The face of mechanical engineering is changing — dramatically. Engineers aged 55 to 60 are retiring, taking vital knowledge with them. The young engineers who will replace them are focused on specialization, branching off into sub-disciplines and job-hopping.

These and other insights were revealed by ASME, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, a 130,000-member-strong worldwide professional society.

“In the next 5 to 10 years, the challenge will be: how do you transition knowledge at companies like Boeing? People are coming out of school with a different perspective, and the information is changing so quickly,” said Karen Ohland, Senior Vice President, Knowledge and Community Sector, ASME.

Additionally, there’s a rising trend among companies to try out “20-somethings” in work-study positions. Companies test these younger engineers part-time to see how well they perform — re-establishing de facto apprenticeship programs as an important avenue into the profession.

MEs also note that younger engineers job-hop more than their predecessors did. It is no longer the norm to work for a single employer for one’s whole career. While major companies like GE will continue to retain engineers with extraordinary skill-building opportunities, career mobility is becoming the norm.

Today’s senior engineers are concerned about the hands-on aptitude of new engineers. In the words of ME John Blanton, Principal Engineer, Heat Transfer at GE Power and Water, “Engineers are people who enjoyed ripping apart their lawn mower and putting it back together! Young engineers today need to know about the manufacturing process and how parts work in a machine.”

Furthermore, seasoned engineers believe their younger colleagues are so focused on getting ahead at work that they don’t understand how membership in a professional society like ASME can help them. Blanton joined ASME as a student member, realizing it was filled with people who had done what he wanted to do. “Getting involved in the local ASME section allowed me to meet local academics and people working in the business,” he said.

Jen Jewers, a 31-year-old refrigeration engineer at Henderson Engineers, Inc. in Texas, had another perspective on what’s happening in the field. “It’s encouraging that there’s a lot of focus on trying to recruit women and minorities into the field, but we’re not there yet. Colleges are doing a lot, however.”

Worldwide, there are four million job openings for engineers, according to Monster.com, which also predicts an 11 percent growth in the field through 2018.

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People who worry about financing a college education for children or grandchildren have got plenty of company. More than 70 percent of parents with children under 18 say that paying for college is their top financial concern, according to Gallup’s 2001-2015 Economic and Personal Finance survey.

Young adults are worried too. Asked by Gallup to identify the top financial problem facing their families, more than one in five respondents aged 18 to 29 said it was paying tuition or college loans.

Fortunately, there’s a way to put money aside for education in an investment account where the savings can grow over the years, free from federal income taxes. What’s more, the student doesn’t have to pay federal income taxes on withdrawals from the account, as long as the money is used for qualified higher education expenses, which include tuition, books, fees, supplies and other approved expenses at accredited institutions.

“With the costs of higher education continuing to rise, knowledgeable families are taking advantage of 529 college savings plans,” says Kris Spazafumo, Vice President, Investment Services, at Los Angeles-based American Funds, which manages CollegeAmerica. It’s the country’s largest 529 plan, with nearly $50 billion in assets, as of March 31, 2015. “More than 1.2 million families nationwide are now saving for college with CollegeAmerica on behalf of 2.1 million future college students, and we expect that number to grow as more people become aware of the many benefits that 529 plans offer.”

Flexibility is a key feature of 529 plans. Parents and grandparents maintain control of the account, decide when and if to disburse the proceeds and retain the ability to change the beneficiaries. For example, if the child originally named as beneficiary doesn’t need the money or doesn’t go to college, the account beneficiary can be changed to another family member who might benefit. Account owners can even use the money for their own qualifying educational expenses to obtain a graduate degree, for instance, or specialized career training.

Anyone can open a 529 college savings plan, regardless of income, and can contribute up to $14,000 ($28,000 for married couples) annually without gift-tax consequences, and that money isn’t considered part of the account owner’s estate.

Since 529 plans are long-term investment vehicles, it’s important to choose a plan that offers a wide range of investment options and proven management expertise, says Spazafumo, who notes that CollegeAmerica offers a number of choices from the highly rated American Funds mutual fund family.

Financing higher education requires saving consistently over the long term, but it’s not impossible.

“A college education is a great investment, resulting in an estimated 70 percent more lifetime income and a 50 percent lower chance of being unemployed,” Spazafumo says, adding that saving for college is a much less costly approach than borrowing. “Earning an 8 percent return, rather than paying 8 percent interest, a family with a goal of $10,000 in college savings can attain that by saving a total of $7,000 over 10 years, as opposed to repaying a total of $14,000 over 10 years if they had borrowed the $10,000.”

Not only is borrowing more costly than saving your way to college, Spazafumo points out that there’s evidence many students aren’t able to keep up with their loan obligations. According to the Department of Education, borrowers who were due to start repaying their student loans in 2011 had a 13.7 percent default rate last year, thus damaging their credit ratings just as they were beginning their working lives.

Education has always been the pathway to higher incomes and job satisfaction, and that’s likely to be truer than ever in the years to come. Combining a disciplined savings program with the right 529 college savings plan can help make your family member’s dreams of college a reality.