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8.6 Final P2P Activity: Organize a STEM careers event or activity

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8.6 Final P2P Activity: Organize a STEM careers event or activity

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PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU READ THE TEXT BELOW CLOSELY so that you understand how to complete this REQUIRED activity.

In this activity you have to prepare an event plan for organizing a STEM careers event or activity and review the outline of 3 course peers.

1. Prepare and fill in the event plan

Prepare the STEM careers event plan by using the Word outline below. The event plan should integrate the ideas, tools, activities, etc. that have been covered on the course.  The document will contain guidance and example answers to guide your drafting of the event plan.

Your lesson plan has to be in English, otherwise it will not qualify.

EVENT PLAN TEMPLATE – Word
EVENT PLAN TEMPLATE – OpenDocument Text

2. Hand-in your event plan

Submit your event plan file in the interface below. You can upload a file there. In the text box that is part of the submission, you can write a short paragraph explaining a bit about your situation. This will be helpful information for your reviewer. Make sure you have uploaded the file before clicking the Submit button.

The final deadline to hand-in your event plan is 28th May 2017.

3. Review event plans

Wait for 24 hours then return to this page. You will find below a checklist meant to help you review each event plan with examples of a good and constructive review. Download here the checklist:

Peer-review CHECKLIST (.docx) - editable

Peer-review CHECKLIST (.odt) - editable

Peer-review CHECKLIST (PDF) - read-only

Provide valuable and friendly feedback for each event plan you have been assigned by writing your feedback in the review text box. Your review is not anonymous.

Once you have written your review in each text box, and you have filled in the checklist for each event plan, attach each checklist in its corresponding review box and click the “Review” button for each review. The deadline to hand-in your reviews is 4th June 2017.

4. Read your reviews

At the end of the course return to this page to see the reviews of your course peers for your lesson plan.

In case of suspected plagiarism or other types of misuse, as well as other questions about this task, please visit the FAQ section where you will find more detailed instructions on what to do.

1. Hand in your task >  2. Review your colleagues >  3. Reviews received

The time for handing in ends on 29-05-2017 00:59:00

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8.5 Case study: The Teen Science Café experience in Malta

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8.5 Case study: The Teen Science Café experience in Malta

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As seen in previous sections, there are numerous types of events to support STEM careers induction. One that has not been brought up but which has increased in popularity -over the last years- is the Science Café Format; Science Cafés are events that take place in informal settings and which involve engaging, lively conversation with a scientist or a STEM professional about a specific topic.
The focus of these encounters is that of supporting interactive exchange between professionals and students and to engage the latter in conversations about STEM topics and career paths, in an informal setting. The objectives of this project are to positively affect students' academic and career choices and to serve as an outreach exercise to promote careers in science and technology.

The organization of Science Cafés can entail numerous rewards for pupils, as they offer an excellent opportunity for students to engage with the science community. Furthermore, they are planned in a dynamic manner, involving two-way interactions between scientists and students. In this manner, students will feel empowered to learn and they will gain valuable perspectives from both the STEM professional and academic worlds.

Science Cafés need adequate planning to invite accomplished professionals, as the right choice of experts is key to ensure effective and dynamic interaction. Ideally, Science Café activities will be held out of the typical class environment. The objective of this is to ensure the informal setting of the science cafés in order to facilitate interaction and engagement.

Activity:
Through this padlet, share your thoughts on the Teen Science Café experience. What did you find most interesting? Do you know of any similar experiences? Has it inspired you to set up a similar activity in your school?)
I think this is a great activity for students and for schools because it is easier to organize and maintain and expenses are much lower than organizing career fairs.

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Case study: The Teen Science Café experience in Malta

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Experiences on organizing the Teen Science Café initiative (a form of STEM careers event) organized by the Department of Curriculum Management in Malta and implemented in 9 pilot schools in the same country. The video includes testimonials with teachers and students participating in this project.

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8.4 STEM careers fair organization. Strategies for success

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8.4 STEM careers fair organization. Strategies for success

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1. Planning

Organizing a job fair takes substantial time and effort. Most efforts occur during the planning stage, were organizers are busy laying the groundwork (from establishing objectives, targeting an audience or planning a budget). Indeed, the specifics of organizing careers events are manifold and attention to detail is key. Watch the video below to find out about the key steps you should follow in the planning phase of a STEM careers event.

https://youtu.be/uAX-QoEC664

2. Implementation

Once the planning stages are completed, the event will start coming to life. However, it is important not to miss a trick and to keep in mind that there are still many duties to carry out, specifically, related to the event implementation and during the event itself. From risk assessment to logistics, it will be essential to draw a masterplan that keeps the team and its activities together. Watch the video below to learn about the main tasks in the implementation phase.

https://youtu.be/Ak5mQBgWv_s

3. Post event activities

Last but not least, it is essential to complete a number of post event actions, not only as follow up activities with different stakeholders, but also as a way to disseminate the main outcomes of the event and, most importantly, to evaluate its results.

https://youtu.be/IIGUkoXTTSw
valuation activities will be essential to recognize any mistakes done, to correct them and improve them. Check out the pilot study developed by European Schoolnet and Intel on “European Science Fairs Evaluation Framework”. The aim of this evaluation exercise was to show the data that could be obtained from the evaluation tool developed. In the study, you will be able to see the main findings from students and from teachers and maybe even get inspired to develop a tool of your own!

Organizing fairs will become easier over time as one gains experience, establishes procedures, amasses contacts, and implements improvements. To get an idea of what does fair organization entail, in the words of an experienced professional, check the Scientix Opening minds to STEM careers newsletter.

Activity:
Pick ONE main task for each of the phases (Planning - Implementation – Post event activities) and tell us why you think it is important)

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1. Student internships / job shadowing

Student internships (or job shadowing initiatives) give direct opportunities to profit from an insider’s view of different STEM career jobs. Particularly, job shadowing is defined by the Manchester Metropolitan University, as:

“(…) where an individual from one area of the organisation has the opportunity to work alongside and gain experience of the role of another individual, and gain an insight into that particular work area. It can also be used to provide a individual within a department the opportunity to work alongside more experienced colleagues so they can learn and develop within their current role”. This definition can also be applied to students “shadowing” in a company, and not just to individuals already in the workplace."

Both of these options offer students with excellent chances, specifically:

to explore a career field by experiencing life at a real workplace;

to learn how to apply academic subject knowledge through discussions with a professional;

to assess one’s aptitude for a particular position/role/career;

to observe the day-to-day activities of a professional/researcher;

to discuss specific STEM related research and careers pathways;

to create career connections and establish valid networking opportunities.

Nonetheless, these initiatives can also entail a number of challenges, as it follows:

Non-involvement: In some circumstances, job shadowing limits the involvement of the trainee/student to observation and does not allow the student to contribute to the work efforts. Moreover, job shadowing does not always provide students/trainees with an understanding of the responsibility or specific skills needed in the workplace.

Distortions: The success of job shadowing will depend on the professional selected “to be shadowed”. The time selected for shadowing can also create distortions, as it can provide inadequate understanding of the level of difficulty and/or of the necessary engagement.

Timing: Job shadowing will usually take place during a limited period. This brief exposure can cause the student shadowing to miss out key work challenges that may not occur during the time of the placement.

Supervision: To ensure an effective experience, students will need to be supervised and mentored, which can be very time consuming for the professionals.

Disruption: Job shadowing can disrupt the smooth functioning of working environments, in different ways. The professional, conscious of being observed, might behave differently than normal, which can affect the quality of output. Another related inherent risk, from an organisational point of view, is the student getting to know confidential information of a particular organization.

Other challenges might relate to the lack of space or of other infrastructure to accommodate interns or the work schedule incompatibilities that may not match students’ availabilities.

