Making 2016 a great year for STEM

January is one of my favourite months, as I feel that a new year brings new opportunities for us to work collaboratively with employers to help change the lives of young people in the UK, by raising their awareness and aspirations when it comes to careers with Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) disciplines.

Hopefully everyone is well rested and has entered the new season with the optimism and enthusiasm that will make 2016 an even better year than 2015, building on the accomplishments that were achieved and the lessons that were learnt during the past 12 months. I find it important to remind myself at this time of year of two important facts, the first that here at EDT, we operate as an education charity with a mission to inspire and help young people about careers in STEM related industries and fields, and the second is that by working in collaboration with industry through our various partnerships and stakeholders we are creating a future skilled workforce for the UK. By linking STEM outreach with the development of employability skills, a ‘nice to have’ CSR activity for an employer becomes so much more, and that’s what we’re about.  

For me one of the most important responsibilities we have at EDT, is to effectively communicate the impact that such experiences actually have on the lives of the young people involved, in order to encourage more employers to see the benefit of STEM interventions. For instance we have found that 77% of students who participate in our Engineering Education Scheme projects between the ages of 16-17; go on to work in a STEM related discipline in their first job. Our First Edition STEM taster days which reach students as young as 11 inspire 92% of participants to consider studying STEM and a future career in this area, proving that young people don’t have to be approaching work age in order to turn their attention towards a STEM related career. There are many other impressive stats that could be reeled off, to demonstrate the impact we are having through our collaborations.

Which brings me nicely to Industrial Cadets. Why?

Because Industrial Cadets is all about providing young people with real world related industry experiences, to help them understand the exciting job opportunities that exist locally and at the same time providing them with much needed skills desired by employers. Through Industrial Cadets, even those employers who already run their own workplace experiences, can work with us to become part of a national accreditation which is setting the standard in industry workplace experiences, ensuring the right skills are developed so that young people gain more out of workplace experiences and that employers equally benefit by working with a flexible framework that develops skills in a future talent pool for their organisation.

Later this year it will be 5 years since HRH The Prince of Wales had the first idea about Industrial Cadets, and by the time we celebrate the 5^th anniversary more than 5000 young people will have experienced an Industrial Cadets activity and more than 150 employers will have joined the programme.

So as you can see, both I and the rest of the team are understandably excited about the prospects for both EDT and Industrial Cadets during 2016, we hope to work with even more employers who will see the huge benefit in providing experiences that will take young people, from all backgrounds, beyond the classroom and help them to see that they have a place in the future of UK industry.

A very Happy New Year to you all!