Washington State STEM Education Foundation: Connecting students to rewarding careers—building our future workforce

Given this opportunity to share with Tri-City Herald readers, I’ve created a few headlines of my own to highlight the progress experienced by our foundation, its affiliated Mid-Columbia STEM Network and our many community partners in 2019.

Local STEM group selected as regional lead for new statewide program

Last fall, our organization was chosen to serve as a Career Connect Washington (CCW) Regional Network. CCW aims to combine classroom learning with practical career experiences. Its goal: Put more students on meaningful career pathways and help meet employers’ critical workforce needs.

It’s an obvious fit with our foundation’s mission of introducing local students to career possibilities in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. As one of nine CCW networks, we will be expanding our current service offerings beyond the greater Tri-Cities to include 23 school districts in Southeastern Washington.

About 740,000 job openings are expected in the state over the next five years. Almost three quarters of these jobs will require a credential of some type beyond high school. As the regional network, we will coordinate with local Educational Service District 123 to serve as the hub for labor, business groups, employers and educators in expanding career-connected learning opportunities.

STEM Like ME!℠ continues rapid expansion

STEM Like ME!℠ (SLM) was created by the Foundation to answer a local need to empower students to pursue rewarding careers, while providing turn-key solutions for employers to engage with students and educators. Based on our success, we have been asked to share our programs with other regions. It is now conducted across the state and has served more than 16,500 students and teachers.

The original STEM Like ME!℠ Explore program brings volunteers into the classroom to conduct small-group, hands-on demonstrations. STEM Like ME!℠ Innovation Fund, conducted in partnership with the Dream Builders Education Foundation, supports pioneering educators with grants to fund innovative career-connected learning projects with local volunteers.

Three additional SLM programs also have launched or are under development. STEM Like ME!℠ School-Based Internship is a hybrid of the traditional internship model, allowing more students to gain relevant workplace experience. Students collaborate in small teams with local employers and the classroom instructor to create and present solutions to real workplace challenges. STEM Like ME!℠ Navigator ties closely with students’ High School and Beyond Plan, and STEM Like ME!℠ Teacher Experiences are being designed to help local educators teach about career opportunities in our region.

Outstanding community support must continue, grow, STEM leaders say

While strong community support and engagement has enabled the foundation’s achievements to this point, more will be needed as we fulfill our responsibility to build the workforce of the future.

We can add to an impressive resumé of major accomplishments in advancing education opportunities for our region. Delta High, our region’s STEM high school, was designed and built thanks to a community partnership. The myTRI2030 regional vision effort is identifying additional educational advancement opportunities. We must continue this spirit of collaboration to expand career connected learning opportunities for our youth.

I specifically would ask business, industry and labor leaders to examine how you are investing in building the bridge from education to great careers.

Does a portion of your employee development strategy address the skill building and knowledge transfer that comes from engaging with your future workforce? Research shows these efforts help to attract top talent; develop and retain current employees; boost public image, and drive your bottom line.

As we progress in 2020, we look forward to continued and new partnerships to ensure every young person is fully prepared to benefit from our vibrant southeastern Washington economy.

For more information, go to WashingtonSTEMlearning.org or contact us at info@stemlearning.org or 509-420-9316.

This story was originally published April 23, 2020 at 5:01 PM with the headline "Washington State STEM Education Foundation: Connecting students to rewarding careers—building our future workforce."