For years, I’ve been hearing about this crisis on both sides. One side says there won’t be enough qualified people to fill the needed jobs for the STEM fields?(science, technology, engineering, math). Another side tells us there aren’t enough jobs for the number of qualified people.
It appears to be a little of both.?For instance, President Obama called for?at least 100,000 engineers to be trained by 2020. Earlier, I did a blog of how tech companies from Facebook to Microsoft?are asking immigration to lax policies so more qualified workers can come in and?get jobs. Nonetheless, some reports?suggest those trained to be in the STEM fields are struggling to find work. Even after the Great Recession, tech companies like IBM and Best Buy close down stores and lay off employees. Plus, you have HB-1 visa immigrants, new college graduates, existing STEM job holders, and a not so booming economy. Maybe they’re too many cooks in the kitchen.
I’m no job expert , but I might have a dilemma that will help both ends. First of all, we need to get kids interested on science, technology, engineering and math at an early age. I know people have been?preaching that since Sputnik in the late 1950s, but it’s far more true today. You can’t wait until high school and college to cram STEM in these kids’ heads. Get them interested in?STEM fields while they’re in pre-school, even when they’re babies! After all, child psychologists say that 80% of a child’s personality is formed by their 6th birthday. This goes into my next solution. Maybe?these?kids will create?STEM jobs, so that anybody whose qualified enough to get one will have one. Yes, we need to train workers, but we also need to train leaders, innovators?creators and employers. Whose going to be the next Bill Gates or Steve Jobs??Whose going to be the next Mark Zuckerburg? Whose going to be the next Marissa?Meyer? Whose going to be the next savior of?STEM?