STEM Education Is the Key to the U.S.'s Economic Future
We need to encourage more students to pursue science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM)
John Engler is the president of Business Roundtable and a former governor of Michigan.
A
close look at American unemployment statistics reveals a contradiction:
Even with unemployment at historically high levels, large numbers of
jobs are going unfilled. Many of these jobs have one thing in common–the
need for an educational background in science, technology, engineering,
and mathematics.
Increasingly, one of our richest sources of
employment and economic growth will be jobs that require skills in these
areas, collectively known as STEM. The question is: Will we be able to
educate enough young Americans to fill them?
Yes, the unemployment
numbers have been full of bad news for the past few years. But there
has been good news too. While the overall unemployment rate has slowly
come down to May's still-high 8.2 percent, for those in STEM occupations
the story is very different.
According
to a recently released study from Change the Equation, an organization
that supports STEM education, there are 3.6 unemployed workers for every
job in the United States. That compares with only one unemployed STEM
worker for two unfilled STEM jobs throughout the country. Many jobs are
going unfilled simply for lack of people with the right skill sets. Even
with more than 13 million Americans unemployed, the manufacturing
sector cannot find people with the skills to take nearly 600,000
unfilled jobs, according to a study last fall by the Manufacturing
Institute and Deloitte.
The hardest jobs to fill were skilled
positions, including well-compensated blue collar jobs like machinists,
operators, and technicians, as well as engineering technologists and
sciences.
As Raytheon Chairman and CEO William Swanson said at a
Massachusetts' STEM Summit last fall, "Too many students and adults are
training for jobs in which labor surpluses exist and demand is low,
while high-demand jobs, particularly those in STEM fields, go unfilled."
STEM-related
skills are not just a source of jobs, they are a source of jobs that
pay very well. A report last October from the Georgetown University
Center on Education and the Workforce found that 65 percent of those
with Bachelors' degrees in STEM fields earn more than Master's degrees
in non-STEM occupations. In fact, 47 percent of Bachelor's degrees in
STEM occupations earn more than PhDs in non-STEM occupations.
But
despite the lucrative potential, many young people are reluctant to
enter into fields that require a background in science, technology,
engineering, or mathematics. In a recent study by the Lemselson-MIT
Invention Index, which gauges innovation aptitude among young adults, 60
percent of young adults (ages 16 to 25) named at least one factor that
prevented them from pursuing further education or work in the STEM
fields. Thirty-four percent said they don't know much about the fields, a
third said they were too challenging, and 28 percent said they were not
well-prepared at school to seek further education in these areas.
This
is a problem—for young people and for our country. We need STEM-related
talent to compete globally, and we will need even more in the future.
It is not a matter of choice: For the United States to remain the global
innovation leader, we must make the most of all of the potential STEM
talent this country has to offer.
Government can play a critical
part. President Barack Obama's goal of 100,000 additional science,
technology, engineering, and math teachers is laudable. The president's
STEM campaign leverages mostly private-sector funding. Called Educate to
Innovate, it has spawned Change the Equation, whose study was cited
above. A nongovernmental organization, Change the Equation was set up by
more than 100 CEOs, with the cooperation of state governments and
educational organizations and foundations to align corporate efforts in
STEM education.
Source: US news
Africason is a die-hard believer in Africa.
Twitter: @african_school
Web: www.africason.com
Email: info(AT)africason.com
Find my songs on iTunes, artiste name: Africason
Comments
Post a Comment