Developing a National STEM Workforce Strategy A Workshop Summary (2016) / Chapter Skim
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4 Key Challenges Facing U.S. Employers in High-Demand Fields
4 Key Challenges Facing U.S. Employers in High-Demand Fields
Pages 39-46
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From page 39... ...
labor across national boundaries," said Camilli. The discussion among the panelists noted the difference in preparing a student for a world in which computational approaches underlie much of the practice of modern engineering and science and of turning out graduates with a computer science degree, but with a limited view on how to apply that degree to other STEM disciplines.
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From page 40... ...
He added that there are 15 historically black colleges with accredited schools of engineering, which represent 4 percent of America's engineering colleges, but deliver 30 percent of America's black and Hispanic engineering graduates. Greer, who introduced himself as the first and only African American senior fellow in Lockheed Martin's history, explained that his company partners with more than 250 universities across the country and has relationships with some 500 K-12 schools, which gives the company a good sense of what is happening in U.S.
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From page 41... ...
McNelly noted that in one survey of manufacturing executives in the National Association of Manufacturers 80 percent of respondents noted that they could not find workers who have the critical thinking and technical skills modern manufacturers need to succeed in today's global economy (Giffi et al., 2015)
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From page 42... ...
She believes community and technical colleges need to build better relationships with small- and medium-sized companies not only because in sum they represent a large employment pool but also because local smaller manufacturers can often provide opportunities for work-based learning. Commenting on the deficit in career counseling mentioned by both McNelly and Khalili, Rebecca Vieyra, from the American Association of Physics Teachers, said teachers could play a bigger role in addressing this problem, but teacher preparation does not include industrial experience, nor does it include the type of training in business matters that Greer noted.
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From page 43... ...
"We need to get these children motivated to want to be part of the STEM world," said Childs, who again pointed out that this is both an economic and a national security issue. Dale Allen, from Quinsigamond Community College in Worcester, Massachusetts, reiterated the need to extend industry outreach efforts beyond the 4-year colleges that have been the focus of most programs, given that half of the nation's postsecondary school students, and an even bigger percentage of underrepresented populations, are enrolled at community colleges.
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From page 44... ...
Khalili commented that social media could play a role in increasing interest in STEM and awareness of STEM-related occupations. She noted, for example, there was a significant rise in the number of males enrolled in computer science classes the year after the release of the movie The Social Network, which depicted the phenomenal rise of Mark Zuckerberg, the 1 A makerspace is a physical location where individuals can gather to share resources, tools, and knowledge to create, invent, and learn.
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From page 45... ...
He said that while nothing can replace human interactions when it comes to mentoring and career coaching, the need to reach a broader audience will require new delivery methods of career information. Khalili then commented on the recent announcement from the mayor of New York that all of the city's public schools will be required to teach computer science and the similar measures that Chicago and San Francisco are taking.
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From page 46... ...
46 DEVELOPING A NATIONAL STEM WORKFORCE STRATEGY need employees with a set of core competencies, so she has worked with programs to embed certifications of competency in the overall academic pathway. "The challenge is to take needed technical knowledge, map it into an academic pathway, and then surround it with all the other skills we've talked about today so that employers do not have to take students to square one when they hire them," said McNelly.
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