Higher Education

The impact of the STEM4TECH model has been spread across target groups, partner organisations, local and international stakeholders. 

Specifically, objectives of the model include: 

1. Improvement and enhancement of STEM career development activities 
2. Improvement in economic opportunities for young people and new arrivals (youth who are refugees)
3. Increased professional knowledge and competences of all partner staff in terms of STEM career development 
4. Application of innovative methods in supporting STEM career and skills development 
5. Development of coherent tools for mobilising STEM4tech and futurology in classrooms across the EU 
6. Creation of scalable STEM4tech model and activities on local, national and international level 
7. STEM 4 Tech and applied futurology resource development for use in formal and informal contexts 
8. Development of digital skills, employability and future visioning of students 
9. Promotion of STEM careers and development of the putting the A (Arts) into STEM careers (design, digital art, eSports, etc.) = STEAM Careers.

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The grant is provided with the aim of balancing and encouraging brain circulation through returning researcher grants.

The Estonian state attaches importance both to international researchers coming to Estonia to work and to the return of Estonian researchers who have gone abroad to work, to facilitate the application of knowledge and experience acquired abroad in Estonia. In addition to balancing emigration, we contribute to ensuring the future growth of researchers and engineers.

The members of the SEER Network will work together to produce state of art knowledge on STE(A)M education,
collect pedagogical resources for teachers and schools, and collaborate to build the foundations
of the SEER Roadmaps.

Emakumeak zientzian is a project promoted by POLYMAT (Basque Center for Macromolecular Design and Engineering) which was set up in 2017 in order to inspire science, technology and engineering vocations among girls and female adolescents, as well as to contributing to combat the gender stereotypes associated with research jobs. The project was launched on February 11 - the International Day of Women and Girls in Science – as a purely promotional activity. However, over time it has become a programme of STEAM activities aimed at different segments of the population and run by Polymat and a further 17 entities from the Basque scientific and technology ecosystem.

Currently the programme involves over 25 activities which are implemented annually. The majority of these activities are directly focused on inspiring science, technology and engineering vocations in girls and female adolescents and for them to aspire to careers in those areas, as well as to contributing to combatting gender stereotypes.

Emakumeak Zientzian’s accolades include:

• Gender perspective mention by STEAM EUSKADI.
• First place in the STEAM EUSKADI Awards.

The main objective of this initiative is to address the problem of gender inequality in the STEM field by introducing the gender perspective throughout the activities programme. In addition, the programme implements two specific STEAM education objectives:

• Inspire professional careers and vocations in STEM
• Improve students’ mathematic and scientific skills

The KVARK project was grown out of the Rocket69 science TV contest (see related page). The main reason for the creation was to broaden the public knowledge about science and scientific thinking. KVARK concentrates on three main actions:

1. Popularizing science, technology, and engineering
2. Rising the quality of the scientific, engineering, and technological education
3. Adding value to working in the science, technology, and engineering subject fields

The team of KVARK includes undergraduates and graduates from different STEM specialities.  KVARK’s objectives are to popularize scientific thinking and scientific approach in public by offering scientific content for different events, scientific entertainment in a form of science theatre, and by conducting clever workshops for both children and adults. KVARK also produces scientific and educational exhibits for museums and helps organisations to arrange projects that support science-based society, and environment.The objectives also include raising young people's (primary target group) interest in STEM education, professions, and careers in these fields. The objectives are measured by the projects supported; the number of events/workshops carried out. The indirect indication is evaluated based on the statistics of popularity of STEM specialties among the students’ enrolling universities, vocational schools, and hobby education.

The Cool Geography Class was developed by the EGEA-Tartu (European Geography Association for students and young geographers) in 2016. The aim of the project is to popularise the scientific geography and its career opportunities in Estonian schools. The development of the programme is based on the input of (geography) teachers and their needs for practical lessons.

Every year, the programme develops four new lesson topics that consist of theoretical and practical work. The lessons are conducted by the University of Tartu geography students (all together about 20 students). The lessons are provided based on the schools interest and for them and for the school. The lessons are completely free of charge.

In 2020, the lessons topics were:

• spatial planning
• smartphones as a tool for geography
• natural geography
• 3D modelling

The progress of the programme is measured in terms of the number the schools visited every year. The programme supports the countries aim to increase the number of applicatns in the universities in the STEM fields and with the goal of smart specialisation.

At the core of UCL's 50.50 Engineering Engagement Strategy is the aim to strengthen and diversify the engineering workforce, by encouraging young people from a wide range of backgrounds - especially young girls - to consider career pathways both ‘in’ and ‘from’ engineering. The initiative focuses on sustained, meaningful engagement, designing programmes that are based in engineering’s real social, ethical, environmental and humanitarian contexts. UCL wants young people to appreciate the interdisciplinary nature of engineering. The programme focuses on gender equality and inclusion, both for the course design and pupil participation, and promote diversity in every sense. Through the 50.50 Initiative, UCL has been able to create a step change in the representation of girls, women and ethnic minorities across all our STEM engagement programmes.

The 50.50 UCL Engineering Engagement Initiative focuses on six key priorities

1. Promoting gender equality and inclusion
2. Learning through experimental engineering
3. Inspiring through relatable engineering role models
4. Discovering STEM career pathways
5. Prioritising early intervention
6. Supporting teachers through professional development

The programme is linked to the UK government’s “Girls Education” and “Year of Engineering” programmes, as well as policies to get more girls into science and engineering careers and degrees.

As part of the initiative and partnership with EngineeringUK, Royal Academy of Engineering, Institute of Physics, Institute of Engineering & Technology and Institution of Mechanical Engineers, through the programme UCL co-developeds “Meet The Future You” (see background documents) based on real-life UCL engineers, with an emphasis on intersectionality and representation.

“The Education test” is a research-based test that aims to inform young people or pupils about educations and professions within STEM.  The test was created by psychologist Helge Brovold (NTNU) and takes 10-15 minutes to complete. Based on four different factors – personality, preferred learning method, personal and professional interests, the test presents occupations within STEM that might be suitable. The test result provides the pupil with information about his or her personality traits, how he or she learns best, and suggest some STEM occupations that fits their personality. After taking the test, the pupils may discuss the result with their parents or friends, and further evaluate different studies, careers and job opportunities. The main target group are pupils in junior high school and students in high school, but the test is also used in some universities to examine the students preferred learning methods and further to adjust the teaching methods.

NCSR (the Norwegian national STEM platform) has done focus groups to learn more about how young people make their choice of education. Its findings show that most youths have little knowledge about careers within STEM and what kind of occupations are eligible after studying STEM.
The education test aims to address this by providing the pupils with new ideas about what one can study and work with within STEM. In tandem to the test, the NCSR runs campaigns in social media throughout the year to inform the target audience about the test and the importance of educational choices.

The main goal of the programme is to make the pupils reflect on their interest, personality and their learning preferences in relation to STEM. Furthermore, the goal is to make the target audience aware of the different educations and jobs within STEM. The programme aims to:

• Inspire youths to choose STEM subjects and careers
• Provide the student with ideas about education choices and occupations within STEM
• Expand their horizon when it comes to their choice of education

These objectives are aligned with the Norwegian Directorate for Education and Training’s STEM strategy – “Close to STEM” (see background documents).