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Organization: Association of technical culture Rijeka
Author: Tihana Kalcic
Taking into account the development challenges of the economy during the past decade, economic and social relations are becoming increasingly demanding and digitalized, and almost any kind of initiative that brings people closer to technology has a positive effect on connecting society. Today, jobs related to STEM are necessary to close the existing gap between supply and demand, which also makes them the most sought-after on the labor market, and for those who follow a STEM orientation from the earliest school days, it provides the brightest prospects for the future.
Although the progress of society in the field of science and technology is increasingly visible, not only in the field of social action, but also at the level of its economy, functionality, productivity and quality, it does not follow the possibility of acquiring STEM education and skills, especially among young people. Technical culture, which is the basis of STEM education, at the level of elementary schools is significantly limited in time, while secondary school curricula, including vocational ones, due to the fulfillment of only sufficient or standard equipment of the cabinet, result in a lower quality training of students in the knowledge and skills necessary for use and implementation of new technologies. Due to the lack of access to modern technology, there is a large gap between the scientific and technological orientation of young students for future occupations in the field of STEM.
Formal school education can be supplemented with non-institutional education. It is extracurricular education that creates initiatives for the introduction of additional optional subjects or project activities within existing subjects. Most of all, the role of teachers and professors still remains a key factor in the success of the teaching process, where information and communication technologies significantly increase the success of working with students. It is significant that non-institutional education can offer new approaches in the organization of modern forms of teaching, which consequently has a positive effect on the greater motivation and interest of students in learning, developing their self-confidence. Non-institutional education improves equal relations for working in groups by promoting teamwork and trains individual students for self-learning and self-evaluation of their knowledge, which is important for developing awareness of one's own knowledge and acquired competencies and for lifelong learning.
Certainly, it is important to acquire transversal and fundamental knowledge and skills in science, technology, engineering and mathematics from an early age. These knowledge and skills are necessary for navigating in a technologically dependent society - for later activities in scientific research - technological development and serve as a solid foundation for lifelong learning. In view of the above, it is necessary to supplement the theoretical education of students with practical work that would include the application of modern ICT technologies. Otherwise, the aforementioned leads to insufficient learning outcomes and students' competencies not adopted in the field of technical culture, but also in technical sciences.
The consequences refer to the fact that students are not able to learn about and use new technologies and lack directly applicable knowledge that is in demand on the labor market. In accordance with the above, upon completion of vocational education, students are insufficiently competent for active participation in the labor market and are less motivated for further scientific training within the framework of college education. On the other hand, the percentage of jobs in the field of ICT is constantly growing, as is the number of youth unemployment. Reciprocally, a certain number of experts in the field of ICT are needed, while the competences of young people do not meet the demands of the market. Due to insufficiently fast adaptation to changes and development of ICT, their social inclusion has decreased, and at the same time the need to acquire knowledge in the field of modern information and communication technologies has been expressed. According to the conducted research (Europe's Digital Decade: Digital goals for 2030), in addition to the chronic lack of ICT experts, it is estimated that 20 million ICT experts will be needed in Europe by 2030, in addition to which up to 200 thousand new e-leaders will be sought, professionals who, with highly developed digital skills, know how to recognize key innovation opportunities and create new business models.
Therefore, STEM education is an indispensable education of the future and for the future. It encompasses four concepts related to natural science, technology (which includes digital technology), engineering and mathematics. The STEM field has already been proven to be a very important factor that directly affects economic and social development; therefore, it justifiably plays an important role in all concepts of modern education, including non-institutional ones. In addition, the World Economic Forum (WEF) made a list of skills needed for the jobs of the future, where it is estimated that by 2025, more than 40% of companies will adopt STEM technology as a modern production process. In addition, the WEF emphasizes that technology will create as many as 97 million new jobs by 2025. A report by the European Skills Agenda states that the demand for professionals and junior professionals in the field of STEM is expected to grow by around 8% by 2025, which is much higher than the average growth of 3% that intended for all occupations; as employment in STEM-related sectors is also expected to grow by approximately 6.5% by 2025.
Therefore, the SCRAPY project emphasizes the development of basic knowledge and practice that are a prerequisite for the changing and unpredictable future needs of the development of the economy and society, and at the same time form the basis of developing (self) motivation for inclusion in the processes of lifelong education. Non-institutional education, with its own flexibility of programs and the ability to adapt to users, has the task of emphasizing and adopting international trends in the development of problem-solving abilities in its activities and teaching methods. Non-institutional education complements the formal one by harmonizing the acquisition of theoretical knowledge and basic practical skills, and in this project by harmonizing science-mathematical, technological and technical education.
References:
https://www.weforum.org/publications/the-future-of-jobs-report-2023