Australia’s future is heavily dependent on a science, technology, engineering, and maths (STEM) skilled workforce. At the foundational skills level – language, literacy, numeracy, and digital literacy (LLND) – there are important STEM skills to be developed. For example, Ai Group’s 2022 skills survey revealed that 29% of employers ranked basic digital skills as the highest priority for improvement.

The Centre advocates for policies and programs to build a STEM-skilled workforce and address critical skills shortages and gaps. We are currently delivering several government-funded projects that aim to increase the participation of females in STEM-related industries and occupations which works towards improving the representation of less visible demographics in STEM fields and industries, like First Nations people, rural, regional and remote people, and those from ethnically diverse backgrounds.

Greater synergy between the primary, secondary and tertiary education systems will help to improve participation in STEM fields. There also needs to be greater cooperation between the education sector and industry, especially with the provision of work experience, structured workplace learning, work-based learning (i.e.: apprenticeships and traineeships), and work-integrated learning (i.e.: internships and cadetships).

The veil on STEM careers needs to be lifted to demonstrate how what is learnt in the classroom is applied in real life, as well as the variety of STEM-field careers that are available outside of engineering and working with computers.