STEM careers
CSE and STEM careers
The STEM Subject Choice and Careers project (2008-2011) managed by the Centre for Science Education at Sheffield Hallam University in partnership with Babcock Careers was part of the substantial national investment by government to combat the decline in the numbers of students choosing subjects, courses and careers in the STEM field.
The project shed new light on the benefits of effective practice in careers-inspired learning and provided evidence of how much schools can achieve when they have the right support and tools. The findings also illustrated the slow response within schools to new and changing policy shifts.
The end of funding for the STEM careers project has coincided with significant policy changes within education and in careers information, advice and guidance (CEIAG). Changes include:
- the demise of Connexions careers services across England
- a move to an all age professional careers service due to start in 2012
- changes in the careers delivery in schools, making the school responsible for impartial guidance and removing careers education form the core curriculum.
We wanted to explore what is happening in schools with the end of funding for STEM Subject Choice and Careers in order to better understand how STEM subjects can be promoted in the new policy landscape. Therefore we designed and administered a survey which was sent out to the schools who participated in the STEM Subject Choice and Careers project as well as a range of other schools nationally.
The survey
The questions were designed to see how schools have responded to the recent shifts in careers policy including any changes on careers delivery have been made and how this may impact on the work to raise awareness of STEM careers now funding has ended. The survey included an open question for comments from teachers about their involvement with STEM and STEM careers.
The survey was sent to around 400 respondents. In total 156 responses were received (39% response rate) and the survey was fully completed by 107 respondents (27% response rate).
Thus far, a number of respondents have mentioned the negative implications of the government cuts on careers advice at their school:
"The loss of funding to provide independent carers advisors is a tragedy for young people."
"Very disappointed in our current governments approach. We have spent many years building up an excellent service for pupils and it is now all crumbling away. The effects of this on quality CEIAG can only be negative."
However, responses have also been gathered that suggest the quality of the schools internal STEM careers advice/work is strong enough to cope with the demise of external CIAG. Some of these respondents state that they are specialist schools in one of the STEM subjects and that this could be a reason for having an effective careers infrastructure in STEM:
"We have a strong STEM identity across the school not only because we are maths and science specialism, but responsibility for STEM has been assigned to SMT to deliver and imbed in curriculum."
From these respondents, some of the schools mention the desire to keep up their internal work, indicating that the effects of the cutbacks should be minimal:
"This school set up a careers dept in the past 4 years employing 3 members of staff (part time) to provide careers provision over KS3, KS4 and Years 12 and 13. This has had a major positive impact and it is hoped to continue this provision."
A majority of respondents have indicated that they plan to continue the promotion of STEM subject choice and careers resources through mainly through STEM enrichment activities, working with their own careers coordinators, and by developing their curriculum materials.
Analysis of survey responses is not yet complete but early analysis suggests that even though some schools feel that they will be able to cope with the loss of external CIAG most fear that pupils will suffer as a consequence.
