Examination of the U.S. Air Force's Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Workforce Needs in the Future and Its Strategy to Meet Those Needs (2010) / Chapter Skim
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5 The Current and Future U.S. STEM-Degreed Workforce
5 The Current and Future U.S. STEM-Degreed Workforce
Pages 59-74
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From page 59... ...
Some of these challenges relate to uncertainties about the adequacy of supply of STEM-degreed workers who can qualify for Air Force or aerospace positions. Other challenges relate to tapping the potential human resource in the growing numbers of women and disadvantaged minorities seeking college and postgraduate degrees.
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citizens or permanent residents earning advanced STEM degrees, and an aging STEM-degreed workforce.
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.3 Some of the states hardest hit by this recession -- e.g., California, Texas, and Florida -- have had a strong aerospace workforce in the past. In California, the Department of Education's "Budget Crisis Report Card" warns that the $17 billion in cumulative cuts to education in that state "threatens to derail the progress students have made over the last several years" (California Dept.
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. Speakers at the 2008 AIAA Inside Aerospace conference who expressed concern about the incentives to enter STEM careers included chief executive officers and human resource managers from the aerospace industry, representatives from the Aerospace Department Chairs Association (reflecting the perceptions of educators at the baccalaureate and higher levels)
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citizens or permanent residents, and STEM master's degrees earned by U.S. citizens and permanent residents.
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Citizens Earning Advanced STEM Degrees The number of graduate students earning advanced S&E degrees in the United States has continued to grow over the past decade. However much of this growth has come from foreign citizens who are here on temporary visas and are therefore ineligible for the security clearances and access to restricted information required for many jobs in the Air Force and the aerospace industry.
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. Aging of the STEM Workforce The National Science Board has noted that the age distribution for the American workforce with STEM degrees is increasing.
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Nonetheless, the Air Force -- and the aerospace industry that both supports the Air Force with STEM capability and competes with it for STEM-degreed workers -- will be challenged to make the most of this workforce opportunity. The data presented below show that women are still not pursuing STEM degrees in the disciplines most needed by the Air Force and the aerospace industry in numbers representative of their percentage of the population, of college graduates, or of the future workforce.
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Increasing Minorities' Role in the Future STEM Workforce For Blacks, Hispanics, and Native Americans, statistics on higher education suggest that interest in STEM careers among those entering and graduating from college is relatively high. The challenge will be to bring the numbers who are college-bound and college-degreed in line with their age-group profile, which is shown in the first row of Table 5-7.
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From page 68... ...
Distribution of Earned Bachelor Degrees by S&E Field and Racial Ethnic Group, 2005, U.S. Citizens and Permanent Residents only All Native Non-Hispanic Population Segment Degrees Black Hispanic Asian American White All 20–24 year olds, 2005 -- 14.8 17.3 4.3 1.1 61.6 All bachelor degrees, % of 100 9.0 7.9 6.5 0.7 70.2 degrees Any S&E degree, % of 100 8.8 7.9 9.6 0.7 67.3 S&E degrees Any S&E degree, % of 32.4 31.3 32.1 47.5 33.1 30.8 group Engineering degree, % of 100 5.2 7.5 13.4 0.6 68.7 degrees Engineering degree, % of 4.6 2.5 4.2 9.1% 3.7 4.3 group Physical sci.
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From page 69... ...
Among such groups are Women in Aviation International, Tuskegee Airmen Incorporated, the League of United Latin American Citizens, Asian-American Engineers, Black Engineers, Hispanic Engineers, International Black Aerospace Council, and Shades of Blue, as well as many others. Finally, the Air Force should take a leadership position on coordinating these relationship-fostering programs with agencies in the Department of Defense or other federal agencies.
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From page 70... ...
Project STARBASE In 1991, the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs began sponsoring a program called Project STARBASE (Science and Technology Academies Reinforcing Basic Aviation and Space Exploration) , which has been successful in addressing shortfalls in STEM education in elementary schools.9 STARBASE is a partnership among the military, school systems, and communities.
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More information on PLTW came from three representatives of Battelle Memorial Institute, who discussed education outreach activities by both the Air Force and the aerospace industry at the committee's second meeting (October 1, 2008)
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Current activities of this type include Project STARBASE, the Falcon Foundation, Civil Air Patrol, and Junior ROTC, as well as its partnerships in such activities with the Air Force Association, AIAA, and others. The charter for this group should include creating connectivity between such activities so that promising participants from across the entire demographic makeup of our nation have ready access to the next academic level or program that builds on the experience gained from interacting with the Air Force STEM-related outreach efforts.
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From page 73... ...
Findings from IEA's Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study at the Fourth and Eight Grades. Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts: IEA TIMSS & PIRLS International Study Center.http://timss.bc.edu/TIMSS2007/sciencereport.html.
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Washington, D.C.: National Academies Press. Available online at http://www.nap.edu/catalog/11642.html NSB (National Science Board)
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