INtroducing Science in schools PrImarily through leaRning by discovEry
Coventry University has appointed INSPIRE Group Member, Professor Bob Shanks, a new visiting professor to enhance student engagement in sustainable manufacturing. To learn more about this news, please click here.
The Inspire Group are seeking the views of the key players in the STEM developments, the following response from the Department of Education.
Professor Ziarati is meeting Dr Colin Brown, IMechE Director of Engineering, on 23rd September 2016 to see how the Group could support IMechE’s STEM initiatives.
A meeting took place between Professor Ziarati, the Inspire Group Coordinator and Derrick Willer, IET Coventry & Warwickshire Network and Honorary Secretary and Schools Liaison Officer, and arrangements are being made for further meetings to discuss how the Group and IET could work together.
A fab lab (fabrication laboratory) is a small-scale workshop offering (personal) digital fabrication. New to Coventry, opened July 2016. FabLab Coventry is a not-for-profit partnership between Coventry University, Coventry City Council, the University of Warwick, and numerous other partners from both the private and charity sectors. FabLab Coventry is financed through a combination of donations,…
1.1. Concept and approach, quality of the coordination and support measures
1.3.1. Concept & Motivation It is an acknowledged fact that Europe has an aging population and while Eurostat analysis shows the numbers of students graduating university with STEM qualification has remained stable across the EU in recent years (22.3% of all graduates in 2006 and 22.8% of graduates in 2012) this has not been sufficient to overcome expected shortfalls in industry in the medium to long term. The Eurostat analysis shows that in Germany for example in 2012 (arguably the leading country in terms of STEM graduates in the EU) despite nearly 30% of all graduates having a STEM qualification there was a shortage of 200,000 STEM graduates (mainly engineers) costing the economy 20 billion Euros a year. It is interesting to note that this trend is the same for the US with the added worry that the number of students who enter engineering programmes is actually projected to drop; a projection that many believe will have a negative impact on the U.S. workforce in the future (Christian D. Schunn, 2009). Indeed research by the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training (CEDEFOP) found that despite the recession and high unemployment across the EU since 2008 that demand for Science and Engineering Professionals in the EU has remained resilient with employment is the sector 12% higher in 2013 than in 2000 with 6.6 million Science and Engineering professional employed in the EU28 in 2013. This employment growth is forecast to continue until at least 2025 with an increase of 6.5% forecast between 2013 and 2025.
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