Corporations no longer just want engineers. They are looking for people with
engineering thinking, managerial and flexible skills. STEM, an educational model at the intersection of different disciplines, helps prepare such employees
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What is STEM education
STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering,
Mathematics) education is a model that combines natural sciences and engineering subjects into a single system.
It is based on an integrative approach: biology,
physics,
chemistry, and mathematics are not taught separately, but in connection with each other to solve real technological problems. This approach teaches us to consider problems as a whole, rather than in terms of a single field of science or technology.
About the expert: Denis Kuzmin is director of the MIPT School of Biological and Medical Physics. He is a partner of Meta-University. This is a university that creates joint master's programs of leading Russian universities and companies that order training.
The second cornerstone of
STEM help is the project-based form of students' scientific work. This format combines a diploma project with an internship in a technological company. Students get experience that is as close as possible to their future profession. At the same time they work on a complex technological project in a team, developing their "flexible" skills.
STEM education helps prepare valuable staff for full-time work in technological companies immediately after graduation.
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Why the demand for STEM education is growing now
The acronym STEM was introduced by employees of the U.S. National Science Foundation to denote a new educational paradigm in 2001. With its help it was planned to provide the United States with highly qualified technical specialists for the development of science and industry.
Today, STEM specialists are the most in-demand people in the world labor market. According to the predictions of the analysts of the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the need for STEM specialists will outstrip other specialties by 76% in the next ten years. About 10 million people will be needed for the U.S. market alone, and the shortage persists despite the increasing pace of training.
TED Talk Stephanie Hill on why we can no longer afford casual engineers and the superpowers of STEM
Training and recruiting STEM professionals is a key priority of the U.S. government. STEM students in STEM fields are given extended visas for 36 months versus the usual 12 months. Meanwhile, the median salary for a STEM professional is more than double the national average - $86,980 per year versus $39,810 per year.
According to Microsoft President Brad Smith, there is a "genius crisis" - a time when tech companies are short of qualified STEM professionals. In order to prepare the right employees, Microsoft is pushing the U.S. to invest in the development of STEM education in the country.
The need for STEM education is also growing in Russia. The Russian labor market needs 222,000 digital workers. By 2024 their number will grow to 300 thousand.
The main development direction of leading companies is digitalization and data analysis, so competencies in IT and Data Science are needed for everyone involved in the technology business. For example, in 2020, industrial enterprises in China received more than $4 trillion of added value thanks to digital technology. McKinsey estimates that the adoption of Data Science techniques in U.S. healthcare could save up to $450 million, or 17% of the industry's entire budget.
The use of digital technology and data analytics can benefit any business, regardless of the industry. At the same time, processing seemingly extraneous information can solve quite complex problems. A great example is the banking industry. Large banks collect and process all kinds of information about potential customers, from social networks to geolocation. They actively use artificial intelligence and machine learning to predict and automate business processes.
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The benefits and program of STEM education
Improving
STEM literacy will help any professional stay in demand in the high-skilled job market.
You can learn about STEM in open online educational venues. For example, Coursera, EdX, and Udemy publish courses of different duration and complexity from the world's leading universities. For an additional fee you can get an electronic certificate of course completion. Such a certificate can be attached to your LinkedIn profile and is quoted by most major companies.
The basics of engineering, physics and mathematics can be laid down for children with home experiments and simple games. For example, Dyson engineers have come up with 44 engineering experiments for kids
More serious STEM training can be received at corporate educational programs of technical universities. These are joint programs of a university and an industrial partner. The partner pays for the students' education, helps draw up the curriculum, and selects candidates. Students work on their diploma project at the industrial partner, solving a real technological problem.
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