There’s a lot of talk about attracting young people, especially women, into careers in the so-called STEM fields – science, technology, engineering, and math. It has been reported that there are not enough young people with the right qualifications coming out of schools to fill all the STEM openings, and this shortage is hurting the nation’s competitiveness.
Companies and governments are reaching out to schools, hoping to show students that STEM careers can be fulfilling and rewarding careers. And, based on an item in the IEEE’s Spectrum magazine, their efforts could be backfiring, at least according to what one girl in grade eight wrote. Every approach seems to reinforce her impression that better career choices can be found in other fields.
The student, Maura Charette, seems unimpressed with what she sees:
Actual STEM workers. Scientists and engineers who come into the classroom to explain what they do seem one-dimensional. As Maura says, being a biologist devoted to studying fungi may be fascinating to some, but she would prefer a career that engages her in a range of interests from art to technology.
What STEM workers do. Engineers cannot paint a compelling picture of what they do. They try to show by giving students tasks such as building a bridge out of drinking straws and marshmallows, but many students find these tasks trivial and pointless. They are a poor choice to motivate career choices.
Study requirements. Qualifying for a STEM career requires you to study and get good grades in very difficult subjects. Maura is willing to commit to working hard, but only if she believes that the investment in schoolwork will lead to a worthwhile career. So far, she has trouble seeing a desirable cost-benefit ratio.
Interpersonal skill. There’s a lot of talk about how teamwork is vital in STEM jobs, but it doesn’t show in what Maura sees. For the straw-and-marshmallow-bridge exercise, the students were asked to work in teams but there was no focus on team dynamics. As a result, many teams fell apart and students were left with a negative feeling about the exercise.
It strikes me that these outreach efforts are geared to work on technically-minded people like myself, who are already attracted to STEM fields, rather than on people like Maura, who are the real targets of these efforts.
Women can find it challenging to pursue a career in science and technology, for example, as described here: 7 things keeping women out of science. Perhaps Maura will not experience these problems herself; it seems that inept advocacy may keep her away from ever starting such a career.
To get back to the opening point – is there a shortage of people coming out of schools to fill all the needs for scientists and engineers? According to another article in the same issue of the Spectrum, the answer is NO. Robert Charette crunched the numbers and discovered that in the US, schools produce about 40% more graduates in STEM fields than there are job openings. Foreign workers arriving with H-1B visas add another 20%. In fact many STEM graduates end up finding work elsewhere; a 2011 study from Georgetown University found that, ten years after they received their degrees, 58% of STEM graduates had left the field.
I had a little concern about Robert’s numbers: not all school graduates are headed to the workforce – some are planning further studies – and of the graduates who left the field, some may have done so because they decided they didn’t like STEM work or because they found more satisfying occupations elsewhere. However, even taking those into account, I see no deficit of talent to fill the STEM positions available.
Sleepless Afternoon 