Outputs from projects

This report was commissioned to consider the challenges faced by employers recruiting and upskilling STEM skilled employees in the London and South East Region. It details the STEM skills challenges faced by employers in the region, with their existing workforce, particularly those who have not experienced Higher Education, and with new graduates in STEM disciplines. It relates to the workforce in both STEM and non-STEM related sectors. The report seeks to identify specific skills shortages and recommend working methodologies for engaging HEIs in providing relevant Workforce Development (WFD) for the current workforce to address the skills issues identified.

Members of the team are exploring different models for running the drop-by station espressoMaths at Glenside for 2011/12 in the light of comments from the focus groups and from informal discussions with students.

This document outlines the marking criteria for the 2011 EPS Grand Challenge.

The following video is an output from the project: "Increasing public awareness of the key role of mathematics underpinning STEM disciplines" led by Trevor Hawkes at Coventry University.

Bob's Misadventures in Maths: http://www.mathscareers.org.uk/viewItem.cfm?cit_id=383232

The HE-STEM initiative aims to give employers, employees and members of the public, easy and available access to knowledge in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).

This can be given through the form of traditional full degrees or specially designed short courses, tightly designed for high industrial relevance and “real world” application.

Following consultations with British Engines, RSLC and Siemens establishing in-depth understandings of existing training activities and materials, new and specific work-based learning modules were developed and then ‘contextualised’ to respond to client demands. There have now been a number of student enrolments from all three partner companies ranging from apprentices to those in ‘workshop manager/team leader’ type roles and technical staff with no Higher Education experience. A total of 7.33 FTE are engaged in this project and details of the students can be found in the appendices of this report.

This project aimed to improve engineering students’ employability by enabling them to capture their work experience (including any non-discipline related work) and develop the skills needed by sector employers. During the capturing process, students are required to outline the activities they undertake and reflect on them.

Transition to Work: Engaging Students with the career benefit of Chartered Status.

To work with Professional Bodies to develop a dedicated resource to be used within STEM departments to introduce students to the career and personal benefits of engagement with Professional Bodies and the opportunities to acquire ‘Chartered Status (CChem, CPHys, CEng, CMath). By engaging students with the process of becoming a chartered professional, and examining the non technical or employability skills required of a chartered professional, this project also aims to raise students awareness of the importance attached to employability skills by STEM employers.

On civil engineering courses at Coventry University, the presence of two types of student with relevant work experience has allowed a study of realistic project work to take an interesting perspective. The students are: (1) part-time students in the workforce, who study on day-release, and (2) full-time students who have spent a year-out sandwich placement in industry. Semi-structured group interviews with a total of 52 students have been carried out by four members of academic staff in such a way that no member of staff has interviewed students they are currently supervising.

The ability to communicate mathematical and scientific ideas to a range of audiences and through a variety of media is a very important key skill for students in STEM subjects. So also is the ability to reflect on challenging experiences such as volunteering and STEM ambassador activities and make sense of their implications for future personal development.

The project team was successfully formed in March, with a project worker employed from March 7th.  Since then, we have undertaken a review of STEM Outreach and WP activities across South West higher and further education institutions and had a good response rate

Progress to recruit mentors specifically for STEM students has progressed steadily though not significantly.  24 mentors specifically in HESTEM/RAE roles have now been recruited and 16 mentees across both projects.  Despite extensive steps being taken to approach local businesses, professional associations and business networks, recruitment of mentors allied to engineering and maths has been underwhelming.  Many state the pressures of the economy being their main reason for not being able to devote staffing resource to this project at present.

This project investigated the potential for engineering employers to accommodate short-term (summer) placements as an alternative approach to year-long sandwich placements. 112 companies were approached for their opinion on short-term placements and the range and extent of professional skills that students could develop during a summer in industry. Feedback from 37 employers indicated an overall positive perception and short-term placements were considered largely beneficial to both company and student. Employers agreed that good communication was the key skill that they were looking for and that students would develop their project and time management skills, as well as improving commercial awareness, during their summer experience.

In Yorkshire, Humber and the Northeast, learning from the London Engineering Project (specifically with regard to good practice in the use of undergraduate students as ambassadors for STEM) has been shared and embedded into nine higher education institutions (HEIs) in this region. The training has been delivered by the project team to undergraduates and staff at each institution with the acknowledgement that the staff would be able to re-deliver this training to their students (and other staff) in future years. The overall aim of this project was to ensure that the information and skills delivered during this training remain within the participating HEI to be used for their own needs in the future.