Why America Needs More STEAM Power

I must admit it has been exciting to see manufacturing making headlines so much of late. The topic of manufacturing appears to be a current darling of the political talking heads. Much has been discussed about the role of manufacturing in the U.S. economy and how manufacturing will be the engine to power us out of this sluggish economy.

When you look at the data it is evident that manufacturing has all the right stats to power growth in our economy. The higher wages paid versus service sector jobs ($17k per year) and the number of companies supported in the supply chain for every manufacturer (multiplier effect of a $1.50 per $1 spent) just to name just a few.

On the flip side of all this positive talk about how manufacturing will drive our economic recovery is another reality — the vast skills gap facing all manufacturers in America.

For manufacturing to exist in this country it has to be highly automated and on the cutting-edge of technology. These changes are driving the need for a manufacturing worker that is different from decades past. While much is written about the need for a STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) based education, school districts and states are not hearing the message.

In February of this year, The State Board of Education decided California eighth-graders will no longer be required to take Algebra 1... This is taking our children’s education in the wrong direction! We're losing focus on STEM, but is it the silver bullet we hope it is? Many people are coming forward now saying that advanced manufacturing needs more than just STEM focused lessons. What's missing? Art.

STEAM (science, technology, engineering, ARTS, and mathematics) may seem to be an unlikely pairing but it is not as strange as you may think.

Innovation requires a creative mind and what better training ground than the arts to open up the realms of creativity? For example, 3D and additive technologies require the ability to create in multiple dimensions. But I caution how we build a STEAM based curriculum — it troubles me to see so many graduates earning degrees without practical application skills needed to make them employable.

America at one time had one of the best educational systems in the world. Even with the decline of the system, we're still leaders in innovation and the entrepreneurial spirit. We must find a way to bring STEAM based curriculum to our K-12 system, and it is critical that we make these programs engaging and hands-on. FIRST robotics is a great example. Together, we need to push our kids to think creatively and scientifically at an early age.

Then, we have to continue supplying the most current STEAM based knowledge to our universities and community college systems. We need to show the world how this can be done, and that it can be done. For if we can excel at solving this challenge, America will be able to STEAMroll the rest of the world.

Bridging the Manufacturing Skills Gap

I was very interested to see a recent opinion article in the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) written by Brad Smith who is an Executive Vice President and General Counsel for Microsoft. The piece ran on Friday October 19, 2012 and was entitled “How to Reduce America’s Talent Deficit”.

Credit: servicesphere.com

The article caught my attention for a couple of reasons. Those of you who follow me through social media and my blog know that I am very passionate about career technical education as well as Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) education within the K-12 system. I have recently been appointed by Governor Brown to the California Workforce Investment Board (CWIB) and I am eager to help make a positive impact on the development of the workforce in my state of California. My attention was piqued at first due to the article being written by someone from Microsoft. Why? Because as a manufacturer of linear motion products located in the East Bay I am constantly competing for talent against the Silicon Valley. I was really shocked to read that many of my challenges in finding skilled employees are the same as those experienced by Microsoft.

Like Microsoft, we have had positions remain open for months and months. My assumption was that I was losing out on talent to the Silicon Valley, but now I see that the problem is far worse than I originally thought — it is a systemic failure of our current educational system.

How have we created such a disconnect between our educational institutions and the needs of business? I find it troubling that we are not graduating students with the skill sets that actually make them employable.  As Mr. Smith writes in his article, “Thus the economy faces a paradox. Too many Americans can’t find jobs, yet too many companies can’t fill open positions.”

Mr. Smith calls for a national “Race to the Future” that would provide funding and incentives for states to:

• Strengthen STEM in grade schools by recruiting and training teachers to the Common Core Standards and the Next Generation Science Standards.
• Broaden access to computer science in high schools. For manufacturing jobs this has to also include opportunities for hands on learning that reinforces a STEM education. Programs such as FIRST robotics need to be available in every school.
• Help colleges and universities raise their graduation rates. I think this does not address the fact that an alarming percentage of students never even make it to a four year college. In the state of California we now experience close to a 30% drop out rate from our high schools. We need to focus on graduating students from high school before we worry about college. There also needs to be strong financial support for our community colleges and acknowledge them for their role in training our workforce with technology specific skills. Career technical education is becoming more and more advanced each day in parallel with the increase in technology and automation that is occurring in today’s manufacturing facilities.
• Expand the capacity of our colleges to produce more STEM focused degrees.

I couldn't agree more! But one big issue that Mr. Smith is not addressing in the last bullet point is that you can only offer STEM related degrees when there are enough people interested in those programs. When being an engineer is not highly valued in our country and it is a struggle to get students to enroll in a class with the word "manufacturing" in it (see my blog from October 29, 2012), no wonder we can’t produce enough degreed and skilled workers to satisfy our industry needs.

I would love to get your feedback on this subject. I feel this is a true crisis facing our country and the state of California. As I fulfill my duties on the CWIB and as chair of the California Manufacturer’s and Technology Association (CMTA) I want to make sure I'm championing for efforts with the most direct impact on the needs of industry that will get the most people employed.