STEM refers to Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics the areas in which scientists and engineers usually work.
It is a term that is becoming increasingly important in the world of human resources since this is probably the area of professionals demanded in the future. The demand is too high and the number of professionals is currently low.
STEM jobs will have a very high demand in the labor market according to some media and experts. At the end of 2016, the human resources company Randstad reported in its annual report Flexibility that digitalization will generate more than 1,000,000 jobs in the next 5 years in which STEM professionals will occupy a big percentage. Technology and digitalization have changed the labor market and the professionals in charge of managing and introducing these advances in the company will gain relevance in the following years.
STEM is also associated with the existence of medium-skilled jobs that support them; it is closely related to vocational training.
Now, you can understand why it’s so important and what this approach is about, but how did it start?
This educational model began at the beginning of the 21st century in the United States. For this reason, to understand it, we need to go back into United States history.
After Russia launched the first satellite called Sputnik into space, Americans were challenged to become leaders in STEM four fields. With this fact in our minds, under the leadership of President Eisenhower, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was created and the space program began. Next President, John F. Kennedy continued to motivate STEM areas and put the first man on the moon.
In the following two decades, education was aimed to science and many programs were created to continue on these areas of knowledge which increased the development of new technologies, for example, cellphones, personal computers and others.
In the 90s, the acronym STEM was used for the first time and a STEM curriculum was created to define this educational approach.
In this decade, the attention was called on the necessity of more STEM students to be prepared for the current work field, so that the country could continue as a global leader. Later, many programs were created to improve STEM education in American schools. These programs have also enriched other countries in the world.
Global evolution of STEM
STEM education began to be applied and its effectiveness began to be noticed, it has gained strength as an educational model. This approach spread from vocational and technical training to formal and non-formal school education.
Over the years STEM has been enriched, it has increased different nuances and combinations of other educational models. For example in 2011, South Korea decided to combine the arts to STEM Methodology in order to encourage creativity in students. The results were positive in that country, so it can be said that STEM as an education methodology has become the number one education approach.