2023 PAC Symposium and Roundtable on Emerging Professionals

Preparing Future Archaeologists to meet the Growing Demand for CRM Professionals

Friday, April 14, 2023 – 1:30-3:30 PM – Dubois Country Club/Comfort Suites, Dubois, PA

The US cultural resource management (CRM) industry will grow substantially over the next decade, both in terms of funds allocated and the size of the labor force. Between 2022 and 2031 annual spending will increase from $1.46 to $1.85 billion, largely as a result of the newly-passed federal infrastructure bill, leading to the creation of nearly 11,000 new full-time CRM positions. About 70% of these will require advanced degrees but based on current graduation rates there will be a significant deficit of qualified applicants.

At the same time, many archaeology programs at universities and colleges across the country and throughout Pennsylvania are being shut down, scaled back, or combined with other programs. Firms and agencies facing increasing demands for their services are finding it increasingly hard, if not impossible, to find qualified archaeologists just when they need them most. Public agencies at all levels—federal, state, tribal, and municipal—have recently struggled to fill open positions. Few candidates applied and those that did frequently lacked the skill sets and experience the agencies desperately need.

This roundtable brings together leaders in industry, academia, and state and federal agencies to discuss how to adequately train the next generation to meet the growing national need and also capitalize on what could be CRM’s “golden decade”. Topics to be discussed include (1) reversing the trend to close or shrink current graduate programs; (2) reorienting academic programs to prioritize the skills deemed most critical for the next decade of CRM work; (3) creating partnerships and training opportunities between academic programs and CRM firms to increase the number and diversity of students in the CRM pipeline, and (4) better integrating academic and applied archaeology to leverage the vast amount of data that will be generated in the next decade to best benefit the public and descendent communities.

Participants: