You probably already heard about STEM, if not, it is an acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math education. It is an interdisciplinary approach to these four connected and overlapped fields of studies. In fact, some practitioners propose to call it STEAM (adding in an A for the Arts) to recognize the importance of arts in the fields of STEM. When it is done well, STEM can help students learn key 21st century skills, namely, collaboration, critical thinking, communication and creativity.
STEM jobs are defined based on occupation and include any of the standard occupations in life sciences, physical and Earth sciences, engineering and architecture, computer and math occupations as well as health-related occupations including healthcare providers and technicians.
A student well-versed and literate in the STEM fields tends to be an innovative and critical thinker. He or she can apply what they’ve learned to real world problems, improving their communities along the way. High school graduates who are literate in STEM, transition seamlessly into their higher education careers in those fields. Ultimately, STEM literacy translates into employment in the increasingly knowledge-based economy we see locally and around the globe. STEM literacy means gainful employment in higher-earning jobs for today and tomorrow’s work force not only in STEM jobs, but in almost any jobs in many industries.
In the United States alone there are three million more STEM jobs than the number of available trained professionals to fill them. In New Jersey, there are 1.4 open jobs in STEM for every unemployed person. STEM-related jobs are expected to grow at almost twice that of other jobs in the market, and the vast underrepresentation of female, black and Latino professionals in these fields illustrates equity issues and challenges that we must address. This challenge and opportunity is only going to grow over time. The U.S. Departm
ent of Labor estimates that 65 percent of today’s grade-school students will end up in jobs that do not yet exist. Our current education system was built for an industrialized age of standardization. In our globally connected and fast-changing world, we need to free the education system to innovate and evolve into something that can address the need of the unknown future.
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