Teaching for jobs of future: STEM provides technology basis

In today’s workforce, 71 percent of jobs require some sort of STEM skills training, whether it be in engineering, manufacturing, technology or other trades.

By 2020, more than 170,000 jobs in Pennsylvania will go unfilled because of a lack of STEM skills.

That fact illustrates the need for STEM education to begin in the classroom, to prepare students today for the workforce of tomorrow.

The Carbon Schuylkill Luzerne STEM Ecosystem is working to do just that.

On Thursday, officials, schools districts, business leaders and students gathered at Carbon Career & Technical Institute to announce the ecosystem’s initiatives to build a strong workforce for tomorrow out of the students of today, including a $1.2 million grant application and a $30,000 partnership.

The CSL STEM Ecosystem works to build a unified network between education and industry to change the way education prepares students so that they can think critically, solve problems more efficiently and learn through hands-on projects.

It is one of only 54 ecosystems in the nation and one of five in Pennsylvania.

The core team is made up of over 40 partners, five career and technical schools and area school districts. It centers around the SHINE Afterschool program model as its core to accomplishing its goals. SHINE has 19 centers serving school districts in Carbon, Schuylkill and Luzerne counties and has over a decade of data to show that a STEM curriculum can catapult a student’s learning into the 21st century.

Tony Grieco, executive director of the Luzerne County Intermediate Unit, spoke about the need to train teachers to think through the SHINE model.

Because of this, the CSL STEM Ecosystem has applied for a $1.2 million, three-year National Science Foundation grant to build a comprehensive professional development training course.

The goal of the course is to train 100 teachers in Jim Thorpe, Lehighton, Panther Valley, Wilkes-Barre, Greater Nanticoke, Shenandoah, Mahanoy City and Tamaqua school districts through a comprehensive model utilizing regional and state experts in the STEM field, peers in neighboring school districts, career and technical centers and business and industry partners.

“We believe this comprehensive development framework is perhaps the first in the state and the first in the country,” Grieco said. “We believe that mobilizing our ecosystem resources and providing teachers with a direct way to learn and grow will better equip students to learn and grow.”

He said data collected by the SHINE program between 2012 and 2016 supports the ecosystem’s goals because 100 percent of teachers who also serve as SHINE teachers agree that they will use STEM activities in the classroom more because of the program. They have a better understanding of STEM learning and believe STEM projects will greatly impact the students in the classroom.

David Kerr, vice president of external affairs for AT&T, announced that the company is investing $30,000 at Jim Thorpe Area School District to complete real world STEM activities at the high school level. Jim Thorpe already has two SHINE centers on the elementary level and participates in the SHINE Career Academy on the middle school level.

“AT&T invests in job training and workforce,” he said. “We need STEM workers. We’re quite happy to be a partner of the ecosystem.”

State Sen. John Yudichak, who has been an advocate for the program for the past eight years, then summed it up.

“Quality after-school programs make a difference not only in a child’s life in their academic excellence, but it also makes a difference in the private sector partners like Highwood USA and AT&T,” he said. “It (STEM) is really about pushing students to the full limit of their academic potential. We need to drive women, boys and girls into STEM programs.”