I am an ITC professor at the College of Forestry in Gurghiu( Romania) and when necessary, trainer for my fellow teachers (ITC Trainer and educational management)
I teach ITC (1 hour/week) at middle school, high school, vocational school and post-secondary school. As a teacher, I have involved my students (I've initiated and participated as a partner) in many eTwinning projects
My school is Gurghiu Forest College-is situated in a beautiful mountain and rural area, in the central part of the country- Mures County
We are a large school with several levels :
Kindergarten
Preschool
Primary School
Secondary School
High School
Vocational High School ( Forestry and Woodworking)
It is widely known that Europe needs more young people to pursue STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) subjects and careers to become part of a much-needed qualified workforce in the upcoming years.
At the same time, a wide range of factors affects students’ interest and pursuit of STEM careers - from the given curriculum to teachers’ knowledge to even participation in professional development activities. Whatever these factors may be, they are usually directly linked to school organisation.
For this reason, it will be of vital importance to build the capacity to empower the most relevant stakeholders in school leadership and school organisation. The Opening Schools to STEM Careers MOOC is meant to train heads of schools and career counsellors to successfully equip schools with tools for introducing and attracting young people to STEM careers.
In this MOOC, participants will:
Understand why STEM is critical for students’ future welfare and success;
Recognise some of the most relevant STEM career pathways;
Appreciate different types of career counselling approaches at the school level;
Determine the most significant soft skills and STEM abilities, methodologies and pedagogical approaches that teachers and career counsellors should use/focus on;
Learn how to address gender stereotypes and foster a culture of understanding;
Learn how to collaborate within the school on the subject of STEM career counselling (including collaboration between parents and teachers);
Learn how to initiate and maintain community partnerships for STEM career counselling;
Learn how to host and create STEM career events;
Learn how to build a STEM career counselling vision and an action plan for schools (including leadership perspective aspects).
During the course, we will be sharing, discussing, and reflecting on the topics above. Furthermore, you will discover a community of like-minded professionals who can support each other in improving their classroom practices. We will be using a variety of online tools and social media outlets to communicate with each other and to engage in a number of peer-review activities as part of the course.
You may already join us in the Opening Minds to STEM Careers MOOC’s Facebook group and share your ideas about the topic on Twitter using #STEMcareersMOOC.
This MOOC is a result of the collaboration of three different projects:
SYSTEMIC, Scientix, and STEM Alliance.
The SYSTEMIC project is a joint initiative of both Ministries of Education and industry, with the overall objective of increasing young Europeans' interest in STEM careers and providing teachers with the appropriate pedagogical tools to enable them to teach STEM topics in a more attractive way.
Scientix, the community for science education in Europe, promotes and supports a Europe-wide collaboration among STEM teachers, education researchers, policymakers and other STEM education professionals.
TheSTEM Alliance – inGenious Education and industry – brings together industries, Ministries of Education and education stakeholders to promote STEM education and careers to young Europeans and to address anticipated future skill gaps within the European Union.
Course Introduction
Welcome to the Opening Schools to STEM Careers Course
ESSENTIAL INFORMATION BEFORE TAKING THIS COURSE
Opening Schools to STEM Careers is the second course in a series of three MOOCs offered by SYSTEMIC, Scientix and the STEM Alliance. The first course, Opening Minds to STEM Careers, was built to train and empower you in successfully introducing and attracting young people to STEM careers from an early age, as well as to learn about private and public initiatives on STEM education. We encourage you to briefly review the first course, Opening Minds to STEM Careers, here.
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Welcome to the course and thanks for joining us. If you haven't completed the pre-course survey yet or added your marker to the course participant map, please do so by clicking on the links.
For starters, take a look at this course introduction, which provides you with an overview of how the course is organised:
Main points to remember
1 - Modules & Activities
The course is divided into 7 modules, with an additional 1.5 grace week at the end of the course to complete all the tasks (that makes 8.5 weeks in total). This course has a two-track approach, meaning we will open two modules per week, instead of opening one module of the course at the beginning of each week. We hope that in this way, everyone can personalise their learning schedule, and finish the course at their own pace. Once open, the modules will remain so until the end of the course, so you can always catch up at a later time. This means that participants will be able to finish it in minimum 4 weeks, maximum 8.5 weeks.
