Experts emphasise engagement as Stem competition is launched

Softer skills

She said creativity can be a difficult skill for people to identify in themselves when applying for a job, adding: “I like to think about myself as quite creative – but don’t give me a paintbrush.”

These softer skills are developed while in education, said Holmes, who suggested that teachers should take more ownership of the influence and soft skills they are giving to students through alternative ways of teaching.

“Certain secondary school teachers didn’t realise that they were the ones who were teaching presentation skills to these people,” said Holmes. “What we need our teachers to recognise is the significance of what they do.”

Holmes said that although there are many projects and initiatives, both in and outside of education or government, that are aimed at increasing engagement in Stem, not enough is being done.

New initiatives should be cautious about “the same people doing the same thing” when developing ways to solve the Stem engagement problem, she added.

Adrian Fenton, science adviser for Stem education and public engagement for the British Council, also said firms and initiatives should beware of “trying to replicate” things they have already seen, and should instead work together to solve a common issue.

But Jane Dowden, education innovations manager at the British Science Association, said that rather than a lack of engagement through initiatives such as those mentioned above, there is actually a lack of “aspiration” from young people when it comes to Stem careers.

Dowden claimed young people in schools do have fun and engage with Stem subjects, but when it comes to studying them later in life, they drop off “as soon as they start to make decisions about their future”.

“We need to go beyond making science fun and begin making science useful and relevant,” she said. “It’s very difficult for them at that age to make decisions about what subjects will be useful for their future.”

This drop-off in interest could be for many reasons – in some cases negative stereotypes surrounding what roles are available in the tech industry, or a lack of knowledge about the types of jobs that come out of having a particular skillset.

Stem subjects are also seen as more difficult than others, said Dowden, and teachers can sometimes “unintentionally push some students towards taking science” while encouraging others towards research or teaching – an unconscious bias teachers have admitted to having.

Role models are important for young people when choosing their career path, but Dowden said many children will only be exposed to certain jobs as they are growing up.

To “change the stereotype of science being difficult”, she said people need to talk to youngsters about their roles and what they involve, and parents in the industry should present themselves as role models.

A lack of visible and accessible role models is often cited as a reason why young women in particular opt out of Stem careers. But as well as a lack of visible role models from industry, Sarah Hedley, UK national skills lead and public sector business manager at Microsoft, said there is also a lack of accessible role models presented as part of Stem education.

Hedley reiterated the need to focus on how creative Stem roles can be, suggesting roles in the future may include “virtual habitat designers”, which combine technical with creative skills.

Make the connection

More needs to be done to draw young people into Stem through what they are interested in, she said, and to make clear the connection between what students have learnt and how it applies to the real world.

Teachers can also be an influence when it comes to children choosing particular subjects, she added, with more than half of teachers admitting to gender stereotyping Stem subjects.

Hedley said more needs to be done to “educate teachers around how they talk about a subject and how they approach science and tech with girls versus boys”.

Not only do teachers often put young people off Stem subjects, but there is a “nervousness” around teaching topics such as computer science, she said.

Hedley pointed out that some teachers do not have computer science backgrounds, making them nervous about delivering such as “straight-laced” curriculum.

Microsoft offers resources to teachers to “handhold” them through the Stem teaching process, said Hedley, who also encouraged the Department of Education to get more involved in distributing courses, videos and case studies nationally to help teachers and parents.

“It’s about myth busting and making people a bit more confident,” she added.

To help teachers tackle Stem subjects, the government set up several projects in 2018, including investing £8m to help teachers prepare for technical T-levels, and launching a National Centre of Computing Science Education to help the government train up to 8,000 computing teachers.