Stunning verdict: Non-STEM skills ‘are required for the majority of jobs’
One of the myriad initiatives crammed into President Biden’s blockbuster Build Back Better Act is $3 billion in funding for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) programs at higher education institutions, with a particular focus on historically black colleges and universities. MIT and John Hopkins are a couple of the many other institutions that would benefit.
But this spending focus on STEM education will likely be squandered. Contrary to conventional wisdom, STEM degrees are not the automatic tickets to prosperity many assume them to be.
“America is not facing a deficit of STEM-educated graduates,” Mark P. Mills, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a partner in Montrose Lane, an energy-tech venture fund, wrote in his his recent book, The Cloud Revolution: How the Convergence of New Technologies Will Unleash the Next Economic Boom and a Roaring 2020s. “It is true that there is intense demand for and a shortage of people with certain specific degrees – especially in data analytics, machine learning, and AI. But overall, America produces each year roughly 50 percent more STEM graduates than there are STEM job openings.”
For years, the mantra has been that STEM degrees are future-proof, but in a fast-changing information- and service-centered modern economy, this is not proving to be the case. – READ MORE
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