Contractor agrees to work with Pitt engineering, business school to train students to not be ‘enginerds’

As a civil engineer for more than 40 years, Peter MacKenna knows all too well that substantially more engineers are retiring than are entering the work force, and the numbers for laborers are even worse.

He said he’s read estimates that about 20,000 civil engineers retire annually while 10,000 to 12,000 new graduates enter the field. By 2030, about 40% of the current engineers may retire.

So that’s why MacKenna, CEO of S&B USA Construction, worked to forge a collaboration with the University of Pittsburgh’s engineering and business schools to help train the next generation to develop, design and build roads and bridges. They signed a memorandum of understanding Wednesday at S&B’s headquarters at Nova Place on Pittsburgh’s North Side.

This is the first time S&B has formally partnered with a university. The worldwide company that started in Israel entered the Pittsburgh market five years ago when it acquired Joseph B. Fay Co.

S&B likes to be a good corporate neighbor, MacKenna said, but this collaboration also has another motive. By providing hands-on experience through internships, advising students on class projects and teaching some classes, more Pitt students may decide to work for the company when they graduate.

“I think as engineers, we have to get in front of that [shrinkage in the workforce],” he said after the announcement. “Hopefully it develops a pipeline of people.”

Mary Besterfield-Sacre, senior associate dean for academic affairs in the Swanson School of Engineering, said that real-life experience is vital to the 140 or so civil and environmental engineers who graduate every year. Without it, she said, they graduate as “enginerds,” students who may have strong technical skills but lack field experience.

“It’s not just about taking classes in engineering,” she said, noting the school has other collaborations with companies such as Alstom, which took over Bombardier Transportation in West Mifflin, and Eaton Corp. in Moon.

Pitt’s business school will be involved to expose students in the business end of contracting and other areas such as product promotion and marketing.

The collaboration also will include a financial contribution from S&B to the university, but the amount hasn’t been determined yet.