Embracing STEM

As a manufacturing, supply chain, engineering, and technology executive search firm and watching our own children grow, it’s hard to deny that we need a deeper emphasis on STEM education. JMJ Phillip Executive Search is a strong supporter of reshaping our educational system and redesigning the career planning process to help generate more Science, Technology, Engineering and Math graduates.

We are living in a world where people think of social media when they think of technology, but the world is far more complex than social interaction sites or apps. A big part of the problem is Math, because many are not interested in the subject. In fact, many individuals select college degrees so that they don’t have to take math. To reverse this course, a fundamental change must happen and it begins with childhood development.

JMJ Phillip backs STEM by contributing to and promoting places such as the Children’s Museums and Science Centers. We also believe that we need to see more female STEM graduates, as many within JMJ Phillip are watching their own daughters take an interest in math and science at an early age.

North America is projected to have more than one million engineering and manufacturing jobs unfilled in the coming years. Even if we take action now, it will be 10-12 years before the educational gap is filled, and this does not include acquiring the hands-on experience needed to make up for what the market is losing as the boomers retire.

An example of this is Manufacturing Engineers. If you went to college in the last 10-15 years, you likely didn’t think about manufacturing. In fact, many of those with strong math skills or engineering abilities actually went to Wall Street to leverage  their quantitative  abilities for a bigger pay day. You also have to think, where does a manufacturing engineer get their experience? Most often, it’s somewhere where they are manufacturing something. With the manufacturing that has left the country combined with the lack of people going into manufacturing and engineering sectors, we are experiencing an enormous need for manufacturing engineers.

If someone is influenced by STEM in 2015, ends up in college in 2020, then graduates in 2024, it’s not until almost 2030 that we have a manufacturing engineer with at least 5 years of real hands-on experience developing manufacturing processes and designing solutions to increase efficiency. That is about 15 years away from now.

From medical device and healthcare, to the next generation of engineers and manufacturing professionals, we must continue to take action and encourage our children to take an interest in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math.