Opinion: Widening The Pipeline For STEM Workers
By Kevin Thurston
Special to the Worcester Business Journal
Governor Deval Patrick’s proposed life sciences legislation, which is currently making its way through the legislature, will add more STEM jobs by helping companies place research and production facilities in Massachusetts. However, we must also ensure that we are building a workforce capable of meeting these challenges.
Dollars For Scholars
The state Board of Higher Education recently awarded $3.3 million to organizations to help increase interest in STEM fields among middle school and high school students. Among the grantees, Framingham State College (FSC) received $205,000 on behalf of the MetroWest STEM Education Network.
This network comprises a partnership among area colleges (FSC, Dean College, Massachusetts Bay Community College, Olin College, and Regis College), K12 school districts, businesses, and economic development organizations such as the MetroWest Chamber of Commerce and the Metro S/W Regional Employment Board. It has one goal: to widen the pipeline of STEM-capable workers to ensure our businesses have the skilled employees they need.
To meet this goal, we must not only prepare students to achieve academically in STEM subject areas, but also stimulate their interest in STEM and their awareness of STEM-related career opportunities. Science and math teachers at all levels will be key players in bridging the gap with students to make STEM subjects relevant and appealing as career options.
The Business-Higher Education Forum estimates the US will require 280,000 new math and science teachers by 2015; enrollment trends, however, indicate that we will fall far short of educating the necessary teacher workforce.
Partnerships among industry, economic development organizations, and educational institutions are crucial to reversing this trend. Such collaboration will ensure that science and math teachers are prepared to teach their respective subject matter in the context of the twenty-first century skills businesses require. Equally important will be the pedagogy to make STEM subjects interesting, challenging, and appealing, thereby motivating more students to seek out these generally well-paying jobs.
The MetroWest STEM Education Network exemplifies the partnerships required to address the looming STEM skill shortfall facing MetroWest communities. The recent BHE grant will support two projects that will widen the STEM pipeline through collaboration across network members from both public and private sectors.
One project managed by the Metro South/West Regional Employment Board provides hands-on STEM career experience to middle and high school teachers by placing them in summer externships with local businesses such as Tetra Tech Rizzo, Genzyme and Raytheon.
The other project will reach out to underserved minority student populations in METCO school districts and expose them to STEM enrichment programs conducted by students and faculty of the Olin College of Engineering and the Framingham State College McAuliffe Challenger Center.
The funding and collaboration that enabled these and similar programs across the state must continue if we are to maintain our leadership as an innovator in this 21st century global economy.
Kevin Thurston is executive director of the MetroWest STEM Education Network.
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