Overall, the success of a student internship (or job shadowing) will depend on highly motivated professional job shadowers. Students/interns will benefit by taking time to reflect on the critical aspects of the job profile, work culture and other habits beforehand, thus facilitating a better understanding of what and how to make the best out of the internship experience.

2. STEM career fairs

(STEM) career fairs offer students with a great opportunity to connect with employers and learn about different career prospects. These can offer students many benefits, among them:

A convenient and unique opportunity to meet key professionals and employers from different STEM fields, in one same location;

A networking occasion for students to meet not only with professionals and employers abut also with researchers and with more advanced students;

A chance to gain first-hand information about local (and potentially foreign) employers;

The prospect of collecting promotional information (brochures, business cards) related to different companies;

However, there are always challenges related to STEM career fairs. Some of them being:

Mass appeal: Unless tailored to a specific field, career fairs might feature professionals from a wide range of business or fields, making it difficult for attendees to adapt the visit to their needs.

Limited quality time: A careers fair atmosphere is usually loud and crowded, leaving little quality time or space for effective interaction between students and professionals. This context can prove challenging for students to communicate, ask questions and network.

Organisational costs: STEM career fairs require a high budget, extensive time and personnel to get organised.

3. Virtual job fairs

Virtual job fairs are the online version of a traditional career fair. These fairs allow students to meet and discuss employment opportunities through specialised websites in a live but fully interactive manner. Some disadvantages of virtual job fairs include:

Technological glitches: While technology provides students with a variety of new ways of connecting, technical glitches can create a disadvantage for networking and effective communication.

Digital divide: Not all students might have direct access to a digital devise. Therefore, virtual job fairs might not ensure equal access to all pupils.

Visual elements: The interaction between students and professionals might appear to be limited or superficial, since the face-to-face contact is non-existent.

Inertia about new technologies: Students and/or professionals may be apprehensive about learning to use a new digital tool.

4.  Career talks / workshops / seminars

These career related options provide students with a number of presentations related to specific careers, often held by a professional in the field.  The advantages of these options include:

Students can discuss specific queries with professionals during or after the talk, workshop or seminar.

Direct face-to-face contact facilitates smoother and improved communication.

Parents or student guardians can join the discussion to support their children in their career choice.

The main setbacks related to these career related options, include:

Students might find difficulty to attend career talks if these clash with their school/study scheduling.

Professionals might lack the skills to share their work in a specific field in an appealing, engaging manner. This can result in students being disinterested or detached.

It might be difficult to convince professionals from a wide range of fields to carry on STEM career talks. Therefore, students might only be exposed to a limited range of options.

The STEM Alliance and the SYSTEMIC projects have developed a guide to engage company professionals (technicians, scientists, engineers, researchers or employment and recruiting managers) to visit schools and participate in collaborative activities with them. The aim is to close the gap between industry and education sectors, to raise pupils and teachers’ awareness on STEM careers and to promote STEM jobs.
5. Career exhibitions

Career exhibitions provide with static displays with information related to different STEM careers. While they provide with a nice option to show specific evidence, they often lack the human factor, which can make them less engaging. Nonetheless, when set-up in conjunction with other initiatives (such as career talks or events fairs) these exhibitions can be an interesting option to support STEM career engagement.

Activity:
Through the padlet below tell us (in your opinion) which of the activities above is more suited to your students and why do you think so
I think STEM career fairs, where they can meet with experts from different STEM fields and career talks.

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Module 8: Career orientation events on STEM education

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Module 8: Career orientation events on STEM education

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The learning objectives of Module 8 are:

Become aware of the main benefits of organizing a STEM careers events in schools;

Learn tips and steps to organize their own STEM careers event;

Explore case studies of various STEM careers events

8.1 What is a career event?
Career events are an excellent opportunity for students, employers and higher education institution representatives to meet and exchange information and ideas about different career paths, potential employment options and training opportunities.

Across Europe, a network of science fairs has been developed -and supported by Intel-, which is eventually linking into a European final level event, the EU Contest for Young Scientists (EUCYS). Likewise, the EUCYS contest links to national science fairs in different countries, where awards are given at national level. Some examples of these national science fairs are the following:

Big Bang Fair in the UK;

I giovani e le scienze (Youth and Science) in Italy;

Unge Forskere (Young Scientists) in Denmark;

Jugend forscht (Youth research) in Germany.

Activity
(Activity 1: Share in the padlet below any science fairs that are currently taking place in your country. Have you participated? What did you liked the most?)
http://www.zv.hr/?id=399
Few days ago our school attended the 2nd Zagreb Crafts Fair. The fair represents the promotion of artisan trades among younger generations, as it presents a variety of craft trades to motivate young people to enroll in vocational craft schools.

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7.4 Case study: Internship placement in Portugal

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7.4 Case study: Internship placement in Portugal

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Activity
Which do you think is one benefit and one disadvantage of such an internship?
I can only highlight the benefits of this kind of internship: students learn and acquire knowledge and skills in a real business environment where they can later continue to work if they show as a good workers and remain motivated. If they do not stay, they will certainly have a huge experience behind them that will be of great importance in future work.

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“those countries with quicker and more successful school-to-work transitions are those where young people leave home earlier. In this regard, seven common patterns were identified among Member States. At one end of the spectrum, the ‘Nordic’ and ‘Apprenticeship’ (Austria and Germany) models are characterized by a more rapid transition to adulthood and a quicker transition from school to work. At the other end of the spectrum, in the ‘Eastern European’ and ‘Mediterranean’ models, difficult and problematic school-to-work transitions are associated with very slow and late transitions to independence and autonomy.”
Very big entreprises rarely stand, with arms crossed, waiting for bright and trained students to reach the steps of their companies. They also take a step forward and do their part in making sure that they attract the right candidates and help the young generation to achieve the skills neccesary for the business environment.
We will see here two examples of these opportunities provided by companies and which students can benefit from.

A first type of opportunity is the one provided by Amgen Scholars, a program where “Undergraduate participants benefit from undertaking a research project under top faculty, being part of a cohort-based experience of seminars and networking events, and taking part in a symposium in their respective region (U.S., Europe or Japan) where they meet their peers, learn about biotechnology, and hear from leading scientists.” In this module we will feature a webinar with two alumni of this program so check out section 7.5 to connect!

Another way in which companies cover this skills gap is from Microsoft’s Careers where they have an entire section dedicated to students and graduates. This section features live events or webinars on how to prepare for a job at Microsoft, international opportunities like apprenticeships, and even high-school summer bootcamps!

Therefore, there are resources and opportunities out there from which students can benefit. So how can you search for these kinds of programs? Some practical steps:

1. Check out which are some of the big industry or corporate players in your town/city/country.

2. Usually, they should have a department/area of their organization allocated towards Corporate Social Responsibility (for example, Amgen has the Amgen Foundation, which offers the Amgem Scholars program) or a section on Careers, which almost always provides assistance to students/graduates who might be interested in a job with that company (like Microsoft for example). This information should normally be available on the company’s website.

3. See what types of activities they provide: these can be live ones, like trainings or workshops at their headquarters or live webinars. If they offer extracurricular study programs (like an Academy) see what are their aims, objectives, conditions and timeline.

4. Facilitate the connection with your students. Either in one on one discussions, in the classroom, or redirecting your students to that website.

Activity
Are there any training opportunities or companies providing programs in your country, from which your students can benefit?

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community partners are defined as “an expert in the community or somebody who can help us take our learning from the classroom and apply it into the real world”. The exact term used in the article to define them is “learning partner”. The school uses these learning partners to enrich lessons and to co-teach but also for teachers to learn from them, as experts in their field, through individual talks, before teaching a particular lesson. Another way these partners are used is to give authenticity to lessons and to connect students to real-life individuals who are experts in the specific area students are practicing or learning about during a lesson.
So, how do you reach these learning partners? The article suggests several ways: from Googling the nearest expert, to collaborating with parents or connecting with teachers from other schools. More interesting approaches are (for the teacher) to:

join local talks or workshops: networking and learning what others are doing and how you can tap into their expertise is a great strategy;

contact local museums, government agencies, local expertise institutions (which usually have an Education Department).

