As a lot of our domestic innovations are focused on technology and how it can improve, classic skill-based jobs such as manufacturing are seeing a shortage of qualified employees. Companies are being forced to outsource their manufacturing positions. There are simply not enough qualified applicants in the United States. STEM is an acronym for science, technology, engineering and mathematics. It is a skill set that manufacturing workers must have in order to qualify for the job.
The STEM skills gap is becoming a major issue in the US. More tech and manufacturing companies are focusing on outsourcing their work to robotics rather than obtaining jobs in these fields. The concern grows for the state of millions of manufacturing jobs going unfilled. Some of Silicon Valley’s top tech companies are working to combat the issues surrounding STEM skills right now.
Bay Area companies are combating the lack of STEM skills by placing their own teaching programs in local schools. As we can’t expect the school systems to change drastically in our favor, these Silicon Valley companies are taking charge themselves. “One thing we hear all the time is that hosts are surprised because they expected the teachers to be more like college interns,” said CEO Shari Liss of Ignite in a press release. Ignite is a Bay Area nonprofit that helps place teachers within local schools.
Moving Toward STEM Advances
Ignited is a nonprofit based out of Silicon Valley that is helping combat the STEM skills crisis. The future of our economy is at stake if we cannot fill the positions required to keep it going. These issues arise because not enough workers are entering the workforce with the necessary stem skills. Companies are having to look toward robotics or outsourcing to combat the crisis for now. But they hope to be able to keep those jobs in the future as our population grows exponentially.
Placing teachers and educators in schools themselves gives tech companies the advantage of being able to teach their upcoming workforce. These teachers are able to educate their students on the STEM skills they need. It also helps by assuring that the next generation has a qualified work force. To learn more about Ignited and how they’re combating the STEM skills gap, check out their website here.
