WASHINGTON – Six years after taking the national spotlight and just weeks after President Obama’s proposed $3.1 billion pledge to Science, Technology, Engineering and Math education – STEM initiatives are on the right path, although student engagement has proven to be an uphill battle.
According to the president’s proposed 2014 fiscal budget, STEM education will see a 6.7 percent increase to the Obama administration’s 2012 federal investment.
The attention to STEM is due to a shortage of students and workers with science training – and an escalating demand.
“We’ve got something like 3.5 million jobs we can’t fill today because we don’t have those right skills,” said Edie Frazier of STEMconnector, a network that links STEM students and workers with industry jobs.
According to the Georgetown Center for Education and the Workforce, there is expected to be a 51 percent increase in computer-based occupations by the year 2018. Science and math job vacancies are also expected to reach 2.4 million between 2008 and 2018.
But institutions of higher education have been actively working towards a solution. Representative from universities, community colleges, private and public companies all met at a STEM Council Tuesday to discuss the progress being made.
“There are about 300,000 students in the ten-county area of middle Tennessee who are some way or another involved in the STEM program,” said Dr. Scott Massey, who connects students to stem jobs as director of the Cumberland Center in Tennessee.
According to results published by STEMconnector, more than 5,000 participating STEM organizations have reported varying degrees of success within their programs or regions.
But there are still roadblocks in the way. Student engagement is the biggest problem, according to Robert Denson, president of Des Moines Area Community College.
“I have a five-year-old grandson who cannot get into John Deere right across the street until he’s 14. But by that time he’s going to be off doing something else,” Denson said.
“You’ve got to let these young kids into your companies and see this rocket science that’s going on,” he said. “Get one of your engineers talk to them in small groups and say okay ‘math is important’ because no one else is telling them that.”
A computer science major at Georgetown University, Steve Burchfield understands the problem. “Everyone remembers their physics class as the most boring thing ever and the teachers just wrote formulas on the board,” he said. “Whereas if they found a way to make it a discussion-based thing like a history class or an English class I think it’d be easier to become more involved.”
The House Contracting and Workforce Subcommittee held a hearing on the STEM workforce and immigration reform Thursday. Witnesses discussed how the workforce shortage is affecting the current and future economic health of the country – a sign that the STEM demand will likely remain in the national spotlight for years to come.