Activity: [Padlet] After you have read these steps to connect with your local community, share with us what are some ways in which you can connect with the business community in your town or city: what professionals can you bring to your school and how can you involve them?
In our city (Sveti Ivan Zelina) we work well with the local community, the city museum and the city library. High school students go to practice at local entrepreneurs, but unfortunately we still have no practice to bring experts from different fields into the school and classroom.

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Module 7: Benefits of external school to work programs

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Module 7: Benefits of external school to work programs

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The learning objectives of Module 7 are:

1. Learn about types of school-to-work programs available and where to find them;

2. Learn how to guide their students towards these programs;

7.1 Business and education collaboration
Very few countries manage to achieve high levels of collaboration between schools and industry. Moreover, this collaboration is often only achieved in resource-rich schools or in those schools were it happens by fortune, and not necessarily through a guided, school-centered or policy-directed approach.
Although education providers are confident that students are being adequately prepared for transition to employment, in reality, employers are complaining that they do not find workers with the right skills.
three hurdles that youth face in the path from education-to-employment (E2E): (1) enrolling in postsecondary education (2) building the right skills and (3) finding a suitable job.
Overall, the report mentions that students face great financial costs to pursue higher education options. It also stresses they are not learning enough soft skills in schools (or not right soft skills) and that they lack support and career information in their transition to work.
So, how can we solve this? One of the solutions proposed in the McKinsey & Company report is a stronger collaboration between education providers and employers. This can be developed through designing school curricula together, engaging professionals in teaching, creating opportunities for students to experiment real-life work in companies, and accessing training academies offered by larger companies.

Avtivity
Based on the description above, where do you think your students are placed? What is their level of access and desire for employability? What are some actions you can take to improve the situation?
My students (11-14 yars old) are somewhere between nonbelievers, strugglers and dreamers. They are still not sure on which jobs they would like to work one day and since business environment in Croatia is not bright at the moment,  it only makes their choices more difficult.

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The problem of youth unemployment in the European Union is not new. Youth unemployment has been double or even triple the rate of general unemployment in Europe for the last 20 years. The events of the past few years have dramatically exacerbated it, however: 5.6 million young people are unemployed across Europe, and a total of 7.5 million are neither being educated nor are they working. Moreover, while young people are eager to work, more than half of those without jobs say they simply can't find one-all while businesses across Europe insist they struggle to find young people with the skills they need.

To understand this disconnect and what can be done about it, McKinsey built on the methodology used in our 2012 publication, Education to Employment: Designing a System that Works. We concentrated on four broad questions:

1. Is the scale of the youth-unemployment problem in Europe a result of lack of jobs, lack of skills, or lack of coordination?

2. What are the obstacles that youth face on their journey from education to employment?

3. Which groups of youth and employers in Europe are struggling the most?

4. What can be done to address the problem?

To answer these questions, we surveyed 5,300 youth, 2,600 employers, and 700 postsecondary-education providers across 8 countries that together are home to almost 73 percent of Europe's 5.6 million jobless youth: France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. We also examined more than 100 programs in 25 countries to provide examples of companies, governments, education providers, and nongovernmental organizations that may be relevant to Europe.

Our research led us to the following answers:

1. While there are more people looking for work, employers in Europe cannot find the skills they need.

Clearly, the lack of availability of jobs in Europe is part of the problem, but it is far from the whole story. In many countries, the number of people employed has actually remained steady, and in some countries, increased, since 2005. A greater number of older people are working longer, and more women with children are choosing to join or remain in the workforce. Across the 15 countries that were members of the EU prior to May 2004, for example, the percentage of people aged 55 to 59 who are in the labor market has jumped 11 percentage points since 2005, while increasing 4 percentage points among women aged 35 to 39. This increase in the participation rate in a demand-constrained environment means greater competition for jobs for younger people, who are disadvantaged by their lack of proven experience. Meanwhile, labor-market regulations that discourage hiring and firing, which are common in Europe, make it even more difficult for youth to step onto the first rung of the employment ladder.

Yet despite this availability of labor, employers are dissatisfied with applicants' skills: 27 percent reported that they have left a vacancy open in the past year because they could not find anyone with the right skills. One-third said the lack of skills is causing major business problems, in the form of cost, quality, or time. Counterintuitively, employers from countries where youth unemployment is highest reported the greatest problems. So why is it that young people are not getting the skills that employers need? One reason is the failure of employers, education providers, and young people to understand one another. To cite our 2012 report, they operate in "parallel universes."

In Europe, 74 percent of education providers were confident that their graduates were prepared for work, but only 38 percent of youth and 35 percent of employers agreed. The different players don't talk to one another and don't understand one another's expectations and needs. Only in Germany and the United Kingdom did most employers report that they communicate with education providers at least several times a year. In Portugal, only a third did. And only in Spain did most employers report that their interactions with providers were actually effective.

2. Youth face three significant hurdles.

The education-to-employment (E2E) path can be described as a road with three intersections: enrolling in postsecondary education, building the right skills, and finding a suitable job. The problem is that in Europe there are roadblocks at each of these three points.

When it comes to enrolling in further education, the most significant barrier in Europe is cost. Although university tuition fees are usually highly subsidized in Europe, many students find the cost of living while studying too high to sustain. Also, in a number of countries, nonacademic, vocational courses are not subsidized and can therefore be prohibitively expensive. Students also lack information: except in Germany, less than 25 percent said they received sufficient information on postsecondary courses and careers to guide their decisions. And finally, most of those surveyed said they perceived a social bias against vocational education; less than half of those who wanted to undertake a vocational course actually did so.

At the second intersection, young people are often not learning a sufficient portfolio of general skills while they study, with employers reporting a particular shortage of soft skills such as spoken communication and work ethic. Employers and providers are not working together closely to address this.

At the final intersection, young people find the transition to work difficult. One-third fall into interim jobs after graduating, and many more struggle to find a job at all. Many lack access to career-support services at their postsecondary institution. Many more do not pursue a work placement, in spite of this being a good predictor of how quickly a young person will find a job after his or her studies are completed.

3. The E2E structure is failing for young people and for small businesses.

To refine our understanding of the issue, we divided young people and employers into segments to examine different interventions to achieve better education-to-employment outcomes Specifically, we looked at how much support young people received on their path from education to employment, and the extent of their desire to develop skills that would make them more employable (Exhibit 1).

Only one of our segments, the so-called high achievers, which represent 10 percent of the youth surveyed, achieves a good employment outcome. This group succeeded because the young people in it receive a strong education and good information; they also focus on finding opportunities to build job skills. Another two segments, representing 11 percent of youths surveyed-what we call "coasters" and "meanderers"-receive strong support but are less motivated and end up only moderately satisfied with their job outcomes. The remaining four segments (79 percent) are frustrated by a lack of support and unhappy at their prospects. They exhibit different responses to these circumstances, from fighting for every opportunity they can get (but rarely succeeding) to losing heart and leaving education at the first opportunity.

We based our employer segmentation on the ease with which employers could find new hires and the degree to which they were prepared to invest in training (Exhibit 2). While two of the four segments are basically satisfied with their workforce, they start from very different places. One segment, representing 19 percent of employers, is able to attract strong candidates and invests substantially in training new hires. A high proportion of the companies in this group are large companies with an established market position. The other satisfied segment, representing 26 percent, finds it difficult to attract strong candidates but develops a strong workforce through training and partnerships. Of the two less satisfied segments, one (34 percent) reports moderate satisfaction but tackles the skills problem alone. The other (21 percent) is disproportionately made up of small businesses and is the least satisfied. This group struggles to find people with the right skills yet either does not, or cannot, invest in training.

