Gaps in spectroscopy education are costing companies time and money. What are these gaps and how are they being addressed?
One of the ongoing challenges in the spectroscopy industry is skills and education gaps that exist between the seasoned spectroscopists and the younger scientists entering the field.1 As more seasoned spectroscopists retire, the brain drain of spectroscopic knowledge is only accelerating as new spectroscopists do not have the same knowledge and skill sets that are needed to compensate for the retiring scientists.
Further complicating this issue is the fact that there’s not enough reliable education resources for spectroscopists to access and gain those skills, and employers are certainly reluctant to pick up the tab.
“Management in U.S. companies especially don't want to send people to extensive training courses because of the expense and the time lost,” Ellen Miseo, Secretary for the Society for Applied Spectroscopy (SAS) and education coordinator for both SAS and the Coblentz Society, said in a recent panel discussion with Spectroscopy.2
It is for these reasons that SpecAcademy was created. SpecAcademy is an online platform launched by Spectroscopy in collaboration with SAS, the Coblentz Society, and the International Atomic Spectrometry Association (IASA).1 This platform provides industry professionals and students the opportunity to maintain and grow their knowledge through participation in carefully curated courses.
Miseo described SpecAcademy as "an online platform that's designed to teach the user base various aspects of spectroscopy, not just vibrational spectroscopy, but all optical spectroscopy."2
The impetus, she said, came from what the societies' senior members were observing in laboratories.
"Many of our senior members see that there is a gap in the education and the knowledge of people who are in the labs operating instruments," Miseo said. At the same time, she noted, "management in especially US companies don't want to send people to extensive training courses because of the expense, the time lost."2
Miseo was candid that neither the Coblentz Society, SAS, Spectroscopy, or IASA could have solved the education gap alone. have closed that gap alone.
"Quite frankly, neither society has the horsepower to have done this on our own," Miseo said. Under the partnership, the societies supply the instructors, and the publisher builds and promotes the platform. The result, she explained, is that "the publishing organization can put the platform together and promote it well beyond where the societies can."2
Peter Larkin, Manager of Spectroscopy, Thermal Analysis, and Chromatography at Syensqo, framed the need from an industrial standpoint. His organization's business model, he said, depends on "highly trained analytical chemists," with the goal that each becomes a subject matter expert in their own area. Academic preparation alone does not get them there.
"There's a practical aspect and a detailed aspect for being able to solve industrial problems that we need to have a core amount of knowledge transferred to a recent graduate," Larkin said.2
This challenge is compounded by retirements, job changes, and resignations. This turnover is not unique to the spectroscopy industry, but it does lead to specific challenges regarding skills and knowledge.
"There's a certain turnover that occurs intrinsically in industry, so we are always looking to challenge our people, develop our people, and train our people," Larkin said. That training has to be affordable and current: "we need to do that cost-effectively, and we need to be current with what the present knowledge is and be ready to solve our customers problems."2
Several panelists pointed to the loss of mentorship as the heart of the problem. Today, new hires are expected to come with the expertise, which used to be passed down to them on the job through the mentorship of a senior colleague.
"Without the apprenticeship, they don't have the benefit of learning from people," Miseo said.2
Larkin offered a personal example of how much has changed.
"I worked with Norm Colthup,” Larkin reflected.2 “They paid him to come in every two weeks for five years with me and train me, and that type of mentorship doesn't really exist in industry anymore. It's a very different world than when we started. So, there is not that investment in time and money and effort."
Jeff D'Agostino, a Senior Applications Chemist for Specac, Inc. and a member of SAS, Coblentz, and the American Chemical Society, said he sees the consequences of this lack of mentorship firsthand in his conversations with customers.
"They might have the theoretical end of it, but they don't have the practical experience," D’Agostino said. "And lots of times I'm on calls and teaching people how to use different parts of different accessories."
SpecAcademy aims to fill that void by connecting learners with seasoned practitioners. "With SpecAcademy, people are going to have the access to the experts," D'Agostino said, noting that an individual working inside a company often lacks that access.
The hope, then, with SpecAcademy, is that it begins to address some of these abovementioned challenges while taking into consideration the presence of fewer mentors and tighter budgets. It is a way to deliver expert, practical instruction without the cost and time away from the laboratory that traditional courses demand.1
As Miseo put it, the partnership means "the societies get the benefit of providing the instructors, who provide good content," bringing the kind of knowledge once passed down through apprenticeship to a new generation of spectroscopists.1,2