You can start submitting your course activity on the 16th October
The final deadline for submitting your course activity is 15th November, and
The deadline for submitting three reviews of your colleagues’ activities is 22nd November.
The sooner you submit your final course activity and the reviews of your peers’ work, the sooner you can graduate
Each module consists of
• a number of videos,
• reflection and discussion activities,
• and a short quiz or peer-review exercise that checks you have been following the module.
2 - Duration & Workload
The course will run for 8.5 weeks, from 25th September 2017 to 22nd November 2017. Thus, the final deadline for all work is the 22nd November 2017.
All the course content will remain accessible after that, but it won't be possible to do the final activity anymore and receive the course certificate.
Each module lasts 1 week but remains open for completion until the 22nd November. This leaves you with enough flexibility, should you be very busy during one week and need to catch up at a later date. However, please note that peer-review exercises have separate deadlines, so make sure to check the information carefully.
After the 22nd November a "blackout" period of 1,5 weeks will follow, during which the course will not be accessible. All your work on the course is saved and will become available again at the conclusion of the blackout period.
This “blackout” period is a designated time during which we will focus our attention on assessing the work of course participants, dealing with any possible issues (plagiarism, missing final course activities/reviews, technical aspects), and preparing the course certificates.
If you are wondering about the workload, we estimate it to be around 2-3 hours per week depending on your level of engagement.
3 - Discussions & Exchanges
As part of the activities, you are welcome to share and discuss materials, opinions or experiences related to this course through a variety of online tools, which are integrated directly into each module. We have chosen these tools based on their user-friendliness, so you should not have to sign up to use them and most of them should be fairly self-explanatory. You will see that for most sections we have focused on the Padlet tool. For an introduction, check this FAQ on how to post on Padlet.
Each module will be scored based on an automated assessment in the form of a short quiz intended to gather the main ideas of each module. It is important to complete the quizzes if you wish to receive the digital badges and certificate at the end of the course. In the final module, we will have one last activity which asks you to submit an activity and then peer-review other participants' activities. In order for you to receive the digital certificate at the end, you need to submit the lesson plan AND peer-review other participants' lesson plans.
5 - How to get help
If you have a question on the course or you have some technical issues, please always check the course's FAQ section first. There you will find common questions and answers; if that doesn't help, please post your question in the relevant forum category.
Please only email us or contact us on social media in emergencies. We are a very small team and cannot respond immediately if you contact us through these channels.
Would you like to know who is behind this course?
The Opening Schools to STEM Careers course is a joint initiative of three projects coordinated by the Science Education Department colleagues at European Schoolnet: Scientix and SYSTEMIC, funded by the H2020 and Erasmus+ programmes of the European Commission respectively, and the STEM Alliance, a school-industry project with 13 companies supporting it.
The three projects have contributed to all of the valuable content you will find in this course. You will see interviews with companies, teacher presentations and many tools and resources curated and handpicked to support you in introducing STEM careers to your students.
We have also received help from teachers across Europe, and the Scientix Ambassadors who voluntarily offered their knowledge and expertise.
European Schoolnet is the network of 30 European Ministries of Education, based in Brussels. As a not-for-profit organisation, we aim to bring innovation in teaching and learning to Ministries of Education, schools, teachers, researchers and industry partners.
B. Who you will be working with
Below you will find some data on your fellow course participants. As of 25.09.2017 we are 773 participants. We are a large enough group to guarantee lots of diversity in backgrounds and views which will be great for the discussions.
At the same time, we need to be aware that school cultures are very different from one country to another. That means an idea which sounds like a great solution to us might be less relevant or suitable to you. It's important to keep this in mind as you go through the course and to think about how the various ideas can be made relevant to your context. However, that should not stop you from sharing your ideas and experiences, because only by reflecting on how we teach and learn and by seeing how others teach and learn can we truly develop our own practices.