In contrast to the findings of our global survey, in Europe, small firms were more likely than large ones to report problems in their business due to lack of skills. They also have the greatest problems in identifying and recruiting new hires and are less likely to work with education providers or other employers to tackle their skills problems. This phenomenon is particularly acute in Greece, which has both very high rates of youth unemployment and a high reliance on small businesses as a source of employment. Understanding the mix and concentration of employer and youth segments by country is critical-each segment requires a different set of interventions to reach its potential.

4. There are proven ways to improve the E2E journey.

Europe's governments, employers, education providers, and families are operating in difficult circumstances, but there are ways to ease the burden on all of these groups.

Innovate with design, course delivery, and financing to make education more affordable and accessible

To reduce the cost of courses, one solution is to break up degree or vocational programs into individual modules that focus on building a particular set of skills while still counting toward a degree or formal qualification. Each of these modules would be short (weeks or months) and self-contained, enabling young people to combine and sequence them in the order that makes most sense for their career aspirations. This model also enables young people to take a break in their studies to work for a period, and then return and pick up where they left off.

To improve financing, governments and private financial institutions can offer low-interest loans to students pursuing courses that have a strong employment record; they can also explore initiatives that allow young people to repay loans in the form of services, such as tutoring younger students. Employers can play a role by promising jobs to young people (following a rigorous recruitment process) and then assuming responsibility for part or all of the costs of education in return for the opportunity to select the most successful graduates, trained with the most relevant skills they need. This latter option is only likely to be successful, however, for employers in sectors that face either a skills scarcity or high employee churn.

Focus young people, employers, and education providers on improving employment readiness

Young people, employers, and providers must change how they think about the E2E process. To make rational decisions, young people need to think more strategically about their futures. This is particularly important in Europe, where students often have to make life-defining decisions about their educational future by age 15-the time when many choose whether to pursue academic or vocational tracks. Students need more and better-quality information about different career paths, and need to be motivated to use it.

Education providers should focus more on what happens to students after they leave school. Specifically, they should track graduates' employment and their job satisfaction. To improve student prospects, education providers could work more closely with employers to make sure they are offering courses that really help young people prepare for the workplace.

Employers cannot wait for the right applicants to show up at their doorsteps. In the most effective interventions, employers and education providers work closely to design curricula that fit business needs; employers may even participate in teaching, by providing instructors. They might also consider increasing the availability of work placements and opportunities for practical learning. Larger enterprises may be able to go further, by setting up training academies to improve required skills for both themselves and their suppliers.

Build the supporting structures that allow the best interventions to scale up

At a national level in Europe, responsibility and oversight of the E2E highway is split across multiple government departments, resulting in a fragmented and confusing picture. One way to improve this is to create a "system integrator" to gather and share information on the most salient metrics: job forecasts by profession, youth job-placement rates, employer satisfaction with the graduates of different programs, and so on. The system integrator would also identify and share examples of successful programs and work with employers and educators to create sectoral or regional solutions based on these. Technological solutions can also help to compensate for shortages of apprenticeships and other forms of short-term work placements. "Serious games" that mimic the workplace context, for example, are low-cost, low-risk ways for students to receive a personalized learning experience through repeated "play" of the game. While not a full substitute for an actual apprenticeship, this approach offers a substantial step forward in providing the applied skills that employers say young people lack; furthermore, such initiatives can be made available to greater numbers of young people without needing to find more employers to provide work placements.

Involve the European Union

To help the most successful interventions reach the greatest number of young people, the European Union has a critical role to play in three areas:

Information. The European Union could develop and share a more comprehensive labor-market platform incorporating the most relevant data to capture employment trends in each sector and region. This would help institutional decision makers, employers, and job seekers make better decisions, for instance, by helping users understand the implications of the data-whether on the courses they should offer as an education provider or the skills gaps they should try to fill as a group of employers within an industry.

Mobility. The European Union can improve educational and labor mobility by working to make vocational qualifications transferable across borders, as has already largely been achieved in the university-education process in Bologna.

Sharing relevant practices on matching labor-market demand and supply. The European Union is in the best position to take the lead on helping national public-employment services compare their successful interventions, and then disseminate and promote those that are relevant to similar-context countries.

Youth unemployment is a profound challenge to the future of Europe, and both individual countries and the European Union recognize this. Only by reaching across their parallel universes can all parties affected by the crisis of youth unemployment create an education-to-employment system that works more effectively and benefits all.

For more on this research, download the full report, Education to Employment: Getting Europe's Youth into Work (PDF-7,235KB).

For more on the 2012 methodology on which this report builds, download Education to Employment: Designing a System that Works (PDF-8.30 MB).

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Education to employment: Getting Europe’s youth into work

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The problem of youth unemployment in the European Union is not new. Youth unemployment has been double or even triple the rate of general unemployment in Europe for the last 20 years. The events of the past few years have dramatically exacerbated it, however: 5.6 million young people are unemployed across Europe, and a total of 7.5 million are neither being educated nor are they working.

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6.4 Bringing parents into career counseling

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6.4 Bringing parents into career counseling

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Outside of school, children will spend most of their other time at home. It goes without saying that parents are an important pillar in how children shape their vision for the future and their choice of careers.
In this article, ideas suggested for parents are exploring the world together and providing children with the right kind of toys (like Minecraft). In another very interesting article, more fun activities are suggested like science summer camps and sharing with children fun science facts (it is written for Canada, but the advice can be generalized).
In short, as teachers you will have to work together with parents to ensure the best interests of students. A lot of times although parents put forward their best intentions, without realizing they may cause actually more harm than good. Therefore it is important to understand what role parents play in the career choices of their children, what are some of the barriers that they may unknowingly instill in and what can you, as a teacher, do in this relationship.

Some guidelines to have in mind when working with parents:

1. Tackle gender-stereotypes with parents. Make sure they encourage girls and boys equally and, when possible, challenge any possible stereotypes they may be harbouring.

2. Help parents see their children’s experiments and curiosity as a natural, scientist-attitude. Encourage them to be tolerant and welcoming in that curiosity, and to let their children explore, regardless of the mess they may be making at home: noise, breaking, pulling apart things.

3. Facilitate the involvement of parents in STEM activities with their children. Inform them of activities they can do together with their children, events where they can participate together and activities they can put in practice at home to foster their children’s interests in STEM.

4. Financial constraints in a household can be an impediment for parents to expose their children to science opportunities – it a lot of cases, it will be up to you as a teacher to make extra steps to inform students and give them extra guidance for these opportunities.

5. Finally, remember to practice what you preach. If parents do not see you putting into practice what you tell them to do, they will not be convinced!

Activity 4:
Think about your discussions with the parents of your students: are they encouraging their children toward STEM careers? What is their general attitude towards STEM careers? Reflect on this section and share in the Padlet below. Additionally, share some ideas you will keep in mind from now on, in your work with parents.

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We have seen repeatedly that a great way to provide students with career information is by bringing STEM professionals into the classroom.

In Module 4, one of the activities we discussed as beneficial to raise career awareness is to invite professionals for guest lectures by contacting local businesses, universities, research centers or associations in your city. We have seen, also in Module 4, a webinar on how to use the unique STEM Alliance PGB2S tool which allows you to connect with these professionals in your area and bring them to your schools.
Activity 3:
Reflect on your upcoming lessons and plans for your students – which professional of your town/country could you bring to supplement your teaching activity? What would they talk about? How would you integrate their lecture/talk/activity in your lessons?

