Education and economy
According to a global industry report, there are six “entry-level” job openings in Science Technology Engineering and Math (STEM) for every one STEM graduate in 2014. But in the next five years, the number of job in STEM will grow about 20% but the number of college graduates in STEM will only grow about 4% which means the STEM skills shortage will continue.
The author wrote: “The shortage of skilled people in STEM fields is a major problem for the entire global economy as STEM fields create more jobs than all other fields combines. We found that over a lifetime, STEM workers can make 40% to 50% more than the earnings of those who study business, social, humanities, arts, and psychology. Some STEM graduates created technology start-ups became millionaires and billionaires and their companies hired hundreds or thousands of workers, contributed to the economy. With high unemployment happens in every country, there is an urgent need to focus more effort to STEM education. Today the most critical need is Information Technology (IT) because it is the foundation of all STEM fields. All over the world, companies are using IT to automate their processes but they do not have enough skilled workers to implement them. They acquire hardware, software, and systems but do not have enough people to make these systems work. They need skilled workers to make automation works seamlessly and enable the business to be more productive.”
For past few years, many countries are rushing to provide technical trainings to their people in response to this shortage. India is planning to have over half million skilled IT workers by 2020; China sets goal to produce over one and a half million STEM workers by 2025. However what the industry need is more than just technical skills because workers must also have soft-skills such as the ability to communicate, to solve problems, and to work in team, which require a different training approach. The traditional of lecturing and memorization do not work well in the age where technology changes quickly and most information is available on the Internet so there is no need to memorize things. It is important that workers know how to apply, to organize, and working in team to solve problems. In order to achieve this, workers must be trained at earliest age to be critical thinkers and lifelong learners which mean the education systems must start teaching those skills as early as in elementary school, and continue to measure these skills from high school to college.
Although the world is recovering from the financial crisis with strong economic grow but there is a large number of unemployed college graduates and the number continues to rise. The difficulties of these unemployed graduates to find job is causing serious concern in every country. According to the report, there are two reasons: First, many students do not have enough information to select the right fields of study that are needed by the job market therefore, they miss the opportunities. Second, there is a rush to open more universities to meet the high demand for college educations but the quality of trainings is not adequate resulting in graduates with degrees but not skills. By continue to let these schools to recruit students will increase the rate of unemployed graduates. The report stated that once the students graduated, these schools consider their job is done. Whatever happens to students is beyond their control, which is different from most top schools' perspective where they pay attention to the quality of their graduates, since there is certain reputation that they must keep.
To solve these two issues, we need to provide more information and career planning to high school students so they can select their fields of study accordingly. The government must issue strict guideline on the quality of education to make sure graduates have the skills needed to build a career and contribute to the economy. Investment in education is a long term strategy where government, schools, industry and parents need to collaborate to provide clear vision about what the country will be in the next five, ten, and twenty years.
Today people still have high expectations for the college degree where they believe that skills training are in alignment with college education. The fact is the result is a 20th-century education system is NOT in alignment with a 21st-century economy. The traditional of lecture and memorization to pass tests are obsolete. The college degree is no longer a guarantee for job. The idea that a college education developed hundreds of year ago is still valid today is wrong. Although meeting economy's need may not be the ultimate goal of a “perfect” education system but without certain practical skills, graduates will not be able to find jobs. Today's global economy has changed everything. Getting a degree without real skills is a guarantee for unemployment and having high number of unemployed graduates is a formula for economic disaster.
Sources
- Blogs of Prof. John Vu, Carnegie Mellon University