It is great to see that we have a good mix of experience levels on the course and while most of us are working at secondary schools, you shouldn't hesitate to share your experiences if you are working at a primary school or even outside of school. It is important that we get a variety of perspectives on the issues we discuss.
If you have not yet answered the survey, it only takes 5 minutes and you can access it here. If more of you answer the survey and there are significant changes to the percentages presented below, we will update the graphs. You can of course also add your marker to the course map by simply clicking the big + button below (top right corner).
C. Your Learning Diary
What is the Learning Diary?
We highly recommend that all course participants create their own Learning Diary. The Learning Diary should be a COLLECTION OF ALL ELEMENTS FROM THE COURSE RELEVANT TO YOUR OWN CONTEXT. A good Learning Diary will provide you with a summary of the course at a later stage and focus your attention on those areas that are especially relevant to your own context.
A good Learning Diary will also show that you have reflected on the questions introduced on the course and that you have engaged with the ideas of others on the course.
The diary can include anything you like, but we would suggest collecting...
Your answers to the questions posed during the modules (usually underneath the videos).
Comments, ideas, resources from the course materials or shared by other course participants that you found interesting or relevant to your own situation.
Your diary can of course be in your native language, but in previous courses we found that course participants really enjoyed sharing the Learning Diaries amongst themselves and giving each other feedback. This will be much easier if you create your Learning Diary in English, as otherwise you have to find course participants who share your language.
Why a Learning Diary?
There is a lot of material on the course and there will be even more once everyone starts discussing and sharing ideas and resources. Not all of this will be relevant to your own situation, so to avoid getting lost, we recommend that you create this Learning Diary. This will be a valuable resource for you, should you want to revisit the topics of the course at a later stage.
How do I create my Learning Diary?
You can create your Learning Diary any way you like, but make sure that it is easily shared and understood, as this will allow others to provide you feedback. An easy-to-use tool is Padlet, and we have provided instructions for setting up your own Padlet below. As we will also be using Padlet in other parts of the course, it will be useful to get familiar with it early on. However, you are welcome to use alternative tools to create your Learning Diary such as Glogster, Dipity, Google Documents, or any other tool you think works well for this. The example of a Learning Diary you can see below was created by a participant of another course using the Tackk tool.
How can I share my Learning Diary?
Probably the easiest way to share your diary and get some feedback from your peers is by posting it on social media. We have also created a dedicated forum category where you can post your diaries.
Some suggestions for a great Learning Diary:
Your first entry should briefly introduce yourself. Tell your peers a bit about who you are.
Your second entry should briefly introduce your teaching context. Tell your peers a bit about your school, classroom and what technologies you have access to.
All following entries should clearly identify which module and which question the entry is linked to. The easiest way is to include the module number and the question in the title of the entry (see the example below).
Make sure to include links, photos, videos, documents, etc. in your entries.
Don't forget to add any interesting piece of content you come across on the course to your Learning Diary.
D. Code of Conduct
As we are a very diverse group of course participants it is important that we agree on a framework for interacting with each other. Therefore, please take a look at the Academy's Code of Conduct. By continuing on this course you agree to abide by this Code of Conduct in all communications associated with the course's activities.
Code of Conduct
This code of conduct applies to all spaces that are part of the European Schoolnet Academy portal. This includes all our online courses, mailing lists, social media channels, and any third-party tools we use to communicate with each other as part of the European Schoolnet Academy activities. In addition, violations of this code outside these spaces may affect a person's ability to participate in them.
If you believe someone is violating the code of conduct, we ask that you report it to academy@eun.org.
Be friendly, welcoming, and patient
We strive to be a community that welcomes and supports people of all backgrounds and identities. This includes members of any race, ethnicity, culture, national origin, colour, immigration status, social and economic class, educational level, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, age, size, family status, political belief, religion, and mental and physical ability. It is therefore important that when interacting with each other we are aware of this diversity and do not discriminate against each other.