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A factor which plays an important role in students’ choosing a career or another is having a role model to identify and relate to.
Activity 2:
Can you identify a national STEM role model of your country who could be suited to discuss with your students about STEM careers? Write how this person fits with what you’ve learned in this activity and share with us at least one idea about how you will integrate him/her in a lesson with your students.

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Module 6: Balancing the roles of teachers, mentors, and parents

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Module 6: Balancing the roles of teachers, mentors, and parents

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6.1 Role of teachers in career counselling
In the process of choosing a future career there are several persons of importance in a student’s decisions: parents, teachers and career counsellors.
1. Tutorial roles:

a) Career informant: In this role, teachers provide students with a model, an approach of thinking about a career and help students shape their own way to view career choices by using their own experience as an example but without offering it as the only way to do this. The report lists some taks that a teacher in this role might perform: “talking about their decisions and how they made them, talking about their career building (including discussing challenges and regrets”, and many more;

b) Pastoral support: This refers to the teacher as a first contact point for students who may approach them with conversations they need to have with a trusted adult. These can be related purely to career choices/guidance and sometimes, they may appear as being related to careers, but in reality the issue the student is having may be, for example, health-related. In this role, the teacher helps the student in line with their capabilities, but also direct the student to other professionals who can help. A task the teacher can perform in this role: “acting as facilitator and advocate for students to help them to have career conversations with other staff, parents and employers.”

2. Teaching roles:

a) Within-subject: In this role, the teacher has two opportunities to provide CEL: within or beside the curriculum. For some subjects it may be more straightforward to discuss careers (e.g., Economics or Politics versus Physiscs, where more direct connections have to be made), and teaching approaches can also vary. If career information has to be provided besides the curriculum (e.g. STEM subjects), then the report proposes a team teaching approach, involving employers and other enrichment activities. Some tasks teachers can perform in this role: “explaining to pupils the progression routes open in continued learning in their subject area, using the curriculum to develop core employability skills”, “arranging visits to relevant workplaces”, “organising a programme of visiting speakers from business”;

b) Delivering CEL: This role refers to the teacher being involved, where possible and it exists (as it depends on curriculum set-up), in CEL as a separate, standalone subject of the curriculum. A task teachers can perform in this role: “contributing particular CEL inputs related to subject expertise”.

3. Leadership roles:

a) Leading CEL: A teacher leading CEL will be someone that, either has a teaching background or not, but needs to be familiar with and be able to coordinate various stakeholders involved in providing CEL to the school. Therefore, a teacher in this role would be someone in a middle leader position, and a Career co-ordinator/Careers Leader/Head of Careers.

b) Senior leadership: This role is taken up, normally, by someone of the school’s senior leadership team. In this role, the person would “connect CEL to the school’s mission and ethos, identify resourcing for CEL programmes, appointing and managing the school career’s leader” and other tasks.

Activity 1:
Read pages 20-28 from the study presented above and reflect in the Padlet: Which roles do you use actively, which do you use less and why? Are there any roles you are not doing but want to do? Name at least one you would like to exercise more.
I am not actively using none of these activities. Occasionally, whenever it is possible, I use activities as career infromant and sometimes within-subject activities. I wish that teachers in Croatia are more trained and qualified for the implementation of CEL.

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5.4 Projects about gender equality in STEM

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5.4 Projects about gender equality in STEM

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Public institutions and other organisms have not stayed quiet about the STEM gap. On the contrary, several initiatives and campaigns have been put in place to promote gender inclusive STEM education and to encourage girls to take on STEM careers. Below we present a few recent initiatives. Feel free to explore them and share any other that you may know in through the activity below.

Stemettes

Stemettes is an award-winning social enterprise that mainly operates across the UK and Ireland to motivate and support young women into STEM careers. Among other activities, the project runs panel events, hackathons and the Student to Stemette mentoring programme.

Hypathia

In the Hypatia project, science centres and museums work together with schools, industries and academics to promote gender inclusive STEM education and communication. The initiative offers an accessible, practical and ready-to-use digital collection of activities for teachers, researches or for informal learning organizations. Moreover, to deliver a sustainable basis for these activities to be carried out in different educational systems throughout Europe, the project has created national Hubs, led by science centres and museums.

Mind the Gap

The Mind the Gap project works with both STEM teachers and girls between 16 and 18 years old, who are studying STEM subjects or who have dropped out or completed study but not entered STEM jobs. The main aims of the project are:

-    To help teachers in each participating country to recruit and retain more girls in their STEM courses;
-    To support and inspire girls to continue their STEM education and to pursue STEM careers by helping them develop different soft skills needed to work in male-dominated environments.

Activity 4:
n the padlet, share information about any project, awareness campaign or initiative related to STEM and gender equality. If you need any help, you can also search in the Scientix project repository. http://www.scientix.eu/projects
Project Schools 2.0 organized by CARNet (Croatian Academic and Research Network)
The aim of the Schools 2.0 project is to enable high-quality comprehensive distance learning and e-learning for a wide number of users, both teachers and students.
You can read more about at following link : http://www.scientix.eu/web/guest/projects/project-detail?articleId=347957

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Throughout history, women have actively contributed to the development of scientific knowledge and have made groundbreaking discoveries in science. However, too many of them have not been given credit for their achievements, resulting in their disappearance from mainstream audiences.

As mentioned in this article, throughout their careers, many female scientists have been denied recognition. “Having had to work as "volunteer" faculty members, seen credit for significant discoveries they've made assigned to male colleagues, and been written out of textbooks” (…) “they typically had paltry resources and fought uphill battles to achieve what they did, only to have the credit attributed to their husbands or male colleagues".

Just think about the famous Marie Skłodowska-Curie (1867-1934), one of the most iconic scientists of all times. The first female professor at the University of Paris, she was among the first scientists to realize the importance of quantum theory and the first person to win not one but two Nobel Prizes. However, her entrance in the French Academy of Sciences was denied, due to her gender.

While nowadays, bias against female scientists is not as explicit, it has not gone away entirely. For that reason, in this section we want to honor all those female scientists who have contributed greatly to science history.

•    We should start with one of the most notable female scientists of all time: Ada Lovelace (1815 - 1852). Considered the mother of all computer nerds, Ada has been widely regarded as the world’s first computer programmer. Even though no functioning computers were built throughout her life, she continuously worked on a general-purpose computer called the Analytical Engine. More particularly, Ada described how this processer was capable of computing general information and insisted on its ability to be programmed. In fact, in recognition of her contribution to software programming, the Ada high-level computer language was named after her.

•    Jocelyn Bell Burnell (1943 - present) is one of the biggest names in astronomy. Jocelyn discovered pulsars, the remnants of massive stars gone supernova. And she did it while analyzing data printed out on paper from a radio telescope she helped assemble. This finding resulted in a Nobel Prize in physics, a prize that went to Anthony Hewish (Bell Burnell's supervisor) and Martin Ryle a radio astronomer at Cambridge University.

•    Rosalind Franklin (1920 - 1958) focused her work on determining the structure of DNA, using x-ray experiments to take a picture of the DNA molecule. This image became key to decode its structure: Franklin had discovered that DNA consisted of two chains and a phosphate backbone. However, it was James Watson, Francis Crick, and Maurice Wilkins who received, in 1962, the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for a report published with all oF Franklin’s findings.

Activity 3:
Share who is your favorite female scientist of all time and tell us why.
My favorite female science is Ada Lovelace probably beacuse I love computer science and IT.

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Women in STEM – Julie Baxter, CA Technologies

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Interview with Julie Baxter, Vice President, Support at CA Technologies about her experience as a woman in STEM and ICT and keys pieces of advice for teachers to aim for gender equality in STEM. This interview is part of the ''Opening Minds to STEM Careers' MOOC developed by the Scientix, SYSTEMIC and STEM Alliance projects.

