Government action to increase Science and Engineering careers - Rammell
To ensure a strong supply of high level Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths skills (STEM) the Government has announced it is to improve the careers information available to young people, teachers and parents on the range of exciting opportunities open to them. Increasing the study of STEM subjects is needed to meet the needs of the knowledge economy and underpin the country's science and engineering base.
(Media-Newswire.com) - To ensure a strong supply of high level Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths skills ( STEM ) the Government has announced it is to improve the careers information available to young people, teachers and parents on the range of exciting opportunities open to them.
Increasing the study of STEM subjects is needed to meet the needs of the knowledge economy and underpin the country's science and engineering base.
Minister for Lifelong Learning, Further and Higher Education, Bill Rammell today set out proposals developed by the National STEM Director John Holman, to improve information, advice and guidance to young people on what is on offer through studying STEM subjects.
Speaking at an IPPR London conference on employer engagement and the global challenges facing the UK, Bill Rammell said:
"There is tremendous interest in the STEM community in working with Government to encourage more young people to opt for STEM, and we are responding to this. The recent evidence of a continued upturn in applications for STEM HE shows that the time is ripe for a concerted campaign to improve information.
"We will launch a national campaign to promote STEM careers and work in close partnership with educationalists, universities, employers and practitioners to develop the best possible information package available to students. We will coordinate this campaign with our broader messages to young people about the new 14-19 curriculum and Diplomas. "Young people need to have clear awareness of the wide range of worthwhile and remunerative careers to which STEM subjects can lead. We must encourage more students to choose STEM options at 14, 16 and 18. We must get the message across in the right way and at the right time as students' decisions about whether to study STEM are often made by age14.
"We must ensure mainstreaming of equal opportunities and achieve improved awareness about STEM opportunities by careful targeting, and address the under-representation in STEM of women, young people from poorer backgrounds and certain ethnic minority groups.
"This Government is already taking wide ranging action on STEM, including the recent launch of after school science clubs, a new Science Advisory Forum and giving the Science Council £500,000 to help them develop and launch a new careers website.
"We are acting on the Leitch recommendations for skills and employer engagement and are determined to expand on the distinctive role of STEM subjects in producing highly skilled and employable graduates, enabling UK plc to compete globally. "
NOTES TO EDITORS
Measures announced include:
1. Bringing leadership and coordination to national efforts to improve STEM careers awareness by supporting the appointment of a National STEM careers coordinator who would work with industry, learned societies, HE and others to coordinate STEM promotion and information activities and to improve the range and quality of information available, making the most of the Science Council's new web-site;
2. Encouraging schools to build information about STEM opportunities into their teaching of science, technology and maths by showing them how to use resources such as the science and engineering ambassadors scheme and Gatsby's primary science enhancement programme to convey the range of real world opportunities to which STEM can lead. To pilot the development of a 'STEM awareness continuum' that mapped the resources available and the opportunities for integrating them in the curriculum before making it available to all schools.
3. Developing a national campaign to promote STEM careers in partnership with a wide range of stakeholders and building on the campaigns which a number of them are already planning. This would involve presenting an agreed, coherent set of messages to young people, their parents and teachers; raising the profile of the Science Council Careers from Science web-site; using common publicity material with common branding; and as resources permitted, commercial advertising ( TV, the press, hoardings ) promoting the agreed messages.
4. A statement of intent was made today aiming to establish a National STEM careers coordinator by next April andto launch a national STEM awareness and careers campaign from September 2008.
5. The DFES is commissioning a survey to inform work on improving STEM information and guidance for young people. This will give insights into the motivations and attitudes of the large numbers of young people applying for STEM HE courses this year, and set a baseline against which changes in their motivations and attitudes in future can be measured.
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