Because of this diversity, our understanding of how things work will be different, our cultural and linguistic references will be different, and we will have very different solutions to the problems we discuss. This is a key strength of the community but requires us to be patient and friendly when interacting with each other. A reference you make might not be clear to someone else, and accordingly, their response might be less clear to you. This requires patience and openness in trying to understand someone else’s viewpoint.
Be constructive
Critical reflection is a welcome part of our community’s activities but it should always be friendly and constructive. Criticism should always come with concrete suggestions on how things can be improved and should always take into account as much information as is available about the context of the object of criticism. For example, in reviewing someone else’s work on the community, make sure to take into account their cultural background and work conditions when offering suggestions on how to improve their work.
Be considerate
Your work will be used by other people, and you in turn will depend on the work of others. Any decision you make will affect fellow users and colleagues, and you should take those consequences into account when making decisions. Remember that we're a worldwide community, so you might not be communicating in someone else's primary language.
Be respectful
Not all of us will agree all the time, but disagreement is no excuse for poor behaviour and poor manners. We might all experience some frustration now and then, but we cannot allow that frustration to turn into a personal attack. It’s important to remember that a community where people feel uncomfortable or threatened is not a productive one. Members of the European Schoolnet Academy community should be respectful when dealing with other members as well as with people outside the Academy’s community.
Be careful with the words you choose
We are a community of professionals, and we conduct ourselves professionally. Be kind to others. Do not insult or put down other participants. Harassment and other exclusionary behavior aren't acceptable. This includes, but is not limited to:
Violent threats or language directed against another person
Discriminatory jokes and language
Posting sexually explicit or violent material
Posting (or threatening to post) other people's personal information ("doxing")
Personal insults, especially those using racist or sexist terms
Unwelcome sexual attention
Advocating for, or encouraging, any of the above behavior
Repeated harassment of others; in general, if someone asks you to stop, then stop
When we disagree, try to understand why
Disagreements, both social and technical, happen all the time and the European Schoolnet Academy is no exception. It is important that we resolve disagreements and differing views constructively. Remember that we’re different. The strength of the Academy comes from its varied community, people from a wide range of backgrounds. Different people have different perspectives on issues. Being unable to understand why someone holds a viewpoint doesn’t mean that they’re wrong. Don’t forget that it is human to err and blaming each other doesn’t get us anywhere. Instead, focus on helping to resolve issues and learning from mistakes.
To become aware of the main benefits of organising STEM career events in schools;
To learn tips and steps for organising your own STEM career event in your school;
To explore case studies of various STEM career events.
7.1 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, prospective employment options and training opportunities. Watch the following video to understand their potential benefits.
In this module we will be focusing on STEM career events (mostly on their typology and organisation). However, before we provide you with more information, we want to specifically acknowledge science fairs and STEM competitions. Indeed, both of these options provide students with incredible opportunities to understand their own potential, bring ideas into real-life projects and learn more about STEM careers.
On that note, we should mention the network of science fairs that has been developed across Europe (supported by Intel) and eventually gave rise to a European final-level event, the EU Contest for Young Scientists (EUCYS). Moreover, EUCYS links to national science fairs in different countries, where awards are given at the national level. Some examples of these national science fairs are:
Regarding STEM competitions, in one of the latest Scientix Newsletters, titled Improving STEM skills through international competitions, you will be able to find information about different types of STEM competitions and how these benefit students and teachers, as well as examples of some of the most rewarding ones.
7.2 Types of STEM career events (I)
1. Student internships / job shadowing
Student internships (or job shadowing initiatives) offer direct opportunities to profit from an insider’s view of different STEM jobs. Particularly, job shadowing is defined by the Manchester Metropolitan University as an instance “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 an 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 provide students with excellent chances:
to explore a career field by experiencing life at a real workplace;
to learn how to apply academic knowledge through discussions with a professional;
to assess their 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 career pathways;
to create career connections and establish valid networking opportunities.
Nonetheless, these initiatives can also entail a number of challenges, namely:
Non-involvement: In some circumstances, job shadowing restricts the involvement of the trainee/student to pure observation, and does not allow him or her to contribute to the work efforts. Moreover, job shadowing does not always provide students/trainees with an understanding of the responsibility or the specific skills needed in the workplace.
