STEM - Stop Talking, Start Helping!

There is a lot of talk across the nation in promoting STEM careers with our younger students.  This continues to be an issue that we need to address.  More jobs continue to open up within these fields and that trend will only accelerate as the Baby Boomers retire.

Take a quick look at the number of job openings that are expected thru 2022: BLS: Occupational Outlook Quarterly.  Let's review the top jobs identified in this report (as of Spring 2014):

• Software Developers - 218,500 openings thru 2022, average wage $92,660
• Computer Systems Analysts - 209,600 openings thru 2022, average wage $81,190
• Computer User Support Specialist - 196,900 openings thru 2022, average wage $46,620
• Software Developers, System Software - 134,700 openings thru 2022, average wage $101,410
• Civil Engineers - 120,100 openings thru 2022, average wage $80,770

You know what, those are pretty good wages!  I recognize that these are not the starting wages, that said, you can see that overall, these are jobs that will be in demand.  Students entering into these jobs should see wage increases that will allow them to earn a decent living.

My focus in this post will be careers in Computer Science.  While other STEM careers are critical - I'll focus on those that I'm most familiar with, those that have powered my careeer.

Unfortunately, here in the States, we are doing a very poor job of educating our students about what opportunities are available and are not focusing our curriculum to encourage young students to explore the career choices.

Only 1 in 10 of our high schools offer computer science programs for their students (as identified by TEALS).  That is a scary statistic - if 9 out of 10 schools can not provide early experiences to students that might be interested in Computer Science, how are we expecting these students to make the choice to pursue degrees in Computer Science.  More importantly, if it is this bad at the high school level - what do you think it looks like at the middle school level.

I firmly believe that if we don't find a way that allows middle school students a way to explore these careers early and then do not reinforce that through high school experiences, that we are failing the next generation.  More importantly, we are putting the future of our companies at risk.

So, here are my ideas of what needs to be done:

• Our local school boards need to find a way to introduce computer science curriculum into all middle schools.  These courses need to count as math or science credits.
• We need to specifically find ways to encourage both young men and women to take these courses.
• Our local school boards need to find a way to introduce computer science curriculum into all high schools.  These courses need to count as math or science credits.
• Alternately, some states are declaring that computer language courses would count as foreign language credits.
• Our states need to fund the expansion of STEM exploratory courses at both the middle and high school levels.
• Businesses need to step up and provide volunteers to go into the schools and assist students as they explore STEM careers.  Some of this is being done through initiatives like Lego League, but we need to find these types of programs and make them available to every school, every year.
• Businesses need to open up and hire more entry level technology students.  I have seen the tide shift to where many companies now only want to hire people with several years of experience.  They no longer want to hire newly graduated students and mentor them into the next generation of experts within their company.  Or they only want to contract and rotate people in and out every 18 months.  That may work for their bottom line today, but it destroys the expertise that they will need when current subject matter experts retire.

And, yes, before you ask, I'm holding myself accountable.  For years, I have taken time to regularly talk to high school and college students about career opportunities and what life is like working within the Computer Science field - specifically software engineering.  I have volunteered to assist as schools present various tech initiatives for their students.

If those of us in this field don't take the time to encourage the next generation to step up and become the future technology experts, who will?  If we don't take the time to encourage our schools to address the educational needs that will drive job opportunities, who will?  If we don't take the time to personally lobby/communicate with our state leaders on the need to drive change in this area, who will?

If you'd like more information on my background: LinkedIn Profile