Are students these days oversold on the whole STEM thing?

Question

I'm not knocking the knowledge itself but-a lot of jobs in research are grant to grant with less job security than McDonalds. There are tens of thousands of engineers and geologists out of work all the world because of low oil prices. IT professionals run the risk of being outsourced by the very technology they create.

Update:

all over the world

Answer 1

Favorite Answer

STEM education is great, but STEM education all by itself isn't great at all. People oversold on STEM (and I've taught quite a few of them in college) will graduate knowing HOW to do certain things, but not WHY they're doing those things, or whether there's a good reason do that this thing instead of that thing, or what the social consequences of doing that thing are. This is why we need the humanities as well as STEM.

Answer 2

You're partly right. Since 2008, English majors have been hired at a faster rate than engineering majors. Employers appreciate good communication skills.

The mania for STEM was fueled partly by the need to compete in a highly technological world, and partly by the idea that STEM majors would find better jobs. There are, in fact, a lot of good jobs that require some specialized, technical skills, but not necessarily a college education. IBM is partnering with some high schools to guarantee students a job if they stay in school an extra 2 years to learn those technical skills.

Answer 3

Sure, but then they're able to retrain for other, newer jobs, far more than someone with just a high school diploma ever could.

Answer 4

Yes; the job they want in STEM will be taken by someone on an H1B visa.