Employment opportunities for engineer majors after graduation have just increased.

The President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, formed by president Obama in 2011, announced that 45 industry leaders have committed to doubling their engineering internships in 2012.

The council estimated that this will add over 6,000 “additional opportunities for hands-on, technical job training for future engineers.”

The goal is to graduate 10,000 engineering students more each year.

VSU has eight special engineering courses: Aerospace, Chemical, Civil, Computer, Electrical, Industrial, Mechanical and Engineering Technology.

These courses at VSU satisfy two years of a bachelor’s degree. Students then transfer to finish their studying.

A Dual-Degree Program is also available for students who want to earn two bachelor’s degrees, mathematics or science degree from VSU and an engineering degree from Georgia Tech.

This program usually requires more than five years to complete.

“I think there is a need for engineering majors so I think it is great that companies are opening up to help out with shortage,” Megan Grace, a VSU student considering changing her major to engineering, said.

In the U.S., 120,000 engineering students graduate a year, putting the U.S. far behind India and China’s annual 1 million engineering graduates.

According to TheBestDegrees.org, a high education website that provides information to students about degrees, projected this year that a bachelor’s degree in Engineering ranked number 25 on the list of best job opportunities ranked by salary.

Other degrees among the list were a PhD in Computer Science and a Bachelor’s Degree in Nursing.

The median annual salary for engineers varies because of the wide area of different job titles in the industry.

In May 2010, salaries ranged from $71,090 ($34.18/hour) for agricultural engineers to $114,080 ($54.85/hour) for petroleum engineers.

From the Intel CEO and President Paul Otellini, to Permac Industries CEO and President Darlene Miller, the Jobs Council’s High Tech Education believe that the engineering gap in our country can potentially hurt us as we try to create new jobs and compete in a global economy.

“For America to stay competitive in the global market, we must train and retain the world’s best engineers,” Steven Chu, U.S. Secretary of Energy said.

Engineer major Jacob Smith is happy to know that people are working on the behalf of engineering majors to make finding a job easier after they graduate.

Companies such as Dell, Boeing Sprit Nextel, Facebook and many more have signed up to offer more internships for engineering students.

“I like the fact that big named companies signed on to help out because I believe it would be a good experience to intern for one of them,” Justin Black, aerospace major, said.