Investing In Early Education in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics to Prepare Future Workforce

摘要

A serious need is emerging for power, energy, and construction industries to replace retiring engineers and technicians so that the critical expertise is maintained. Yet skilled workers are not easily available to replace them at the rate of the demand. Training new workforce for entry level positions requires investment by the industry for their education. While companies are not willing to involve themselves in the classroom trainings, they are happily helping with on-the-job training. On the other hand, community colleges and four year institutions are facing nationwide budget cutting exacerbating special training for the future workforce. Therefore, the industry has been focusing on building a strong relationship with the educational institutions to train this workforce with cooperative and general education. Today there are several cooperative programs with two or more agencies involved to achieve the goal of preparation of technical workforce for future--such as STEM program. Our goal is to evaluate these programs, identify their shortcomings, and finally suggest an alternative method to training beginning with early childhood.