Closing the Gap: Addressing STEM Workforce Challenges
SOURCE: EDUCAUSE
By Cameron Evans (National and Chief Technology Officer, U.S. Education, for Microsoft), Madeleine McKenna (U.S. Government Affairs Fellow with Microsoft), and Beneva Schulte (Executive Director of the inSPIRE STEM USA Coalition)
Few people know better than higher education professionals about the power of technological innovation to reinvent the ways in which we learn and work. With advances in mobile technology, online learning platforms, and open-course content, colleges and universities can now bring education to students’ fingertips, literally. Moreover, IT-skills-heavy jobs are some of the fastest-growing and best-paying jobs available, and technological know-how is becoming increasingly important for performance in any job. In order to harness the promise of technology to deliver improved educational outcomes and sustained economic growth, however, the United States must face a critical workforce-development challenge: in the country today, there are simply not enough people with the high-tech skills needed to fill open positions in tech-dependent fields. Innovative recruiting and training strategies are not enough to address these workforce challenges. Innovative policies are needed too.
Let’s consider computing professions. By the end of the decade, the U.S. economy will annually create 120,000 new jobs requiring a bachelor’s degree in computer science, yet the country’s higher education system is currently producing only 51,000 such degrees per year. Unemployment rates also point to an overheated marketplace for high-tech workers. The unemployment rate in computer-related occupations is 3.4 percent, markedly below the national unemployment rate (8.1%) and lower than the unemployment rate among bachelor’s degree holders (4.1%).
Higher education institutions’ IT departments are not immune to these workforce shortages. Indeed, they may feel these challenges more acutely. In addition to competing with the private sector for very few applicants, colleges and universities offer relatively lower compensation. Unless the country changes course, its education system simply will not produce enough people for the high-tech positions that colleges, universities, and companies like Microsoft depend on to make their organizations successful and competitive in a globalized marketplace.
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