The EU STEM Coalition is a network of national STEM platforms: organisations that support the coordination and implementation of national or regional strategy for STEM<\/a> education and labour market. The focus of the network is primarily on the implementation of the national or regional objectives. In other words, \u2018how can we translate a policy objective into an effective implementation programme\u2019. These programmes often rely on the close cooperation between the \u2018triple helix\u2019 of government, industry and education providers.<\/p>\n
STEM refers to the academic disciplines of \u2018Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics\u2019. In a policy context the term \u2018STEM\u2019 often also includes technical Vocational Education and Training (VET) and science-related courses in secondary education. The number and proportion of STEM graduates is often viewed as a pre-condition for innovation and economic growth.<\/p>\n
The situation regarding STEM education varies greatly between Member States. Generally speaking, many Member States are experiencing both a quantitative and a qualitative \u2018skills mismatch\u2019. Quantitative skills mismatch refers to shortages of STEM graduates. These shortages are especially visible in ICT-related professions, where large numbers of vacancies remain unfulfilled. Qualitative skills mismatch on the other hand refers to the mismatch between the skills of recent graduates and the needs of employers. This form of skills mismatch results in the need for re-training by employers and difficulties in the transition from education to the labour market.<\/p>\n
Both quantitative and qualitative skills mismatch hamper economic growth, innovation and the ability of companies to quickly adapt to and benefit from the emergence of new technologies. In addition, they can have a \u2018spillover\u2019 effect onto other policy areas. For example, the unavailability specific kinds of technicians (e.g. wind turbine maintenance, heat pump installation, etc.) can be a major bottleneck in the implementation of regional objectives related to the energy transition.<\/p>\n
Finally, in many Member States there is a growing notion that a minimum level of STEM skills are an increasingly important requirement for \u2018active citizenship\u2019. For example, making a doctor\u2019s appointment or evaluating news sources often requires some level of digital literacy. The European Commission highlighted the link between STEM skills and social inclusion in in their report \u2018Science Education for Responsible Citizenship\u2019 (2015).<\/p>\n
In many Member States girls are underrepresented in STEM-education and jobs. This is especially true in the field of ICT where even in the best-performing country (Finland), only one in five ICT-professionals is female.<\/p>\n
Many Member States, regions as well as NGO\u2019s, private sector organisations, universities and even individual companies and schools have developed a wide variety of actions and approaches targeted specifically at increasing STEM uptake among girls. Often used models include the use of female role models in the classroom, relating STEM subjects to specific societal challenges and projects for example, and inquiry based learning activities.<\/p>\n
One of the key issues often seen at the level of the Member State is the lack of coordination between these individual interventions, especially in different education levels. This is caused by the fact that an integrated \u2018chain approach\u2019 that covers the entire education chain (\u2018talent pipeline\u2019) from primary education to the labour market requires the coordinated involvement of different ministries, government departments as well as other stakeholders. Some Member States have addressed this issue by creating a dedicated \u2018STEM platform\u2019 and\/or national strategy that covers the entire education chain.<\/p>\n
There has been a lot of attention on the acute shortages of STEM skilled people for the labour market. However, the increasing pace of technological developments is changing labour market demands to the point that simply updating the curriculum is no longer sufficient. To stay competitive, a more systemic shift needs to take place towards more and structural cooperation between education institutions and industry.<\/p>\n
There are already many large-scale examples of new concepts of e.g. public-private partnerships education. In addition, the European Commission is contributing to upscaling these models through new instruments such as the \u2018Centres of Vocational Excellence\u2019-initiative, which in turn was inspired by national best practices. The EU STEM Coalition aims to provide a support infrastructure that can effectively assist countries and regions with the development of new national and regional strategies, platform organisations by leveraging existing best practices.<\/p>\n
Geert Asselbergs<\/strong>
\nCoordinator<\/strong>
\nEU STEM Coalition <\/strong>
\ng.asselbergs@stemcoaltion.eu<\/strong><\/a>
\nTweet @STEM_Europe<\/a><\/strong>
\nhttp:\/\/www.stemcoalition.eu\/<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"