The Global Impact of STEM Education

Over the last decade, America has added nearly 2 million new jobs to the STEM market- but the widely-used learning program has more depth than most understand. STEM learning provides students with enhanced lessons within their science, technology, engineering, and math classes. Although recently popular, STEM-focus has had a long journey to the mainstream - developed in 2001 by Judith Ramaley at the National Science Foundation (NSF). Today, the educational practice has been implemented globally, and more than half of Chinese and Singaporean students pursue natural science degrees.

The benefits of STEM teachings flood directly into their own job market. Coincidentally, it’s considered to be the job market of America. Today, 8 in 10 of the fastest-growing occupations are within the STEM community. Yet, millions of positions went unfilled in 2018, and 74% of today’s employers have reported increasing challenges in finding the right talent. Why is this?

The National Academies of Sciences and Engineers and the Institute of Medicine provided their theory to this puzzle in 2005, arguing U.S. students were academically behind in STEM achievements on a global scale. Interestingly enough, American students have continued their trend of lagging behind other nations in math and science over the last decade. Still, 86% of Americans believe that increasing our amount of STEM-trained labor will help us maintain the nation’s place in the global economy. Is STEM working?
Infographic source: https://www.early-childhood-education-degrees.com/stem-in-schools/