Developing a new Engineering Technologist career pathway from First-Year Engineering

Successfully completing an engineering degree often requires at least four or five years of intense study by students, and many of these students start their programs with a limited sense of what an engineer is or does.  During their journey, some students gravitate towards a blend of practical application and theoretical knowledge of engineering principles; some, for diverse reasons, may be unable to invest the time required for an engineering degree. For these students, an engineering technologist career, which focuses on application and implementation, may be more appropriate.
 Leveraging the common first-year engineering curriculum recently launched in British Columbia, Vancouver Island University has developed and implemented a new, generalist, Integrated Engineering Technologist diploma (ITED) that combines civil, mechanical, and electrical principles, and provides a career pathway for those students who start engineering studies but choose not to continue with the degree.  
 This paper will focus on the development of this new diploma, while a subsequent paper will evaluate its implementation.
 The three development phases of the IETD were:1. Identifying key p