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5.2 Gender equality in the the job market and in the classroom

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5.2 Gender equality in the the job market and in the classroom

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A. Gender equality in the job market
B. Gender equality in the classroom
-    Consider your interactions with students

Establishing a healthy, gender bias free environment in the class will make teachers more capable of handling issues regarding gender differences.

For that, it is very important to guarantee equal and fair student participation. This can be ensured by rotating “who answers, how often, and when”, making sure that students from both genders contribute equally.

It is also essential to provide enough wait-time after asking students a question. This will allow everybody enough time to think. A step further could also be the teacher stopping any students from raising their hands until requested to do so.

Last, provide various ways to respond, different from just speaking in front of the class. These could be the discussion of materials in small groups or even explaining ideas in a journal.

-    Implement inclusive group practices

Use diverse student-centered teaching methods to ensure a safe classroom environment. In particular, make use of students mixed abilities and promote collaborative group work. If possible, frame classroom activities in real world and interdisciplinary contexts. Incorporate holistic investigation tasks and projects, and place responsibility for thinking and learning on themselves.

Moreover, use monitored mixed-gender groups and rotate them frequently. Also, try not to have girls and boys competing against each other.

Last, use hands-on methodologies and ensure equal access to material resources. You can arrange tasks so that both girls and boys manipulate STEM equipment (like science lab equipment, calculators or computers) in an equal way.

-    Use gender sensitive instructional materials

Avoid using materials that reinforce stereotyped roles (including not only books but also drawings, pictures or accompanying texts). Stereotyped roles can refer to different things (including traditionally gendered roles (e.g., girls are nurses, boys are mechanics) or assigning productive and active roles to males and relegating passive and supportive roles to females.

In general, materials used in the classroom should mirror our current plural society. For that, the number of female achievers in texts as well as in the examples cited in class should be increased, as they tend not to be representative of today’s society. (UNESCO, 2015)

Activiti 1:

In the padlet, pick one of the tips mentioned in the info sheet “Your guide to ensure gender equality in the (STEM) classroom”. Apply it with your students and (afterwards) tell us your experience.

I often use collaborative group work in my classroom, where I encourage my students to create groups according to common interests and different abilities so that in the end the groups consists of a mix of boys and girls. They are also frequently warn on stereotypes and prejudices that exist, especially in the IT careers and fields and encourage them to be all equally involved and interested in IT.

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Women in STEM – Gabrielle Ferguson, CA Technologies

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Interview with Gabrielle Ferguson, Talent Development Partner at CA Technologies on the topic of attracting women in STEM careers and challenging gender stereotypes, as part of the 'Opening Minds to STEM Careers' MOOC developed by the Scientix, SYSTEMIC and STEM Alliance projects.

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5.1 Gender equality and the gender gap in STEM

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5.1 Gender equality and the gender gap in STEM

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While things are gradually changing, the current lack of girls taking on (some) STEM careers is still alarming.

While individual interest is decisive in choosing a particular career, this interest will also be conditioned by other factors, some of which have already been mentioned in the video above. For instance, the (often-inaccurate) perception of our own abilities (thinking oneself is not gifted enough) is a frequent cause for girls not to pursue STEM degrees.

In addition, societal perceptions and expectations, including the stereotyped image of the roles of men and women, will play a crucial factor. Up to this day, men are still often perceived with qualities associated to leadership, being knowledgeable or having a technical brain, while woman are still seen as emotional or caring. While these are generalizations that normally come with little evidence, they can affect the choosing of a career. Indeed, the common belief that men are natural leaders while women are intrinsically caregivers is a plausible cause why women are more likely to work in healthcare occupations rather than in research or in business enterprises.

https://youtu.be/FEeTLopLkEo

Activity 1:
In the padlet, discuss about “the gender gap in STEM” in your country. Are your female students interested in STEM areas? Are there many women in research careers? Share your insight!
Since I'm a graduate computer scientist, I can for sure say that in Croatia there is a large gender gap in IT fields (but I bealive that in other STEM fields is the similar situation). I think main problems are still stereotypes and prejudices. Most of companies believe that it is better to employ a young male computer scientists than woman computer scientist because it is assumed that the woman will in short time marry and begin to give birth(s) and thus she will be absent from her job one to three years. Another problem is the salary. On average, male computer scientists are better paid than women. Also, male computer scientists generally get better positions. I think all this is a reason Croatian girls are still rather pick other non-STEM and non-IT careers.

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STEM and gender equality – Marina Jimenez, European Schoolnet

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In this video presentation, Marina Jimenez, Project Officer at European Schoolnet, presents key information on performance and interest of girls and boys in STEM subjects at secondary education level, gender equality in tertiary education and participation of women in research fields.

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Module 5: Gender stereotypes in STEM education

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Module 5: Gender stereotypes in STEM education

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The learning objectives of Module 5 are:

1. Understand the concept of the STEM gender gap;

2. Learn to analyse data regarding the situation of girls and women in STEM careers;

3. Learn strategies to further address gender equality in the classroom, and how to encourage girls into STEM careers;

4. Learn about female scientist (of the present and of the past) and of current initiatives promoting girls in STEM.

http://www.itu.int/en/ITU-D/Digital-Inclusion/Women-and-Girls/Girls-in-ICT-Portal/Pages/Girls-in-ICT-Portal-Home.aspx

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4.3 STEM career activities: teacher practices

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4.3 STEM career activities: teacher practices

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a series of replicable teacher practices, which can be used with the four strategies we have previously mentioned:

1. Utilize career materials in science texts/journals/articles: consult these sources and extract/incorporate articles or supplemental readings in your lessons.​​​​​​

2. Integrate experiential activities in the classroom: role-playing or designing research posters.

3. Incorporate authentic research: give students the opportunity to participate in real research projects.​​​​​​​

4. Invite guest speakers: ask speakers from a variety of careers to talk to your students, to present their educational and career pathway. Invite also parents engaged in STEM fields to speak.​​​​​​​#

5. Research science careers / map out career paths: assign homework where students have to research various careers, support students in building resumes or to analyze their skills.​​​​​​​

6. Support inclusion of science careers in school career fairs.​​​​​​​

7. Weave career information informally into lessons: try to frame or open your lessons with career information, or as you work throughout a particular chapter or unit, make sure you point out career aspects where relevant.​​​​​​​

8. Share personal experiences: share your own experience of working in STEM fields, participate in professional development opportunities and share also your own educational and career pathway.​​​​​​​

9. Expose students to worksites and outside opportunities: take students on visits to various STEM centers (companies, research centers, etc.), prepare them before, seek funding and see how you can bridge the education-industry gap for your students.​​​​​​​

10. Be a mentor/advocate.

http://www.golabz.eu/
Activity 2:
Based on the 10 practices presented above, post in the Padlet below 3 practices you already use and 3 practices which you are NOT currently using but would like to implement in your classroom/school.
I already use:
1) Incorporate authentic research
2) Share personal experiences
3) Expose students to worksites and outside opportunities
And I would like to use:
1) Invite guest speakers
2) Research science careers / map out career paths
3) Be a mentor/advocate

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4.2 STEM career activities: types and uses

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4.2 STEM career activities: types and uses

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https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1-6KyxHjso23eTq5YuqpxeBLXNVhYKrwqN2nQb8jh6Qg/edit#gid=1237780864

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Classroom activities for STEM careers – Victor J. Perez-Rubio, European Schoolnet

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Presentation on the multitude of STEM careers materials and activities available for classroom use by Victor J. Perez-Rubio, Pedagogical Officer at European Schoolnet. This video is part of the 'Opening Minds to STEM Careers' MOOC developed by the Scientix, SYSTEMIC and STEM Alliance projects.

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Module 4: Career induction activities, materials and guidelines

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Module 4: Career induction activities, materials and guidelines

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4.1 STEM career activities: how to use them?
four teaching strategies, which foster STEM Awareness :

1. Incorporate both formal and informal approaches: constantly bring career awareness in your activities and do not keep it as a separate unit.

