STEM education challenged by rapid technological shifts

Rapid technological changes affect all aspects of the U.S. workforce, but STEM workers could see the fastest change. It is prompting debate on how STEM education and employer training programs can adapt.

Companies hiring many STEM -- science, technology, engineering and math -- workers say these employees need interdisciplinary skills, especially as the lines between hardware and software blur.

STEM workers also have to commit to lifelong learning, although the best approach is up for debate. Does it make more sense to hire recent engineering students with bachelor's degrees -- as Westinghouse does -- and send them for advanced training tailored to the job? Or is it better to hire people with advanced degrees -- something UL Solutions advocates -- because these workers could be more adaptable to lifelong learning?

Those were some of the questions raised by a National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine panel examining trends in STEM education and workforces for a report on the topic.

While this panel focused on STEM education, the integration of technical training throughout the workforce is an issue facing the panel.

One of the panelists, Anshul Sonak, Intel's global director of digital readiness programs and strategy, said you can no longer separate STEM jobs from non-STEM jobs.

This is an issue which will impact everyone, because all jobs will become digital jobs.

"This is an issue which will impact everyone, because all jobs will become digital jobs," Sonak said, and "all digital jobs require AI skills."

However, STEM technical fields could see the most rapid change, challenging education and employer training programs. While employers hire people for specific technical skills, it's no longer clear what defines a useful skill.

For instance, another panelist, Robert Slone, senior vice president and chief scientist at UL Solutions, a company that conducts testing and certifications on all types of products, said interoperability requires STEM employees to understand multiple different technology areas well enough "to speak to experts across other disciplines."

The need for interdisciplinary skills is evident in software for hardware substitution, Slone said, meaning that many functions in products today are being implemented through software instead of hardware. For instance, in developing a physical switch, an electrical engineer would be the expert for product development, but now you need software engineers, he said.

"Product technologies are so multi-interdisciplinary these days and require so many different connections to different worlds," Slone said.

The panelists discussed whether someone should spend a lot of time earning an advanced degree in academia or do that in tandem with the career, where the employer has more opportunity to help shape the education.

Luca Oriani, global chief engineering services officer and senior vice president of engineering and component services at Westinghouse, a leading nuclear power plant supplier, said his company hired about 500 Bachelor of Engineering grads right out of college in each of the last two years. The company then covers the costs of getting advanced degrees.

The evolving nature of STEM workforces and the broader impact of digitalization on all jobs were key themes on the panel.

Oriani noted, "We have a very high level of satisfaction with the quality of new engineering graduates in the United States," but he expressed frustration with the lack of diversity in the engineering workforce, with women making up 25% or less of engineers.

"We're costing ourselves, as a country, a significant pool of talent," Oriani said.

Slone and Oriani highlighted the need for interdisciplinary skills and continuous STEM education.

Oriani said his company prefers to develop relationships with undergrads earlier in their education and targets a "permanence time" in the company of at least 18 years. He argued that teaching and training younger people in fundamental concepts is easier because "the longer you wait to teach those things, the harder it becomes for people to accept them."

But Slone argued that Ph.D. students have a desire to dive deep and an ability to learn new areas, a trait that is less common in undergraduates. There's a risk in investing in undergraduates because they could lack the curiosity or "burning flame" that Ph.D. students typically develop through their studies, he said.

Patrick Thibodeau is an editor at large for TechTarget Editorial who covers HCM and ERP technologies. He's worked for more than two decades as an enterprise IT reporter.