STEM coordinator testifies at hearing
5/25/2010
Members of the House Education Committee gathered in Pittsburgh recently to discuss the challenges and opportunities to ensuring opportunities for STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education for all children.
Committee members heard about a wide variety of STEM programs in higher education, K-12 schools, and after/out-of-school settings. Much of the testimony emphasized ways in which students currently under-represented in the STEM workforce - girls and ethnic minorities - could be recruited and retained into STEM careers.
Liz Nilsen, coordinator, Southwest PA STEM Network, discussed the work of the Pennsylvania STEM Initiative over the past two years and how it has set the stage for transformative implementation efforts. She noted that the statewide initiative started as one of only a handful in the country, but is now at risk of falling behind other states in its desire to encourage action toward developing and retaining a STEM-ready talent pool.
“These other efforts around the country have demonstrated that to move Pennsylvania forward in STEM - to ensure that we have a workforce able to innovate, create, and respond to the global challenges facing us - will take both public and private commitment along four broad areas,” Nilsen said.
The four broad areas as addressed by Nilsen include:
Focus - Pennsylvania has a number of projects and initiatives in the STEM arena. Movement on a state level must include an organizing policy framework around STEM that connects those efforts and allows us to learn from the best, expand them, and re-tune the others.
“Sinking resources into a set of disconnected projects is both unfeasible and will not produce transformative results,” Nilsen testified.
Range - Making sure our children are prepared for challenging STEM careers will not be a job accomplished by just one sector because the task is simply too big. Pennsylvania’s plan for STEM must include K-12, post-secondary and informal education, after-school and out-of-school programs, workforce and economic development, and community- and faith-based organizations.
Investment - Lasting change will require additional resources.
“We can no longer simply move funding around or ask schools to take from another category to increase STEM programming,” Nilsen told committee members.
Collaborative Leadership - STEM efforts require partnerships between government, industry and education, and a coordinated response that transcends the vagaries of election cycles or party affiliation.
The benefits of STEM training are numerous, Nilsen said.
Workers with a solid STEM background earn more than those without that training. A study commissioned by the STEM Initiative showed that 35 percent of the new job growth projected in the state by 2016 will be occupations requiring a STEM background, Nilsen testified.
Moreover, STEM occupations are also growing at a much faster rate than other jobs: 11.85 percent compared to 7.13 percent through 2016. Median hourly earnings for STEM occupations are $24.76, over eight dollars higher per hour than the state average of $16.57, Nilsen said, and also noted that an adequately trained workforce is integral to attracting and retaining business in the commonwealth.
“Pennsylvania’s competitiveness as a regional economy depends on its ability to provide a skilled workforce for employers who want to do business here,” Nilsen told the House Education Committee members.
A follow-up to a similar hearing last year in Pittsburgh, the session was well-attended by members of the Southwest Pennsylvania STEM Network and others in the region concerned about growing the STEM talent pipeline.
“We in southwest Pennsylvania are proud to have hosted this gathering of leaders to focus on an issue critical to Pennsylvania's future prosperity,” Nilsen said. “It is now time to move beyond testimony to concerted action for our common well-being. Especially critical is the partnership of the employer community - we are grateful for the leadership of Team Pennsylvania Foundation, and look forward to continuing our efforts with the foundation to build a workforce that is second to none.”
The southwest network is one of five statewide that make up the Pennsylvania STEM Initiative, an effort launched by the state and Team Pennsylvania Foundation in 2007 to address the growing need for a "STEM-ready" workforce.
