Opinion piece by Dr Vicki Gardiner, General Manager – Tasmania, Engineers Australia.
This article was first published in The Mercury.
STEM or STEAM is the new black. That’s how important the promotion of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics will be for Tasmania’s high school students into the next decade and beyond.
The extra “A” — as adopted by Rokeby High School and its new STEM Hub — includes Arts Design as a component of STEM to form STEAM.
In the past month, Engineers Australia (Tasmania) has been involved with three different aspects of STEM: the Festival of Bright Ideas, which saw 7000 people through its doors, our own Futures in Engineering with 68 students from across Tasmania, in concert with the University of Tasmania, the Education Department and Defence Force Recruiting and our partnership with the Beacon Foundation, which saw us meet and work with some extraordinarily bright young people at Rokeby.
But what I am faced with, and the challenge that confronts government and industry, is how to promote a profession for careers that do not yet exist. How do you prepare a future workforce whose members will have between 10-15 different jobs through their careers? What does the future of engineering look like in Tasmania?
Engineering fuels the innovation to drive Tasmania successfully into the future. Or, as I like to say, engineers look at problems and find solutions for their communities. In this case, Tasmania.
Engineers Australia recently prepared a workforce development plan for the Tasmanian engineering profession. The research showed that we face several challenges and opportunities:
THE Tasmanian engineering profession is competing, collaborating and supplying services to an international marketplace.
THE paraprofessional is coming.
JOB numbers are declining in areas of future industry growth
CAREER pathways need work, and the connections between industry and education need to be strengthened.
But to meet these challenges, we need to:
INCREASE pre-tertiary retention rates.
ARREST falling participation in STEM subjects.
ADDRESS the massive gender imbalance in engineering education that has flowed through to the industry as a matter of priority.
In the past 10 years, Tasmania has gone from comparable national Year 10-12 retention rates to one that is now 11 per cent lower than the national rate, even after two years of improvement.
When it comes to participation in STEM subjects across Australia, only about 30 per cent are studying either advanced or intermediate maths, 13 per cent are studying physics, and about 18 per cent are studying chemistry.
Nationally, women make up only 14 per cent of all completions in engineering courses. In Tasmania, this is as low as 8.4 per cent.
But this is a complete mismatch as 75 per cent of the fastest growing occupations require STEM skills and 70 per cent of Australian employers identify STEM employees as the most innovative.
I am a scientist by profession and the other night my daughter asked why I chose STEM for my career, for a school assignment.
The reason is I have always loved the creative side of science that goes alongside challenging, analytical problem-solving aspect, which is what engineering is about.
My biggest concern for engineers of the future is that STEM has become a catchphrase, the latest feel-good topic. I have been involved in STEM outreach and education for the past 20 years, yet we are still in the downward spiral.
It is time to step up. It is time for government to get serious about building STEM capability in our students and, importantly, our teachers. The recent investment in facilities is important, but so is what is put inside them.
It is important for government, education providers and industry to work together to show the relevance of STEM subjects to a career in engineering. It is time to develop clear paths for engineering practitioners all the way from school to senior engineers and beyond.
STEM, or STEAM, holds the key to Tasmania’s future.