<p>Interesting article...thoughts??</p>
<p><a href="http://spectrum.ieee.org/at-work/education/the-stem-crisis-is-a-myth">http://spectrum.ieee.org/at-work/education/the-stem-crisis-is-a-myth</a> </p>
<p>Some contrary views:</p>
<p>The Truth Hurts: The STEM Crisis Is Not a Myth
<a href=“The Truth Hurts: The STEM Crisis Is Not a Myth | HuffPost College”>HuffPost - Breaking News, U.S. and World News | HuffPost;
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<p>Can someone explain this to me? How does one measure a “STEM” unemployment rate? How does someone measure a “non-STEM” unemployment rate? Have we created some legal separation between people who can be employed in “STEM” jobs and people who can be employed in “non-STEM” jobs and cross-over disallowed? </p>
<p>People need to be qualified for the jobs available, whether they be STEM or non-STEM. I would think the statistics on unemployment rates for both general categories is fairly accurate.</p>
<p>Too many variables to make this meaningful. Do math and computer science stats override biology figures? A biology major, math major, chemical engineer all have different skill sets. A BA/BS, MS or PhD? What about the workplace for women, any covert discrimination that makes a job unbearable?</p>
<p>Once again, “STEM” academics and careers are different from each other. Biology graduates and jobs are not interchangeable with computer science graduates and jobs, for example. So treating “STEM” as a monolithic entity with similar characteristics in all of its fields is misleading and can lead to inaccurate conclusions.</p>
<p>Note also that computer software development jobs have the characteristic where the productivity of the best is an order of magnitude greater than the productivity of the worst. So it is entirely possible that the typical pay levels underpay the best (resulting in a shortage of quality), but overpay the worst (leaving the mediocre entrants out of work).</p>
<p>Don’t mean to hijack the thread, but I have to get something off my chest before it explodes------------</p>
<p>My pet peeve are people who use the acronym STEM-- I think the more you say STEM, the less you know about it. Mostly administrators and bureaucrats. Some want to add art to it = STEAM. Others want to add reading = STREAM. I think it’s an attempt to tap into the abundant funds available to anything that has STEM attached to it. Add a couple more subjects, and you get SCHOOL.</p>
<p>As a high school science dept. head, I am perpetually told we need to get on the STEM bandwagon. We’ve been doing STEM for decades–kids in science apply math, kids solve problems and complete projects. Just because we don’t use the sacred acronym doesn’t mean we aren’t doing it.</p>
<p>ucbalumnus pegged it----STEM is not a monolith. </p>
<p>Thank you for tolerating my rant. I feel much better now.</p>
<p>Interesting that some of the work on the blackboard appears to contain errors. I wonder how many readers notice that ;).</p>
<p>My medicinal/organic chemistry colleagues and I have been laughing and crying about these “STEM-shortage” articles for years. Job prospects for BS/MS/PhD chemists in those chemistry sub-fields have really tanked with all the consolidation and off-shoring in the pharmaceutical industry these past 10-15 years.</p>
<p>Really - I know a lot of organic chemists who have retrained for other fields because they can’t find a chemistry job anywhere, and these are smart, well-educated , hard-working, experienced people.</p>
<p>Not all STEM fields are the same. Can we take organic or medicinal or synthetic chemistry out of the mix?</p>
<p>Well, this myth has the SUNYs offering some free tuition for top students who will major in the field and work in ti in state. NY is putting their money to the mouth.</p>
<p>Too much talk, nothing is getting done. And what needs to be done is checking how math / science is taught in elementary / middle school / HSs in MANY other countries, including (shamefully) some in third world countires in Africa (in many cases there only 10 years that students spend there, not 13, which is stupid by itself as most of it is wasted on busy paper work and brainwash and NO, none, zilch of developing any type of analytical thinking). K - 12 in the USA is brought down to un-sustainable level, it is sad when many kids cannot pursued their dreams in college because they lack elementary (yes, ELEMENTARY, not any high level) math and science background when the taxpaer is spending much more on each kid in k - 12 than most other countries in a world. Another shameful fact is that even privates have to follow certain rules for the cirriculum because otherwise they will not be certified. All big shame and nothing else. Look at the demographics at the most selective programs in the country (including even some HS that select based strictly on the test scores). Just open the eyes, I understand that it is much happier to keep the head buried in sand, but does it get the country anywhere? Yes, it does - going down, down, down into valley of greater shame.</p>
<p>I agree and it ticks me off that they keep sending this message. Let us correct this fallacy and tell the kids directly what to major in so that they are not confused. I have seen too many people with sciences and engineering degrees have to retrain to get jobs. It was not because these people were not good at what they did, It was because the work they did went away and nothing replaced it. </p>
<p>Also we need to nix H-1B Visas too. How in the heck are our own young adults going to get experience if they don’t hire our own. This is such a big loop hole for businesses to escape cost for intelligent people to work for them. </p>
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<p>We just need to restrict their use to a percentage of the number of employer’s US citizen/PR employees in the category and limit them to direct on-site hires for job categories where that is the norm (as opposed to rent-an-employee outsourcing situations) in order to keep the outsourcing companies from hogging them all (see <a href=“Businessweek - Bloomberg”>Businessweek - Bloomberg; ). The employers attempting to use H-1B visas for their intended purpose of directly hiring top talent cannot get them, because the outsourcing companies have hogged most of them.</p>
