STEM has taught us an important lesson.
Right now, we have a huge drive in the UK to recruit more professionals for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics: or STEM for short. It is heartening to see this take shape, and I have no doubt that it will give thousands of young people their shot at these industries:
https://www.stem.org.uk/about-us
But while I admire the work of the STEM projects, it is still sad to think, that we have had this skills 'shortage' in the first place. This did not have to be. Because there are as many future engineers, mathematicians, technologists and future scientists in our schools: my dad was one of them.
As he told me, when he studied back in the 1960's, engineering was considered a 'manual' profession, and was therefore not given the same priority as others. Engineers were not seen the same way as doctors, and lawyers: even though they had to give as much attention to detail, in their work. This lack of support has continued over the years, and has left a skills gap. Young would be engineers, mathematicians, technologists and scientists alike, have not given the training, because their education was not funded properly.
And now the chickens have come home to roost.
Lack of talent is not the issue. We have an abundance of talented young people in our country. In every interview I have gone for in the past few months, dozens of talented people have been there, and prospective employers have admitted that they have had to have candidates in all week: there are that many talented applicants.
No, the issue is that these young people have not been given the training they need, for the careers they deserve. And as a result, my recruiter colleagues have had to fast track candidates from abroad to fill the 'gap'.
The lesson we should learn from STEM, is that today's students must be trained for all professions, and they must be given the resources they need to do so. Young candidates are as good today as they have ever been: it is our education and training, that needs to serve them better.
Let's Build Bridges
There are many bridges we can build
