Final word

Expanding the STEM talent pool

Fact file

Dr Anne-Marie Imafidon is chief executive of Stemettes and C4 Countdown (temporary) arithmetician stemettes.org

Stemettes’ sevenyear anniversary at Google for Startups, London, in 2020

LIKE most children, I was curious. Fortunately for me, my parents harnessed my curiosity by allowing me to dismantle machines and gadgets at home with few repercussions.

At school, brilliant teachers saw past what looked like disruptive behaviour and gave supportive advice to my parents. These early interventions paid off sooner than expected – I passed two GCSEs before leaving primary school. Aged 11, I became the youngest girl ever to pass A-level computing. By the time I was 20, I had a master’s degree in mathematics and computer science from the University of Oxford.

A few years into building my tech career, I started to notice and be frustrated by the lack of women and non-binary people in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) spaces I inhabited. So, in 2013, I co-founded the Stemettes, a not-for-profit organisation, to ensure girls, young women and non-binary young people know that STEM fields are rewarding and viable options for them as a career choice.

We provide engaging activities and opportunities for learning in schools, events and inspirational content platforms. We pride ourselves on the intersectional group of thousands we’ve engaged with STEM, many of whom are from traditionally underrepresented groups. We prioritise recipients of free school meals, those who are state-school educated, or whose parents did not attend further education or are not employed in STEM.

We’ve reached almost 60,000 young people in person and in a virtual capacity around the world and, in 2020, 75 per cent of Stemette alumni had entered STEM careers by the age of 26. Our model has an in-built multiplier effect: Stemettes grows more Stemettes, and the STEM talent pool expands. As seeing is believing, our behind-thescenes team is diverse, which helps to attract our target audiences.

The NEU recently approached us to produce a set of resources (neu.org.uk/women-stem) to “encourage schools to celebrate women in STEM and break down gender stereotypes”. We jumped at the chance.

Stemettes teacher packs for the NEU

We decided to adapt some of the weekly activity packs from our popular Stemillions school clubs programme to feature ten different role models in STEM. The NEU even provided us with a Covid STEM role model – Dr Nita Patel, who oversaw the development of the Novavax vaccine and is a leading woman in the field of vaccinology.

Schools are also given specially designed student handouts, teacher notes and slides for all ten role models from across STEM. All activities involve equipment that can readily be found around school and are matched with key stage 3 and 4 curriculum goals.

Stemettes regularly collects data from all our participants so we can reflect, adapt and act. We know that if we engage young girls and non-binary people in their formative years and allow them to join a supportive STEM community, they are more likely to carry on into STEM pathways in the future. In 2020, our feedback found that 100 per cent of 1,064 young people who participated in Stemillions felt they better understood STEM career options. If we want to equip young people with aptitude and passion for STEM we need to act while they are in prime learning mode.

What next?

The NEU began testing the teacher packs in January and Stemettes will then incorporate any feedback and adapt the resources accordingly. International Women’s Day is a key date in our diary at Stemettes so we will launch the resources on 8 March.

Through the range of role models and activities on offer in the packs – from life processes and living things, right through to app design – we want to show the next generation of girls and non-binary people that STEM is for everyone. You don’t have to be an expert at everything but having a basic understanding or appreciation of STEM subjects means that you can make better decisions when choosing a career.