Emily Stover DeRocco Speech
STEM Talent Development Forum
Philadelphia, PA
June 27, 2006
Thank you. It is always a pleasure to be back in my home state, particularly focusing on a subject as important as math and science education. The Delaware Valley, and many other regions around the country, have correctly identified STEM education and the development of STEM talent as critical to the success of their economy.
Over the past year and half or so, three publications have brought this issue to the front of our agenda. The first was a report issued by the Council on Competitiveness entitled Innovate America. Leaders from business, academia, and government came together under the Council umbrella to identify a series of steps required to maintain U.S. leadership of the global economy. Each of these steps was based on the premise that the U.S. must drive innovation if we are to maintain our leadership. We must always be in search of “the next big thing.”
This was then built upon by the National Academy of Sciences report Rising Above the Gathering Storm. In it, NAS specifically identified STEM education as the prerequisite to innovation and encouraged action to improve STEM education in our nation’s high schools.
Finally, the one that put this into context and gave name to our era was Tom Friedman’s opus The World is Flat. It offered specific examples of the effects of globalization around the world and warned of the consequences that it may have on Americans.
These works were critical because they focused the mind of the public and the policy makers on the economic realities of the day. Globalization has brought many new countries, representing nearly half the world’s population, into the economy. Some of these countries are in a race to the bottom, competing fiercely to steal the lowest skilled, lowest paid jobs in the world for their citizens. While that may be appropriate for China or Indonesia or Thailand, it is clearly not our destiny. We want to attract, and create, the highest skilled, highest paid jobs in the global economy. And science, technology, engineering, and mathematics are the foundation of those jobs.
Of course, there are competitors for these jobs as well. Western Europe has become something of a case study in how not to grow your economy. But recent difficulties aside, there is tremendous strength in these countries. Germany is still the world’s largest exporter of goods, in no small measure because of their engineering prowess. And the U.K. trails only the United States in delivering services to the world.
While Europe represents the established competition, the Far East and the Sub-Continent provide the emerging one. Most of us are familiar by now with China and India and the progress they have made. India in particular sees its future not in competition with China for low skill manufacturing, but in competition with the West for services. There are others too. South Korea has the most advanced wireless network in the world, providing access over cell phones to things Americans only dream about right now. And even Japan, awaking after a 15 year slumber, is once again driving the electronics market.
So as the world’s other leading and emerging countries join the market, the United States must redouble its efforts to maintain our leadership. And we have much work to do.
It clearly starts in our nation’s K-12 schools. If students are to move on to demanding engineering and computer science programs in college, they must establish the foundation in high school through rigorous courses in math and science. And that challenge is not even taking into account the fact that only two-thirds of high school freshman will graduate on-time.
It is this absolute need for improved high school education that is at the heart of President Bush’s new Competitiveness Agenda. Increasing the resources and focus on Advanced Placement courses in math and science, and providing for area professionals to teach at high schools, are important steps in providing our nation’s youth with the basic skills needed to pursue an education in these fields.
As we improve the education available to these students, the parallel challenge is attracting them to these courses. We’ve all heard the complaints from our children or made them ourselves about how we’ll never use algebra or calculus in our day-to-day lives. But engineering and technology fields are built on these disciplines. It is a matter of connecting what students learn in school to the real world.
I understand that someone from Project Lead the Way is here today. And I know Future Cities is here. These are examples of programs that seek to do exactly that, introducing students to the scope and opportunities of engineering. While these programs are on the ground in individual school districts, we at the Labor Department are interested in seeing those programs brought to scale and trying to provide some tools that will hopefully assist in career exploration and connection. Specifically, we have partnered with the McGraw-Hill Publication Company to create a magazine series, aimed at students, called In Demand.
As you can see, this is a teenage-focused magazine that interviews young professionals to whom students can relate and describes the pathways needed to reach those careers, along with what you can expect to make in those jobs. We already published issues on construction, energy, advanced manufacturing, and health care, and distributed over 1 million copies to every high school in the country. This fall, we are going to begin the new school year with a special edition on STEM careers.
While the focus on high school education is important for building the future STEM workforce, it is by no means the only activity that we should be undertaking in support of STEM education. Recent Labor Department projections show that fully 90% of the fastest growing jobs will require education and training beyond high school. And two-thirds of all high growth, high wage jobs will require a bachelor’s degree.
In addition, there are many industrial sectors, particularly in manufacturing, that are undergoing tremendous transformation. Individuals working in these fields have a basic skill set required for employment in new economy STEM fields, but need some additional education and training to be fully prepared to enter these jobs.
As I like to say, education is no longer K-16; it is now K through Gray. The speed and complexity of the new economy will require all of us to continually update our skills to keep pace, and our traditional educational institutions must be prepared for this new breed of adult learner.
Specifically, I am thinking of community colleges. Given their nature and design, they are best suited to respond quickly to the changing economic environment, and can adapt and customize courses to provide the training needed to help adults prepare for and enter new economy fields. The Labor Department has been supporting these programs through our Community College Initiative, issuing $125 million in grants last fall and preparing a new solicitation to be issued in a matter of days.
It isn’t just community colleges though that must respond to the challenge. Universities are where the most rigorous and in depth STEM education is found and they too must become innovative in serving people outside the traditional 18-22 year old students. Technology now allows many different opportunities for people of all ages and I know that universities are exploring these options as ways to reach greater numbers of people.
Universities are particularly important because they are now playing a larger role in the competitiveness of a region. When we think of the most successful regional economies in the country—Silicon Valley, Research Triangle, Boston—they all have major universities as their hubs. Philadelphia is perfectly positioned to join this list. With the breadth of universities in this region, and represented in this room, you have a tremendous advantage over many other regions in the country.
Of course, building or transforming a regional economy takes more than top flight universities. All the major economic assets in the region must play a role. This includes the business and economic development organizations, the financial assets as represented by angel investors, venture capital firms, and foundations, and the whole continuum of education and talent development institutions, including the public workforce investment system. Part of the President’s American Competitiveness Initiative is an important proposal to direct more resources to tuition assistance through Career Advancement Accounts that would help the workforce system contribute more significantly to the development of STEM talent.
And of particular concern to this region is the alignment of federal, state, and local governments. We often do not view government as being an asset in a region, but they are a major component of an economy. If the feds, state officials, and local representatives are working against each other or at cross-purposes, then they become a liability, a drag on the region’s economy. But alignment of these levels of government can provide an amplifying effect to regional economic development efforts. We are in alignment now, particularly on STEM issues. This is the time for a bold agenda, the time to act.
It is precisely this alignment of economic and talent development that we seek through our WIRED Initiative. By coordinating regional assets to improve talent development, regions can create the workforce that builds and attracts companies that will drive the 21st economy.
The Delaware Valley is already well on its way to building such a regional economy. The growing sectors of life sciences, pharmaceutical, and advanced manufacturing you now possess can lead this region to the economic growth that once made Philadelphia the largest city in the English speaking world. Of course, to reach that potential requires a world-class STEM-educated workforce.
I am happy to see so many leaders in the room today dedicated to creating that workforce and I am committed to helping regional economies across this country achieve that goal.
My team is here for the duration. Their instructions are to come home with a strategic action agenda. That agenda begins today.
Thank you.
