There is a revolution going on in our schools: “STEM” – Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths is taking its rightful place. STEM subjects are vital to our future – the UK has only 1% of the world’s population but we produce 10% of all top scientific research. We like to say we are no use at engineering “any more” – in fact we generate £800bn from engineering every year - and its growing fast.
The biggest risk to our success is a shortage of talented students equipped to enter jobs in STEM professions – jobs that will pay them better than average and will get more important in the future. The Government’s objective is to double the number of students leaving school well equipped in STEM subjects by 2020. Due to excellent teaching and schools taking on the challenge this will be achieved – with the encouragement and support of employers. Maths is now the most popular A Level and GCSE Computer Studies has grown by over 20% in the last year alone.
Efforts to help students appreciate the opportunities provided by STEM is best provided by schools, businesses and volunteers working together. Horsham has much to be proud of – Millais programmers will be in Parliament next month and I attended two school STEM events this week: a Tanbridge House School seminar gathered businesses (including award-winning local software company, Red River, who hosted a superb Summer Programming Course), HackHorsham who do an amazing job locally of fostering Technology and the County’s Big Bang programme, among others, to brainstorm how we can continue to support students in the STEM subjects.
Tanbridge leads by example: I was back there Saturday to meet their Programming Club. I also attended a “Big Bang” festival at Pennthorpe School, Rudgwick: under 13s from across the area were competing to produce the best science projects. What better way to foster science than by making it fun? The message to all students is clear: there are valuable jobs using and teaching STEM subjects. The message to the rest of us, particularly local businesses, is this drive is working and is well worth supporting.