Distortions: The success of job shadowing will depend on the professional selected to be shadowed. The time period selected for shadowing can also create distortions, as it may make for an inadequate understanding of the level of difficulty and/or the necessary engagement.
Timing: Job shadowing will usually span a limited period. This brief exposure can cause the student to miss out on key work challenges that may not occur through the duration 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 work environments in different ways. The professional, conscious of being observed, might behave differently than normal, which can affect the quality of the output. Another inherent risk, from an organisational point of view, is the student learning confidential information about a particular organisation.
Other challenges might relate to the lack of space or other infrastructure to accommodate interns, or the work schedule, which may not match students’ availability.
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 the internship experience, and how to make the best out of it.
2. STEM career fairs
(STEM) career fairs offer students a great opportunity to connect with employers and learn about different career prospects. Benefits include:
A convenient and unique chance to meet key professionals and employers from different STEM fields, all in one location;
A networking occasion for students to meet not only with professionals and employers, but also with researchers and 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 businesses or fields, making it difficult for attendees to adapt the visit to their needs.
Limited quality time: A career fair is usually loud and crowded, leaving little time or space for effective interaction between students and professionals. This context can prove challenging for students who wish to communicate, ask questions and network.
Organisational costs: STEM career fairs require a high budget, extensive time and a lot of personnel to come into fruition.
7.3 Types of STEM career events (II)
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 on specialised websites, in a live and fully interactive manner. However, they come with some disadvantages, such as:
Technological glitches: While technology provides students with a variety of new ways of connecting, technical glitches can be a problem for networking and effective communication.
Digital divide: Not all students may have direct access to a digital device. Therefore, virtual job fairs might not ensure equal access for all pupils.
Visual elements: The interaction between students and professionals might appear to be limited or superficial, since there is no face-to-face contact.
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 and often held by a professional in the field. The advantages include the following:
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 guardians can join the discussion to support the children in their career choice.
The main setbacks of these career-related options are as follows:
Students might find it difficult to attend career talks if these clash with their school/study schedule.
Professionals might lack the skills to share their work in a specific field in an appealing, engaging manner. This can result in students becoming disinterested or detached.
It might be difficult to convince professionals from a wide range of fields to give STEM career talks. Therefore, students might only be exposed to a limited range of options.
The STEM Alliance and SYSTEMIC initiatives 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 the industry and education sectors, to raise pupils’ and teachers’ awareness of STEM careers and to promote STEM jobs. Click here to access the booklet addressed to schools and herefor the one addressed to companies. These booklets are based on the framework of the “Professionals go back to school” initiative. If you want to know more about it, make sure to watch the STEM Alliance webinar on the initiative here.
5. Career exhibitions
Career exhibitions provide static displays with information related to different STEM careers. While they are 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 event fairs), these exhibitions can be an interesting option to support STEM career engagement.
Check out the toolkit Organizing a Girls in ICT Day event, which provides ideas and tips for organising a successful Girls in ICT Day event. While the toolkit has a specific target, it provides very useful information on different types of event activities, such as hands-on workshops and activities; open days at an ICT company or other institutions; competitions and prizes; ICT career fairs; and meeting and hearing from female role models.
7.4 STEM career fair organisation: Strategies for success
1. Planning
Organising a job fair takes substantial time and effort. Most efforts occur during the planning stage, when organisers are busy laying the groundwork (i.e. establishing objectives, targeting an audience or planning a budget). Indeed, the specifics of organising career events are manifold and attention to detail is key. Watch the following video to find out the key steps you should follow in the planning phase of a STEM career event.
2. Implementation
Once the planning stage is complete, 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 the event itself. From risk assessment to logistics, it will be essential to draw a masterplan that puts together the team and its activities. Watch the following video to learn about the main tasks in the implementation phase.
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.
Evaluation activities will be crucial to recognise any mistakes made, to correct them and improve them. Check out the pilot study developed by European Schoolnet and Intel on the 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 for your school!
