EDUCATION
By Amanda Jayne, STEM Leader, Hurst College
Why STEM should be at the root of education It’s exactly 20 years since Sir Gareth Roberts, a respected UK engineer, produced his report for the Chancellor on UK productivity and economic growth. In it he identified a significant shortage in the number of young people pursuing Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths – and ‘STEM’ subsequently became part of the educational lexicon. Initiatives to promote STEM careers have been around ever since, so every time I introduce myself to someone as the ‘STEM Leader’ at Hurst College, the acronym no longer requires laboriously spelling out and explaining; or so you would think. If the European Union had meant that to achieve economic growth and a suitably prepared population, we all had to speak French and learn how to prepare its cuisine, one would expect to find these subjects promoted in all aspects of life. Infant school children would be conjugating French verbs, and everyone would be adroit at producing a beurre blanc. Enough flippancy, but it’s borne from a sense of frustration that despite the STEM initiative, economic data shows that all developed countries still have a massive shortfall of technologically trained people to meet predicted workforce demands well into the future.
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The UK is facing a well-documented engineering crisis, hundreds of thousands of skilled technicians and professional engineering roles need filling over the current decade and supply is not keeping up with demand. What is even more worrisome is the realisation that we still aren’t rearing a population who will be fully prepared for the increasingly technological world they will live in. No matter what our career choice, we will all need suitable skills to be able to cope with the consequences; ever increasing mechanisation, digitisation and artificial intelligence. A STEM focused education system is designed to address both these issues. Through well-taught STEM subjects or undertaking a bolt-on school-based STEM activity, students can:
n Develop confidence in experimentation, and risk-taking. Creativity is also fostered. Without this mind-set, technological advancements and new innovations would not be possible. n Discover the power of technology and innovation, so learn to embrace them instead of being fearful. This gives them the upper-hand in the increasingly tech-centred global landscape. n Learn how to examine problems and then create a logical plan to solve them, and in so doing develop critical thinking skills. n Learn to work as part of a team to solve a problem, record data, write reports and make presentations. The result is a student who better understands the importance of collaboration. n Learn skills that equip them both for life in the modern world and for when they enter the workforce. n Become more motivated to pursue a STEM-based career, which offers highly competitive salaries and rapid career progression opportunities. So why, after 20 years of government intervention, do we still need to be promoting STEM, when an abundance of career opportunities in these sectors should be tempting enough and the need for a more tech-savvy lifestyle is staring us in the face?