2. Help students see scientists as real people: students may have difficulty imagining themselves as scientists because they cannot see that scientists have a normal life, just like them. They have hobbies, families and various interests.

3. Connect the dots: it is not enough to just expose students to career information, the teacher also has to directly connect career information with whatever the student is learning at that moment. This can refer to making clear connections to the real-life use of subjects, to giving examples of how it connects to jobs of scientists. The student will not be always capable of making these connections themselves, and you will have to do that for him.

4. Embed reflection: To make sure that information sticks with students, embed reflection to drive a deeper understanding. Otherwise, a lot of the information can be lost over time if reflection is not used to “glue” it.

Activity 1:
1. Choose a strategy from above 2. Choose a career material/activity/tool 3. Write in the Padlet below how you would combine these two in a lesson (add also any relevant links, information, etc.)
Specifically in my classroom, I think I could combine the two strategies:  "help students see scientists as real people" and "connect the dots" strategy and link them with the activities of making presentations, online posters and web sites (which are part of the ICT curriculum plan) so that the students themselves could further explore careers and jobs (through the information available on the websites of schools, universities and scientific institutions) that they are interested in and present them to their classmates. This way I can integrate STEM career activities into regular classes.

http://mrav.ffzg.hr/zanimanja/upitnik/upitnik.htm

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Interview on the types of STEM career materials and activities teachers use in their lessons. The interviewees are participants of the 13th Science Projects Workshop in the Future Classroom Lab, for primary and/or secondary school career counsellors and/or STEM teachers acting as career counsellors in their centres, organized by Scientix in collaboration with the STEM Alliance and OPENSKIMR. This interview is part of the 'Opening Minds to STEM careers' MOOC developed by the Scientix, SYSTEMIC and STEM Alliance projects.

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3.5 STEM skills and STEM careers. Tools for match-matching

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3.5 STEM skills and STEM careers. Tools for match-matching

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Activity 5)
Explain which of the matchmaking tools presented is most interesting and the reasons for it. Do you have any such tools in your country?
I think that each of these tools is valuable and useful. I don't know any similar tool in Croatia, but I like Skillage since it has been translated into Croatian.
http://www.skillage.eu/

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3.4 Classroom methodologies to promote STEM skills

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3.4 Classroom methodologies to promote STEM skills

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1. Engineering design: Engineering design is a methodology to promote the inclusion of engineering practices into the existing STEM curriculum (through the design and construction of a specific object/prototype).

2. Scientific inquiry/Inquiry Based Science Education (IBSE): An inquiry approach to instruction requires teachers to “encourage and model the skills of scientific inquiry, as well as the curiosity, openness to new ideas, and skepticism that characterize science”. Scientific inquiry prepares students to think and act like real scientists, ask questions, hypothesize, and conduct investigations using standard science practices.

3. Project based learning (PBL): Project based learning approach can be defined as “the ongoing act of learning about different subjects simultaneously”. When engaged in project-based learning, students will be assigned a project or a number of projects guiding them to identify, through research, a real-world problem and to develop its solution using evidence to support the claim. This approach usually requires students to use diverse skills (such as researching, writing, interviewing, working in teams, speaking in public, etc.) to produce different pieces of work (like research papers following experiment results, multimedia presentations or video documentaries, among others).

Finally, find below a summary of tools mentioned in the video “Development of hard and soft STEM skills for your students” and that (combined with the approaches above) can help boost skills in the classroom.

Kahoot is a free game-based learning platform that helps educators create a collection of questions on specific topics while creating a game-like learning environment. Through this platform, you can create quizzes, discussion and surveys about any topic of your choice.

Classflow is cloud-based platform that allows teachers to create interactive lessons in a single place, while (at the same time) pulling in resources from anywhere.

PhET simulations are free, interactive, research-based science and mathematics simulations. These are written in Java, Flash or HTML5, and can be run online or downloaded from any computer. PhET is designed to encourage scientific inquiry and to provide interactivity among students.

Activity 4)
Share your thoughts on pedagogical approaches or classroom tools you can use in the classroom to promote STEM or soft skills. Which one is the best one? What tools are you using? Share your experiences, success stories and challenges!
I am using Edmodo, ClassDojo, Google Drive, Glogster and different infographic tools from time to time. I also use PBL whenever it is applicable depending on the curriculum.

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Development of hard & soft skills for students – Carlos Cunha, Scientix Ambassador

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Presentation by Carlos Cunha, Physics & Chemistry teacher from Portugal and Scientix Ambassador, on the topic of how to train students for the necessary soft skills and hard skills for STEM careers. This video is part of the 'Opening Minds to STEM Careers' MOOC developed by the Scientix, SYSTEMIC and STEM Alliance projects.

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Future STEM professionals will be also progressively required to have greatly advanced ‘soft’ skills such as project management skills, communication aptitudes and problem-solving abilities.

soft skills (including communication, adaptation, time management, collaborative working, agile working, adaptation to change, response to change or presentation skills) that are relevant in STEM study fields and STEM careers.

Since most educational policies and systems prioritize the provision of knowledge, adapting existing school curriculums (in order to include activities that promote soft skills) is quite the difficult job. For that reason, it is advisable that teachers start promoting soft skills when designing courses or lessons plans. But how should they do that?

Soft skills such as resilience, self-control and time management can be incorporated through pedagogical approaches like project-based learning and inquiry based science education (which will be further explained in the coming sections).

In general, group work activities are always an opportunity to integrate soft skills in the classroom. Problem solving tasks can be a chance for pupils to engage in social skills. The freedom of working in groups will help students to develop time-management and self-control abilities, emphasizing the notion of self-regulation and time-on-task. Last, working in small groups can also encourage quiet students to express their thoughts in a more comfortable manner. (Concordia University, 2016)

Incorporating student self-assessment into lessons is another way to promote soft skills. While students can measure their knowledge attainment through tests, they do not always take time to reflect on their own work, on what is challenging them and in what areas are they succeeding. Having students review their own work will also help them develop resilience and add a goal setting approach to their educational experiences.

Activity 3)
Share which 3 soft skills do you think are the most important within STEM fields and explain, in your own words, how you would address them in the classroom.

I think 3 most important soft skills are communication, problem-solving and creativity and I would address them in my classroom through project based learning and group (team) work among students.

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Soft skills for STEM careers - Gabrielle Ferguson, CA Technologies

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3.2 STEM skills of the future. In focus: ICT and digital skills.

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3.2 STEM skills of the future. In focus: ICT and digital skills.

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Activity 2)
1) Are you using technology in the classroom?
2) How would you develop digital skills in the classroom?

As an ICT teacher I use computers in the classroom every day. But I think that students in other classrooms must use new technologies as well, such are smart boards and smartphones. Using digital educational materials on the internet are also important part of developing digital skills and digital literacy.
Croatian school system is in need of urgent changes in curriculum and teaching methods. It is necessary to transform the classes with mostly front-end classes in inquiry based learning and project based learning classes.

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eSkills for Jobs 2016 | Lavinia Morris, Head of IT, SMBC Aviation Capital

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3.1 STEM skills
STEM skills are defined as “those skills expected to be held by people with a tertiary-education level degree in the subjects of science, technology, engineering and maths”
Still, this definition could be considered incomplete, as it specifically refers to those skills achieved through an academic progression to tertiary education, somehow dismissing STEM skills that can be achieved through other academic paths, such as vocational technical education.
Nonetheless, one must keep in mind that there are non-STEM professions that use STEM skills. There are also many STEM degree holders working in a non-STEM occupation who might still be using their STEM skills at work.
STEM skills and knowledge are valuable in almost any career.