Organising fairs will become easier over time as one gains experience, establishes procedures, amasses contacts, and implements improvements. If you wish to read what fair organisation entails in the words of an experienced professional, check the Scientix Opening minds to STEM careers newsletter. It features an interview with Audrey Anne Bella Bondin, Head of the Science Department in a public secondary college in Malta. Audrey Anne is responsible for the setting up of annual science fairs involving interactive experiments with the aim of promoting and popularising science in her home country.
7.5 Case study: The Teen Science Café experience in Malta
As seen in previous sections, there are numerous types of events to support STEM career induction. One which has not yet been mentioned, 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 involve engaging, lively conversation with a scientist or a STEM professional about a specific topic. In this section, we will describe some experiences from the Teen Science Café in Malta.
The Teen Science Café is an initiative of the Science Centre in Malta which offers young teenage students opportunities to encounter a number of professional experts in different STEM fields. The focus of these encounters is supporting interactive exchange between professionals and students and engaging 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 establishment of Science Cafés can be very rewarding for pupils, as it offers them an excellent opportunity to engage with the science community. Furthermore, Science Cafés are planned in a dynamic manner, involving two-way interactions between scientists and students. That way, students will feel empowered to learn and will gain valuable perspectives on both the professional and academic STEM world.
Science Cafés need adequate planning to invite accomplished professionals, as the right choice of experts is key to ensuring effective and dynamic interaction. Ideally, Science Café activities will be held outside the typical class environment in order to preserve their informal setting, and thus facilitate interaction and engagement. Take a sneak peek at the activities of the Teen Science Café initiative in the following video.
Please make sure you READ THE INFORMATION BELOW CAREFULLY, in order to understand how to complete this REQUIRED activity.
For this activity, you will have to prepare a STEM careers school plan of your own and review the outline of the STEM careers school plan of three (3) course peers.
1. Prepare and fill in the STEM careers school plan
Prepare the STEM careers school plan by using the document below. The 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 school plan. Your plan has to be in English, otherwise it will not qualify.
Submit your school plan file in the interface below, where you will be able to upload a file. In the text box that is part of the submission, you can write a short paragraph explaining a bit about your professional 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 the 15th of November 2017.
3. Review school plan
Wait 24 hours and then return to this page. Below, you will find a checklist meant to help you review each event or school plan, including examples of what constitutes a good and constructive review.
Provide valuable and friendly feedback for each school plan you have been assigned, by writing your feedback in the review text box. Remember that your review is not anonymous. Once you have written your review, click the “Review” button for each of the 3 reviews you have composed. The deadline to hand in your reviews is the 22nd of November 2017.
At the end of the course, return to this page to see the reviews that your fellow participants have written for your school plan.
If you encounter any issues with your OWN submission to the P2P, please consult the FAQ.
If you encounter any issues with someone else’s work (the work you are supposed to review or the review you have received), then please fill in this form.
To learn about the types of available school-to-work programs and where to find them;
To learn how to guide students towards school-to-work programs.
6.1 Business and education collaboration
In Module 5, we saw how STEM professionals play an important role in informing and guiding students to STEM careers, as well as some good practices that a STEM role model or mentor should put to use. In this module, we will zoom out and look at the big picture of such collaborations, and explore in more detail what it means for education and business to collaborate.
For a first taste of this concept, we can watch the following video of Julie Baxter, Vice President, Support at CA Technologies outlining some of the main benefits of collaboration between schools and business:
Very few countries manage to achieve high levels of collaboration between schools and industry. Moreover, this relationship is not often achieved solely through a guided, school-centered or policy-directed approach.
The Education to employment: Getting Europe’s youth into work report by McKinsey & Company (Mourshed, Patel, & Suder, 2014) points out there is a “failure of employers, education providers, and young people to understand one another”. Although education providers are confident that students are being adequately prepared for the transition from school to a job, in reality, employers have been continuously lamenting that they do not find workers with the right skills.
