineers, Soon!

I quote from The Economist:

It will cost $57 trillion to build and maintain the world’s roads, power plants, pipelines and the like between now and 2030, reckon consultants at McKinsey (see chart). That is more than the value of today’s infrastructure. By one estimate, infrastructure spending currently amounts to $2.7 trillion a year (about 4% of global output), yet $3.7 trillion is needed.

That also means we will need engineers to build that infrastructure -- Civil Engineers, Electrical Engineers, Electronics Engineers, and Agricultural Engineers. We will also need engineers to work on the factories and homes that will be served by that infrastructure, and engineers to develop the mechanical, electrical and electronic machines that will utilize the infrastructure.

Recall that to increase the number of working engineers, the world has to accumulate their number over the years, providing each cadre with opportunities for professional growth during its career. If more graduates are needed each year, then the engineering schools will need to build the added capacity to train those engineers, which in turn means that the world will need to educate the engineering educators. It takes time to produce an engineering profession and there is barely enough time to do the necessary by 2030.