Activity 1)
1) In your opinion, which is the best definition of STEM skills and why?
2) Provide at least one example of non-1) STEM professions that use STEM skills.
STEM skills are skills and knowledge on any level of education in the field of technology, engineering and mathematics applied in almost all areas of human activity, including non-STEM activities.
2) For example, an accountant with secondary education at the present time must be digitally literate.

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(Hard) skills for STEM – Carlos Cunha, Scientix Ambassador

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Activity 5)
What are other sources do you use to document yourself about STEM jobs?
In Croatia, we take students and we encourage them to visit so-called "open days" organized by different specialized scientific and professional institutions, universities, colleges and high schools, so they can see and learn more about different jobs both in STEM and other careers.

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2.4 Current STEM industries and professions

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2.4 Current STEM industries and professions

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Drawing a clear line between STEM and non-STEM related professions is clearly a difficult task, but generally, in the data collected at the EU level, STEM fields include natural sciences (i.e. physics, biology or chemistry), mathematics, engineering, architecture and computing, but other fields such as medicine or social sciences tend not to be included.

Activity 4)
The demand for STEM careers in specific fields can vary between geographical regions. Use the padlet to let us know:  What do you think are the most highly looked after career paths in your regions? Reflect: what qualifications would the applicants need to secure those jobs?

In Croatia, the current activities are mostly related to IT, information and networks, which will certainly remain highly looked career pathways in the near future. But since here are the large areas of uncultivated agricultural land I think that in the near future it will be a huge need for agrichultural experts.

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65% of today's school students will be doing jobs that don't exist yet
by the time secondary school students will have graduated, employers will expect very different skills and mindsets from them.

Some of the jobs you can expect, according to them are Ethical Technology Advocate, Human Body Designer, and even a Space Tour Guide!

Activity 3)
What do you think are some of the future STEM jobs we should start preparing for? Share your thoughts here.
Some of the future STEM jobs we need to start preparing our students for are: all jobs connected with data collection, analysis, processing and effective storage and management, all jobs connected with data mining, programming, robotics, artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, all jobs related to environmental protection and new energy sources etc. We have to prepare students for jobs that require innovation, critical thinking, ingenuity, the creativity, etc., because the routine jobs will be in the future replaced by programmable machines and robots.

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TED talk from Andrew McAfee
A key idea derived from what we have seen so far is that it is critical for pupils to pursue higher education. If technology will eventually become biologically embedded in our lives, then labor skills will slowly become obsolete resulting in the “low-skill/low-pay” and “high-skill/high-pay” concept
Activity 2
If machines will continue to take over a large part of our jobs, what do you think are the skills and activities that humans need to focus on in order to continue having relevant and fulfilling careers?
I think people will have to focus on continuous production of innovations, better and stronger interpersonal relations and environmental protection.

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What will future jobs look like? | Andrew McAfee

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The learning objectives of Module 2 are:

1. Understand which are the currently relevant STEM industries and what is the spectrum of jobs available in each of them;

2. Explore and learn about different career pathways available to reach those careers

2.1 The Fourth Industrial Revolution
Fourth Industrial Revolution is building on the Third, the digital revolution that has been occurring since the middle of the last century. It is characterized by a fusion of technologies that is blurring the lines between the physical, digital, and biological spheres.
Fourth is evolving at an exponential rather than a linear pace.
The possibilities of billions of people connected by mobile devices, with unprecedented processing power, storage capacity, and access to knowledge, are unlimited. And these possibilities will be multiplied by emerging technology breakthroughs in fields such as artificial intelligence, robotics, the Internet of Things, autonomous vehicles, 3-D printing, nanotechnology, biotechnology, materials science, energy storage, and quantum computing
In the future, technological innovation will also lead to a supply-side miracle, with long-term gains in efficiency and productivity. Transportation and communication costs will drop, logistics and global supply chains will become more effective, and the cost of trade will diminish, all of which will open new markets and drive economic growth.
In the future, talent, more than capital, will represent the critical factor of production.
Technology is therefore one of the main reasons why incomes have stagnated, or even decreased, for a majority of the population in high-income countries: the demand for highly skilled workers has increased while the demand for workers with less education and lower skills has decreased. The result is a job market with a strong demand at the high and low ends, but a hollowing out of the middle.

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/01/the-fourth-industrial-revolution-what-it-means-and-how-to-respond/

Activity 1)
Watch The Fourth Industrial Revolution video: Artificial intelligence, integrated energy supply chains, neuro-technological brain enhancements, genome modification… Can you name other advancements you think this revolution will entail? How do you think it will affect your everyday life?
The fourth industrial revolution will have great impact in every area of human life. I am looking forward to the benefits and innovations that it will brings with it, but I am little bit concerned whether are people physically, mentally and emotionally prepared for such drastic changes rapidly growing. I fear that the fourth industrial revolution will further widen the gap between rich and poor and think that the critical point is that people will have to adopt new ways of thinking and acting/reacting which can not be changed over night.

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Module 1: STEM careers in schools and in the job market

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Module 1: STEM careers in schools and in the job market

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"The aim [of education] must be the training of independently acting and thinking individuals who, however, see in the service to the community their highest life problem."
Albert Einstein
The learning objectives of Module 1 are:

1. Understand the relevance of STEM studies for students and society;

2. Understand the importance of STEM career in the job market;

3. Understand the importance of integrating STEM career guidance in lessons, curriculum and what are the benefits for their students.

1.1 The world of STEM
https://padlet.com/eunacademy/eb0chr0oqfcz

1.2 STEM careers in the job market
European industries face difficulties in finding skilled workers, causing what is known as the STEM skills gap.

Activity 2)
I think there is a lack of STEM skills in Europe and if some things don't change in near future this problem will just grow. By my opinion the main problem is current school system (in Croatia for sure, but I also believe situation is very similar in other countries of EU). Our school system is old and it didn't change for decades (in most of primary and high schools). Schools did start to use new technologies (computers, laptops, internet etc.) but school system remain the same. Mostly, classes are still front-end classes. There is a huge lack of project based learning and inquiry based learning and new teaching and learning methods like flipped classrom for example. I believe that changes in school system and in teaching methods and approaches are the key to minimizing STEM skills gap.

1.3 STEM career guidance in schools
"Most teachers waste their time by asking questions that are intended to discover what a pupil does not know, whereas the true art of questioning is to discover what the pupil does know or is capable of knowing."

Conversations with Albert Einstein, 1920

four cognitive-behaviour dimensions as the pillars of career development:

1. Awareness (students are aware and know the variety of STEM careers available),

2. Relevance (they see the connection between the subject they are studying and day to day life),

3. Engagement (students show direct interest and motivation to interact with the subject matter),

4. Self-efficacy (students are comfortable with using tools of science).

four teaching strategies, which foster STEM careers awareness:

1. Incorporate both formal and informal approaches: constantly bring career awareness in your activities and do not keep it as a separate unit.

2. Help students see scientists as real people: students may have difficulty imagining themselves as scientists because they cannot see that scientists have a normal life, just like them. They have hobbies, families and various interests.

3. Connect the dots: it is not enough to just expose students to career information, the teacher also has to directly connect career information with whatever the student is learning at that moment. This can refer to making clear connections to the real-life use of subjects, to giving examples of how it connects to jobs of scientists. The student will not be always capable of making these connections themselves, and you will have to do that for him.

4. Embed reflection: To make sure that information sticks with students, and embeds reflection to drive a deeper understanding. Otherwise, a lot of the information can be lost over time if reflection is not used to “glue” it.

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I am working in classrom with 27 computers running on Windows 8.1. Each computer have internet access with speed around 50 Mbps.
Students are leaning about Microsoft Office tools, programming in Logo and Python, about computer networks and Internet, how to make a web page etc.

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I am ICT teacher in primary school for last 9 years.