Emphasising that youths are not to blame, the report goes on to outline three hurdles that one faces 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 (or not learning the right soft skills at school) 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 achieved through designing school curricula together, engaging professionals in teaching, creating opportunities for students to experiment with real work in companies, and setting up training academies by larger companies. We will explore all of these throughout this module.
In the videos below, we will see an example of how industry in Portugal, more precisely the Óbidos Technological Park, is taking a first step in bridging the STEM skill gap and working together with students to enrich their skill set. In the next section, we will see some first practical steps we can take towards engaging businesses in school activities.
Activity 1:Read the article Education to employment: Getting Europe’s youth into work and study Exhibit 1: Few young people have a successful journey to employment. There are three dimensions you need to look at: Access (vertical axis), Desire for employability (horizontal axis) and Degree of success (4 segments, from green to blue). Based on this graph, where do you think students in your school are placed? What is their level of access and desire for employability? What are some actions you can take to improve the situation?
6.2 Connect with the community
Sometimes, the actions one has available as a head of school or career counsellor are quite limited, in particular when the wider educational context (tight curricula, limited school resources, scheduling incompatibilities, etc.) does not allow much room for creativity or for developing innovative activities and programmes for students.
Fortunately, there are always simple measures which can be taken to secure students as much career readiness as possible. In terms of business and education collaboration, a first place to look at is the community itself. What are the organisations, the people you can bring to your school, and who will enrich lessons and connect students to real work opportunities?
In Community Partners: Making Student Learning Relevant (2016), Edutopia presents a great case study of a school in the United States where the head of school and teachers work with community partners to enrich student learning and to give them real-life skills.
In this case study, 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 to define them is “learning partner”. The school utilises these learning partners to enrich lessons and to co-teach, but also to help teachers learn from experts, through individual talks, before giving a certain lesson. Another way these partners are utilised is to give authenticity to lessons and to connect students to experts in the specific area students are practicing or learning about during a particular 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 head of school or career counsellor) 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 2:Having read these steps for connecting with your local community, share 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?
6.3 School-to-work transition
An interesting takeaway from Mapping youth transitions in Europe by Eurofund (the tripartite EU agency providing knowledge to assist in the development of better social, employment- and work-related policies) is that “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.”
These discrepancies need to be tackled on various levels. However, the biggest impact can be achieved by large-scale change, either policy-driven or at the school level. As a head of school or career counsellor, there is still plenty you can do to facilitate students' work transitions: specifically, leveraging the steps taken by businesses to cover the skill gap in younger employees by encouraging students to take up training academies provided by companies.
In this manner, and in an effort to invest in training and skill development for their current and future employees, companies (mainly large enterprises) are rolling out various training programmes and initiatives for students and/or graduates to smooth out school-to-work transitions or to develop the skills needed to succeed in the business environment.
Here are two examples of such opportunities which are provided by companies and which students can benefit from:
A first opportunity is the one provided by Amgen Scholars, a programme 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.”
Another example is Microsoft’s Careers, which has 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!
How can you search for these kinds of programs? Some practical steps:
Check out which are some of the big industry or corporate players in your town/city/country.
Their organisation should have a department/area allocated to 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.
See what types of activities they provide: these can be live activities, like trainings or workshops at their headquarters, or live webinars. If they offer extracurricular study programs (like an Academy), you can look into their aims, objectives, conditions and timeline.
Facilitate the connection with the teachers in your school so they can use these activities in the classroom. This can be accomplished in one-on-one discussions, in staff meetings, or by directing them to that website.
Activity 3:Are there any training opportunities or companies in your country providing programmes from which the teachers of your school could learn and which they could employ for their students?
6.4 Case study: Internship placement in Portugal
We will now look at a case study of a secondary, vocational school in Portugal, which collaborates with a local company, OGMA, to offer students the opportunity to be placed in internships during their years of study. Although this is a particular case, where the school is mandated to provide these internships, it is nonetheless a good example of the benefits of such placements.
Activity 4:What do you think is one advantage and one disadvantage of such an internship?
I am an ITC professor at the College of Forestry in Gurghiu( Romania) and when necessary, trainer for my fellow teachers (ITC Trainer and educational management)