STEM education part 3
There is a misconception among students that subjects like Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) are difficult, abstract, complex and should be avoided since there is no need to learn them. There is a misconception among teachers and parents that STEM areas are meant for “smart students” but not for everyone. The fact is STEM education is necessary for ALL students, at ALL levels, from high school to college. Currently there are more job openings in STEM areas than STEM graduates. An industry executive told high school students: “If you do NOT study STEM today, you will NOT find job by the time you graduate college because from now on, everything will require STEM skills regardless of what sector of the industry that you work for because STEM education is the key to a wide range of careers in this technology-driven economy.” Last year, the Global Economics Institute released a report based on a study in 175 countries that over the past 10 years, growth in STEM jobs was five times greater than that of non-STEM jobs. STEM jobs are predicted to continue to grow at a faster rate than other jobs in the next twenty years. On the average, STEM workers earned 36 percent more than non-STEM workers.
High school students often believe that there is no need to study STEM since they already learn biology, geography, calculus, and arithmetic taught in every high school's curricula. That is NOT CORRECT, those are the foundation but NOT enough because today students must learn additional STEM skills such as technology skills (i.e., how to use a computer; how to write simple commands using programming language; how to search things on the Internet etc.) and engineering skills (i.e., problem solving, issues analyzing, and critical thinking etc.) They also need to develop soft-skills such as working in team, communication and presentation, and foreign languages skills etc. These skills are very important that can be applied to many careers in this technology-driven economy.
It is important to parents and students to know that STEM skills are relevant to the job market. For example, if you study Business Administration, you need to know how to use a computer, you need to know how to use certain finance and accounting software, you need to know how to use a database etc. You do not have to be a programmer to write code or collect data but you must know how to use computer to perform your job. Today most banks, finance companies and offices are fully automated with information technology. Without these basic technology skills, you will NOT be able to get a job.
It is important to know that all over the world, technology is replacing people because it is cheaper, better, and more efficient. This situation has been underway for some time but recently it accelerates. You can see that ATMs machines are replacing bank teller jobs; Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems are reducing many office jobs, and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems are reducing many advertising and marketing jobs etc. The use of technology for more efficiency, lower costs, and increase profits is spreading everywhere and displacing labor and lesser skilled workers.
It is important to notice that today many developing countries are facing issue of youth unemployment due to obsolete education systems and lack of understanding of technology trends. Without proper education, these countries cannot grow or relying on low cost labors to work in manufacturing sectors as there is a major shift to automate everything. The fact is manufacturing factories will NO LONGER need labor workers as they will be using robots. In the past five year, robotics industries has grew over 400% with half million robots produced. It is predicted that within five years, over 40% of manufacturing industry sectors will be fully automated with robots and due to their efficiency; they will control 93% of the market. It means factories that do not automate will be eliminated and millions of labor jobs will also be lost. In the near future, most jobs will require STEM knowledge, expertise, information and communication skills. During the course of transformation, millions of labor workers will lose jobs, most will be unemployed for a long time and many will be forced to live in poverty for the rest of their lives.
It is important to understand the process of technology transformation. The majority of the cost comes at the beginning, in the acquiring of hardware (i.e., automated machineries and robots) and software that operate these machines but when done, the cost of the systems is very low (maintenance and replace broken parts) the next step is he training of workers to operate these machines. When the whole system run smoothly, there are little expenses except raw materials to create products. A manager explains: “In our manufacturing industry, we often hire several thousand labor workers but since we are using robots, we only need less than a hundred workers who manage our robots at the cost savings of several million dollars. Basically, the driving force in applying technology is cost reduction via the replacement of people.
Developing countries need to understand this situation. Labor workers, no matter how cheap, will become less important in this technology-driven economy. The key asset for growth and better employment is knowledge workers which require an investment in education and training. Having STEM education is the best way for developing countries to enter the global economy. The reason students often avoid STEM areas because they are viewed as “difficult” but the fact is tradition teaching method of lecturing and theoretical learning making STEM abstracts and dull. To promote STEM, countries must use different method where students learn by doing rather than memorizing. No one can be a programmer just by memorizing coding syntax or data structures; No one can do math by memorizing formulas. To learn STEM, students must do it over and over until they master the subject. That means both education training program AND teaching method must change.
The globalized world today is full of new ideas and new technologies. Adapting to this will require changes in mindsets, policies, investments (especially in STEM education). By understand technological trends and where market is, developing countries can take actions to capture these opportunities and prosper or continue to maintain the tradition of wait and let opportunities slipping to others.
Sources
- Blogs of Prof. John Vu, Carnegie Mellon University
