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Community Outreach through STEM Education Initiatives

Posted on December 28, 2015 by Jack Trompert

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In a past article, I discussed how Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programs can benefit your company. Not only are they excellent from a PR standpoint, but they can create stronger strategic relationships. These programs can take many forms, and can range in reach from local to global. Recently, companies like TI have chosen to help by devoting resources to STEM education initiatives.

STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education has started to get much-needed attention from the private sector. While the United States has historically been a leader in these fields, interest in STEM careers has dropped dramatically among high school students. According to the U.S. Department of Education, 28 percent of high school freshmen show an interest in a career in STEM. By the end of high school, only 16 percent of students say they’d like to pursue a career in a STEM-related field.

Even for those students who remain interested, many of them do not have access to high-quality STEM instruction. Hiring and retaining highly-qualified teachers for these subjects has proven difficult for school districts around the country. Additionally, funding for schools is almost always insufficient.

This has the potential to create a massive labor shortfall in the STEM fields and threatens the United States’ ability to continue to lead the world in innovation.

Fortunately, companies like Texas Instruments have committed to help fight this problem. The TI Foundation has given $6 million in grants in 2015 “to a variety of nonprofit partners and educators in targeted communities where the company has a major design or manufacturing presence,” according to a press release from June.

While donating millions of dollars is one excellent way to help support STEM programs in schools, it may not be workable for smaller companies. Fortunately, there are other ways your company can help create and support quality STEM programs in your community.

 Here are a few ideas:

  • Send employees to career days or to speak to science classes in high schools about the exciting opportunities for careers in STEM fields.
  • Help organize or sponsor science fairs and other competitions for students. Alternately, send volunteers to help judge science and engineering competitions.
  • Look for opportunities to mentor students interested in STEM careers. Host an event for children or high school students, or invite science classes to tour your facilities and shadow employees.
  • Partner with other local business to create a scholarship fund for students who plan to pursue a degree in a STEM discipline.
  • Donate supplies like calculators or lab equipment to a local school district.

Helping students see the exciting potential of STEM careers and equipping local schools with support and resources can benefit your company. It not only creates goodwill in the community, but can also help prevent the projected workforce shortfalls by keeping students excited about the prospect of a career in your field.

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Jack Trompert

In 2010, Jack and Janet Trompert started Talent 101 with a clear new vision on how to deliver talent to the marketplace. To work at Talent 101 is to be a part of something creative and big. From our modest roots as an ambitious startup, to becoming a global workforce solution provider to the world’s most recognized semiconductor companies, our growth and momentum owes a lot to our strong company culture of customer service, can do attitude, sense of urgency and always focus on the client and talent.

jackt@talent-101.com