Friends,
I want to draw your attention to a U.S. News and World Report: STEM Worker Shortage At a Crisis: There were two passages that stood out to me:
While the survey found students today are twice as likely to study STEM fields compared to their parents, the number of roles requiring STEM expertise is growing at a rate that exceeds current workforce capacity. In manufacturing alone, the National Association of Manufacturing and Deloitte predict the U.S. will need to fill about 3.5 million jobs by 2025; yet as many as 2 million of those jobs may go unfilled, due to difficulty finding people with the skills in demand.
Despite ongoing efforts to boost interest in STEM among students, the research also showed that respondents do not think there are enough opportunities for students in the U.S. to gain STEM skills. Only about 30 percent of those surveyed said teachers have the resources necessary for providing STEM education to students
If we believe that 30% of educators have the resources to include STEM instruction in the classroom, that means that the perception is that 70% of educators lack access to resources that will build STEM skills in learners. Additionally, manufacturing is changing. It is anticipated there will be approximately 3.5 million jobs in this industry by 2020, and a shocking 57% of these jobs will remain unfilled as a result of this crisis.
As STEM educators, do you feel you have access to the resources needed to build skills in these areas? And do you see a gender gap in students selecting STEM fields? If so, how can we address this?
Sincerely,
Kathy Tracey
@Kathy_Tracey