BIP
STEM - chart your future! A new educational campaign has been launched
STEM stands for science, technology, engineering, and math. Put them together and you have an activity that is relevant today and looks far into the future. The educational campaign "STEM - chart your future!" aims to show that young people who choose this educational path have the chance to become "workers of the future" without fear of what will happen tomorrow.
STEM is an action-based education model. Students take the initiative during class. They themselves define the problem they want to solve. Then, based on the available materials, they analyze it and together as a group generate ideas for solving it. Exactly as real engineers do.
STEM teaches how to solve problems
STEM develops children's ability to think in terms of cause and effect and to draw conclusions based on their own observations. The knowledge gained in practical classes is a ticket to a world mastered by artificial intelligence and innovation, which on the one hand pushes it forward, on the other raises many concerns. Those students with technical skills are expected to have fewer of them.
Young people are about to enter the labor market based on a series of connections, so developing the competencies of the future is key, and we urge them to make friends in STEM. In our activities, carried out together with investors in the region, we place great emphasis on encouraging students to choose technical and science fields. We see great potential in the implementation of STEM from the earliest years of education.
Aneta Herbuś, project manager of Invest in Wroclaw, Wroclaw Agglomeration Development Agency
Research conducted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics* (BLS) shows that the job market of the future will have the most prospects for people with technical and engineering education, such as: programmers, biomedical scientists, chemists, environmental engineers and science teachers. It is estimated that by 2027 the number of STEM-related jobs will increase by 13%.
Employees of Wroclaw companies model for students
The "STEM - chart your future" campaign is based on examples - not just any examples. It involves 3M, Amazon and BASF - hegemons of the Wroclaw manufacturing market. There are also Govecs, Collins Aerospace, and GKN Automotive, operating in Olesnica, among others. Leaders in their industries, creators of innovative solutions, selling their products worldwide. However, it is not the product that is supposed to inspire, but the people.
We wanted to show how diverse these places are in terms of employment and emphasize that choosing a technical school or a trade school opens the gates of factories on very many levels.
Karolina Misztal - coordinator of the campaign, Wroclaw Agglomeration Development Agency
The videos are available in the short form of so-called "reels" on the social profiles of Invest in Wroclaw and the Wroclaw Agglomeration Development Agency. Longer interviews with company employees who talk about their experiences and inspire with their stories can also be found on the Invest in Wroclaw channel on YouTube.
Factory is a woman?
The STEM campaign is meant to crack down on many of the stereotypes that the tech professions have been saddled with. One of them is gender and the long-held belief that women are unsuitable for operational work in factories or in senior, engineering, leadership positions.
A knack for science helps in choosing a career path, the heroines of the campaign admit, but it is not always necessary. Instead, a necessary condition is the courage and willingness to decide in accordance with interests and dreams
Mathematics and sciences have never been my forte, but the dream of becoming a veterinarian and the desire to help animals were stronger. That's why I chose a class with a biological and chemical profile and got into college. However, there I already lacked courage, succumbed to peer pressure, dropped out of veterinary medicine and set my sights on law.
Anna Tarasewicz, a member of the board of BASF Catalysts Poland
A technical worker is worth his weight in gold
Govecs manufactures e-schwalbe electric scooters in Wroclaw. Nearly 300 unicycles leave the factory every day, with more than 60 people working on their production.
Of course, there are people who must have specialized knowledge. We have electronics engineers, mechanics, specialists who manage projects. But we also have a number of such areas where technical knowledge is required, but no longer strictly "from the Polytechnic". In them, a person after a technical school or trade school has a much easier entrance and priority of employment.
Bożena Gut - president of Govecs Poland sp.z o.o.
Intel - the factory of the future
Intel, a global leader and the world's largest producer of microprocessors, is the latest investment project of this scale in the Wroclaw Agglomeration. And most importantly, it will soon be one of the largest employers in the region, which bases its operations on cooperation and human capital.
The company attaches great importance to the development of its employees, as well as training, reskilling or upskilling future staff. Its representatives are already meeting periodically with students from Wroclaw schools to help disenchant STEM in their eyes. Issues of equality and greater participation of girls in technical education and later in the job market are also extremely important to Intel.
About 18,000 students attend technical schools in Wroclaw. They study a wide range of subjects, including landscape architecture technician, construction technician, electrician, advertising technician, veterinary technician or nutritionist. Education at a technical school ends not only with a high school diploma, but also with a vocational exam entitling them to pursue it.