Obama, You're Missing an Extra "E" in STEM

If you listened to President Obama's State of the Union Address on Tuesday, you probably caught a glimpse of his vague plans to improve our educational system by focusing on STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) subjects to produce a more skilled workforce able to compete globally.

Will STEM Education Will Produce a Competitive Workforce?

Certainly grooming future scientists, engineers and technologists will produce a skilled and competitive workforce that could innovate new products, but the other half of the equation is getting those products to the marketplace. There's an assumption that if we educate today's youth in STEM education, they will choose those corresponding careers and, when they enter the workforce, there will be jobs available. Yet, jobs are created by people who start businesses, no matter their background, and not necessarily by scientists, engineers and technologists. There's no benefit to educating a workforce in certain disciplines if we cannot provide an adequate amount of jobs. It's simply a matter of supply and demand.

STEM, in all its rhetoric, is missing an extra "E" for Entrepreneurship.

Focusing solely on STEM education is a bandaid; STEEM is a solution. If you read my 8 Things I've Learned About Being an Entrepreneur, you'll understand that putting STEM education and reform as a national priority is a result of needing a cure to solve our current perceptions of being less than globally competitive. At some point, when we possibly have too many scientists, engineers and technologists out of work because supply outweighs the amount of jobs available we will realize that we should have implemented that extra "E" into the equation.

STEM Education Solves Half the Problem

In theory, STEM education leads to innovation, but STEEM allows for those innovations to be taken to the market successfully. That's where we can really shine in the global market.

Even Obama glorified his speech with tales of Brandon Fisher whose small drilling business aided in the rescue of the 33 Chilean miners and the Allen brothers of Michigan whose company manufactures solar shingles. These aren't just people who innovated products but entrepreneurs who took their ideas and inventions to the marketplace.

There are plenty of great ideas circulating the nation, many of which haven't come to fruition and never will. We don't teach entrepreneurship in our public school system. If we really want to flourish as a nation and be leaders in the global economy, we'll start implementing STEEM instead of just STEM into the equation.

Success to you!

Melissa

Biz in a Boxx