Plugging the leaky STEM pipeline
British Science Week 2022
This year’s British Science Week (11 – 20 March 2022) is themed around ‘growth’ in science and it’s a great opportunity to consider capacity building in your local and regional STEM talent pipeline. All of the hard work happening to transform and grow the UK economy – to build back stronger, better and greener – and to place further education at its heart, can only work if we have a strong and resilient technical education workforce of enthusiastic teachers and trainers.
That workforce must be capable of inspiring future generation of science learners – young, adult, higher education and employer learners – who will study T Levels and wider technical programmes, apprenticeships and A Levels, developing the knowledge, skills, behaviours and competencies for the world of work now, and for years to come.
So, what positive action can we take, as FE professionals, to ensure that we are contributing to the growth of the STEM talent pipeline?
The leaky pipeline
The first thing we need to do is to recognise the scale of the challenge. Recruitment, development and retention of science learners is a challenge on multiple fronts including:
- Low science capital in UK homes
- Learner perception that science is ‘hard’ or ‘not for me’
- Challenges of recruiting and retaining science teachers (in a competitive market for strong scientists)
- Issues of diversity and inclusion in science including a lack of positive role models for under-represented groups and individuals (which we’ll explore in our next TCOP article)
- Leakage at each stage of the STEM talent pipeline.
As the illustration below demonstrates, before we consider how best to support growth in the STEM pipeline, we first need to understand what the barriers are to learners progressing to higher levels of STEM study and employment in science industry sectors.
To secure viable cohorts of STEM learners for the future, we need to start early, in primary and secondary education settings, providing meaningful encounters with employers, STEM ambassadors and key stakeholder partners, who can provide real world contexts for learning that will motivate learners. We must work hard across our local education, employer and stakeholder partnerships to excite and inspire prospective STEM learners.
Start early!
We need to start developing the ‘technical talent pipeline’ with our local primary schools and there is a wealth of existing resources to support that engagement including:
- British Science Week 2022 activity packs for early years, primary, secondary and community
- Resources from STEM Learning across computing, maths and science
- Good Practical Science: a framework for good science in schools from Gatsby Foundation and Sir John Holman
- Numerous resources from the Association for Science Education (ASE) for primary, secondary and for science technicians.
Remember that – as FE providers – you are likely to have access to facilities and subject specialist staff that your local primary and secondary colleagues don’t. One inspirational practical or a single engaging teaching session, could make the difference to a learner, developing their aspiration to progress to higher levels of science learning or employment.
Tip 1: If you don’t already have established relationships with your local primary and secondary partners, begin to establish these so that through collaboration of science teachers and departments, support for the progression of STEM learners can be provided, contributing to the growth of the STEM pipeline.
Be consistent and coherent
Once your partnerships are in place, make sure you strive for consistency in your engagement with young people, and to be coherent in your delivery. These were key findings of the work undertaken in 2010 and 2015 by the ASE called “Principles and Big Ideas of Science Education”. Across two reports, the ASE consider how learners can return to core themes in science through their education, with increasing maturity and complexity. Some of the big ideas the work suggests include:
- All matter in the Universe is made of very small particles.
- The composition of the Earth and its atmosphere and the processes occurring within them shape the Earth’s surface and its climate.
- Genetic information is passed down from one generation of organisms to another
- The knowledge produced by science is used in engineering and technologies to create products to serve human ends.
The ASE publications provide ideas about how to make these themes accessible and engaging to learners across key stages.
Tip 2: Consider returning to big ideas in science when you’re engaging with primary and secondary learners and support your partner schools to illustrate these big ideas and the courses and occupations they relate to. Help to increase the number of learners choosing double or triple science at GCSE.
Address myths and stereotypes
There are plenty of myths and stereotypes that act as barriers to access and inclusion in STEM:
- that all scientists are (white) men in (white) coats working alone
- that science is difficult
- that you have to be exceptional at science to pursue a career in it.
Evidence suggests that these perceptions are learnt through school and socialisation. In 2018 a UK charity, Education and Employers, released a report called Drawing the Future, in which primary school children from the UK and internationally were asked to draw themselves in their future job. Children drew a whole range of jobs, among them sportsperson, vets, scientists, movie stars and teachers.
STEM careers featured prominently, with ‘vet’ and ‘doctor’ dominant in children’s choices (2nd and 6th most popular, respectively) and ‘scientist’ and ‘engineer’ not far behind (7th and 11th). However, a gender gap begins to open-up at seven years of age, and the number of girls drawing themselves as scientists and engineers drops away steeply. These patterns don’t change significantly between 7 and 17: perceptions, expectations and stereotypes embedded in primary school children persist right through to the entry point for post-16 education.
Tip 3: Make sure that – across your promotion and outreach work – you’re not explicitly or inadvertently embedding unhelpful myths and stereotypes. Help to address and advance inclusion and diversity in STEM.
Share the breadth of careers in science
When learners are considering progressing from GSCE into post-16 education, make sure that you’re sharing the breadth of STEM careers and celebrating – rather than shying away from – the STEM content in your courses.
Demonstrate to learners – and their parents and influencers – that STEM knowledge and skills will open-up career opportunities in their subject area and enable learners to:
- move from salon-based roles in hair and beauty into the multi-billion-dollar global beauty industry
- access international careers in agriculture and food production
- excel in the digital future of green and ‘clean’ construction trades.
The Royal Academy of Engineers has a brilliant campaign – This is Engineering – that can help learners relate their interests in everything – from films to fashion – to the STEM careers they relate to.
Finally, consider the Gatsby Benchmarks and how your education and employer partnerships can help learners to access ‘meaningful engagement with employers’ and ‘encounters with further and higher education’ before they enrol with you, and through their 16-19 education.
Tip 4: Make sure that your outreach activities and teaching and learning materials expand learners’ career horizons and encourage them to continue to access higher levels of science learning and employment in STEM industry sectors.
Act now!
What better time than British Science Week 2022 to begin the conversation about your local STEM talent pipeline. Over this week, TCOP will share several articles and videos to support and inspire your organisation’s growth in science and STEM.
In this video Cerian Ayres, Head of Technical Education at the ETF, considers the leaky STEM pipeline.