<p>I wish it weren’t true. Unfortunately, the story is spot on for BS and higher STEM majors. Of the 65 production floor employees at my company assembling parts for $15/hour, nine of them have STEM degrees, including four engineers and a PhD physicist. They all count as employed.</p>
<p>The “rebuttal” linked by Erin’s Dad is a complete bucket of dung. The author, Linda Rosen, runs a company whose main function is to perpetuate the STEM shortage myth that, except for a temporary few years in the late 1990s, hasn’t been true since around 1980. She adds in $12/hour dental assistants and semi-technical machine operators to make the numbers appear better. It’s part of the greater H-1B boondoggle going on to reduce pay and benefits of American workers.</p>
<p>One thing that has happened locally is an unintended consequence of all the imported programmers. At Microsoft, to get hired permanently requires five technical interviews and a unanimous decision by the interviewers in order to get hired. A typical interview has four Indian and one Caucasian interviewers. They have run the numbers, and not only should you be Indian to get hired, you need to be from certain castes and certain regions of India. African Americans and females need not apply.</p>
<p>The article is playing stupid statistical games and basically admits it. Yes, depending on what jobs you include as “STEM” the picture can change. But there is a much less controversial set of data to look at. </p>
<p>Goggle “best paying college degree”. Click on any link that comes up. At least half of the top 10 or so majors will be STEM related majors. Pick one of those majors and you will make more money and have more job opportunities than you would with any other choice. </p>
<p>Money doesnt lie. </p>
<p>@Magnetron Never in my life have I read such a complete paragraph of [insert swear word here].</p>
<p>First off, I’m talking about your second paragraph. And as an Indian myself, I’d like to point a few things out.</p>
<p>1) The caste system is no longer present in India. I’ve been there several times, and I’ve seen kids who live in one-bedroom shacks playing with kids whose parents are millionares. If there really was a problem with that in India, they wouldn’t let their kids play with each other.</p>
<p>2) The stuff about how you have to be from certain regions? How do they find that out, anyways? Yes, you can occasionally tell whether someone is from, say South India (which consists of five or six states) by their last name, but what if they grew up in a big city in North India? I have a friend whose parents grew up in North India, but they’re actually South Indian. </p>
<p>3) Most tech companies try to increase the number of minorities they accept for jobs. Yes, they have to be qualified–but promises of diversity give them a better public image.</p>
<p>Please do not be racist.</p>
<p>As this deviated a bit from the rest of the conversation, I’d like to point out that a lot of times, K-12 schools don’t have the funding for STEM programs. My school is the best-performing school in our district, yet we have the worst class selection (especially in STEM) of all the schools in the district. Since we’re the “best”, we get the least funding and the smallest variety of classes. Our school only has the basic STEM classes, while others in our district have specialized science courses (i.e. Marine Biology).</p>
<p>Apologies topaz for the clumsy wording but the basis of the information is reliable. As the grandson of a native american I too am sensitive to these types of issues. I don’t want to get anyone there in trouble, but the information came from a Microsoft internal study of the results of their hiring practices. It was not based at all on my personal beliefs or observations.</p>
<p>They are looking at changing the way they evaluate talent based on that study.</p>
<p>I don’t know about that, but the caste system thing for sure is definitely wrong. There are no castes in India anymore unless you go to the rural villages (and even then I don’t know). In most areas, you wouldn’t be able to tell where someone’s ancestors came from, especially in larger cities.</p>
<p>Yes, STEM careers are not for everyone. Yes, STEM is an oversimplification and is ridiculously broad. Yes, there are unemployed STEM majors. All of it is true.</p>
<p>However, the point of the term is to get students and parents to think about the fact that the subject areas where the number of better paying positions are growing tend to relate in some way to math, science or technology. These are subjects that take years to learn, and your average american student tends to avoid them because they are harder than other subjects. Pursuing these subjects, especially math, longer into a student’s education keeps many doors/options open for a longer period of time. </p>
<p>A student who successfully avoided math, science and technology classes in high school, has significantly limited their college and career options later. Even a truly talented Humanities major is likely to struggle to get accepted to a top school if they can only muster a 500 SAT math score.</p>
<p>The point is that students and parents should give these subjects a second look and not be so quick to write them off. There are lots of STEM majors who work in non-technical fields, but the reverse is much less likely to be true.</p>
<p>I believe that some employers struggle to hire graduates with the right combination of hard and soft skills, work ethic, and at the desired pay rate. I also believe that some employers have trouble finding experienced workers with proven accomplishment in specialized areas. I do not believe that we should push students with decreasing aptitude and interest into STEM programs that are very general and academic at the bachelors level. Reducing barriers to entry for disadvantaged kids with the right skills and objectives is great, but that requires a lot more than good marketing.</p>