Stimulating interest in STEM careers among students in Europe

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Stimulating interest in STEM careers among students in Europe

Supporting career choice and giving a more realistic view of STEM at work

Alexa Joyce


Dedicated to

Support schools in bringing about the best use

of technology in learning

Promote the Europeandimension in schools

and education

Improve and raise the quality of education

in Europe

Network & think tankof 30 Ministries

of Education in Europe

About European Schoolnet


Three strands of activityEuropean Schoolnet’s activities

•Policy and practice research

•Innovation and exchange

•School networking & services

•Validation & support for pilot schools

•Interoperability and content exchange

•Resource platform


• Europe is training too few scientists, technology experts and engineers– Asian countries train twice as many scientists

compared to European member states, and three times as many engineers.

• Europe’s highest scientific achievers – Finnish students – outperformed by Chinese students in Shanghai and Hong Kong (PISA, TIMMS)

• No growth in choice of scientific higher education and career paths but high unemployment in EU & strong demand for particularly IT & engineering profiles

Focus on STEM education


Horizontal axis: Human Development IndexVertical axis: Scores on questions designed to measure positive attitudes towards studying science

Svein Sjoberg, University of Oslo: Project ROSE

Attitudes to STEM & STEM careers


Engineering – demand vs interest

Shortages already today – opportunity cost of €6.6 billion in Germany alone

Eurostat 2008


IT – demand vs interest

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90% of future jobs will require higher level of IT skills than todayand 800 000 posts likely to be unfilled by 2020

Eurostat 2013, Empirica 2013


Link to school to work transitions

• Hypotheses:– Contextualisation of

STEM with job / career information increase interest and motivation in STEM

– School-industry partnerships can provide these experiences

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School-industry partnerships in STEM

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CRECIM, 2012


Key factors in STEM career interest

• Engagement in school: inquiry-based learning, collaboration, contextualisation of STEM

• Career information: more access to “real life” job information and role models in STEM.

• Personal characteristics: role playing, self–efficacy activities allowing students to understand ability to do STEM

• Social/ethical perception of STEM – helping students to better understand social and ethical aspects.

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CRECIM, 2012


Typical characteristics of partnerships

• Provision of resources for schools to promote the improvement of scientific or technological knowledge potentially related to the company (materials, ambassadors, courses, etc.)

• Establishing direct communication between STEM professionals and students.

• Offering company premises to support schools/to students.

• Engaging STEM professionals with students’ work.

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CRECIM, 2012

Operate at any level: international, national, regional, local.

More partners = more sustainable


Practical examples – e-Skills Week

• Encourage interest in tech & tech jobs among young people in all EU member states – European Commission + Schoolnet + DIGITALEUROPE

• 30 countries and 200 stakeholders – education, industry, associations

• Tangible positive impact on young people more interestedin tech and tech jobs (evaluationsurvey + interviews)

• Diverse events: meet role models, workshops, robotics competitions, introduction to programming, industry visits, etc.

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Practical examples – Intel ISEF

• Reaches 5 million students around the world – local & national STEM fairs

• Self-driven research projects, mentored by teachers & encourage links to researchers

• Fairs involve business & research personnel in judging teams who meet students & review their projects

• Laureates win significant scholarships for STEM studies & act as mentors for future competitors

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Class engagement impacts

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Teachers Students

• More confidence in innovative methods & topics

• Increased awareness of support resources & tools

• More access to training opportunities

• Increased enjoyment of STEM lessons

• Increased knowledge and understanding of specific topics

• More collaborative experience in class

• More interest in taking subsequent STEM electives

NFER, Kudenko & Gras


Career perception impacts

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Teachers Students

• Up to date knowledge of career opportunities helps teachers relate STEM content in teaching to real-life examples.

• Better understanding of how to tackle social and ethical issues.

• Increased awareness of careers that involve STEM

• Less stereotyped perception of what a “scientist” or “technologist” does

• Better understanding of social, ethical and legal constraints and measures taken by industry/research to tackle societal and ethical challenges.

NFER, Kudenko & Gras

Overall, more short term interest in STEM and STEM careersBUT hard to measure long term impact


Obstacles & and facilitators

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StructuralMotivatio

nal

Procedural

Cultural

Structural


Structural

Obstacles Facilitators

• Lack of resources (economic, human, time)

• Lack of support from internal management and external partners

• Geographical distance between school and industry

• Ministries of Education should include recommendations in STEM curricula/teaching requirements for school-industry partnerships

• More virtual partnerships forms should be developed to reach schools in distant locations

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Motivational


• Mismatch of goals/objectives between schools and industry

• Lack of interested individuals

• Lack of continuity/commitment

• Clear partnership agreements should be drawn up based on best practice models to clarify objectives and targets

• Individuals (in companies and schools) need information and training to understand the benefits of partnerships

• Companies should make long term commitments to partner with dedicated staff

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Procedural


• Communication between partners can fail

• Regulations e.g. students not allowed in laboratory facilities

• Intermediaries (broker organisations such as associations) should support partnerships to help resolve communication difficulties

• For difficult/dangerous facilities to visit, companies can create virtual or remote tours

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Cultural


• Different realities of industry and education

• Clashing schedules

• Negative stereotypes of industry

Intermediaries (broker organisations) to support partnerships & resolve communication difficulties

Time made available by companies and schools to ensure availability

Teacher peer learning to ensure they are positive about the potential of the partnership

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Conclusions

• School industry partnerships have strong potential to help ensure more smooth transition from school to work in STEM fields

• Numerous diverse examples but few structural interventions reaching every student in countries

• Many barriers to uptake of opportunities, but solutions exist

• Need for more commitment on education side, industry side, and further measurement of impact

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More information?

• inGenious website on STEM school-industry partnerships: http://ingenious-science.eu

• European Schoolnet: www.europeanschoolnet.org

• Contact me: Alexa Joyce – [email protected]

Thank you!

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http://ingenious-science.eu/

http://www.europeanschoolnet.org/

mailto:[email protected]

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Stimulating interest in STEM careers among students in Europe