Understanding the problems, contributing to the solutions

Exploring local STEM needs and building the partnerships and programmes to meet those needs

The STEM Skills Think & Do Tank aims to capture comprehensive insights into STEM skills needs and provision across the UK on both national and regional levels and, in collaboration with partners, combine it with a range of complementary and holistic educational initiatives to put the findings into action. We need your help to make this happen!

The STEMpura Think & Do Tank will enable us to work with existing and new partners to:

· Inform education and skills training providers of the local and regional findings

· Provide opportunities for employers to engage with students

· Provide volunteering and work experience opportunities to develop employability skills

· Deliver educational activities directly into communities for developing STEM skills including

STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and maths) festivals/conferences
Educator training – enhancing their skills and giving insight into STEAM career opportunities
Competitions – for students to refine and showcase their skills nationally and internationally
Work with other providers to give students a range of valuable developmental opportunities

This initiative will provide data-driven intelligence to influence high-level skills discussions and strategically shape STEMpura's future programme development and partnerships. The local programmes will have a STEAM festival/conference as a geographical and time focus. The festival provides an opportunity to engage the public and schools with fun, STEAM-based, hands-on educational activities which, particularly in a festival format, brings young people and their influencers together with local employers and academics to discover the regional opportunities available to them and to start building links.

Our objectives

● Capture national and regional insights into STEM, digital arts, and computing (STEAM) skills needs

● Influence national and regional skills policy and discussions through evidence-based reporting

● Guide the strategic direction of STEMpura's programmes and collaborative partnerships

● Engage a wide range of stakeholders including students and parents, educators and trainers (primary to tertiary), employers and government bodies

● Offer a range of different repeating and evolving touch points with young people, their educators and influencers to introduce and develop STEAM skills and opportunities to build their ‘science capital’

How we’ll do it

The project utilises a repeatable, incremental model to allow for regional and year-on-year comparisons. STEMpura will work with established research professionals to ensure that the research will be analysed, published, shared with stakeholders and discussed within in regional skills forums, either existing ones or established by STEMpura that will make recommendations for regional offerings. The recommendations will also feed into STEMpura's programme development and calendar of events.

Outputs

The research activities will complement STEMpura’s activities and those delivered with partners like STEAM Festivals and competitions.

The most immediate and tangible output to each year’s endeavours will be evolutions and developments in STEMpura’s programmes and those of our partners to reflect the findings but, in addition we will offer:

Stakeholder Takeaways: Short-form reports for contributors, media, and opinion formers.
- Share with national and regional government departments
- Engage in local, regional and national forums to share findings
- Encourage partners to implement the findings in their own programmes

How we’ll roll this out

Proposed model:

Outline of the Think & Do Tank programme

The model includes three key delivery elements

STEAM festival/conference

STEAM festival/conference will be:

An opportunity to bring all local/regional stakeholders together
A showcase of local STEAM businesses, developments, research etc.
A celebration of local achievement in STEAM activities
A conference of skills ideas and debate

Pre-festival regional educational activities (up to 6 months before)

Funded STEM Days
Funded competition preparation and tournaments
Research activities – as part of STEM Days and competitions plus focus groups &c
Regional stakeholder engagement

Post-event driving awareness of outputs

PR
Research paper submission
Regional stakeholder engagement incl. education, business, industry and skills forums
Advisory groups helping to shape STEMpura and partner programmes

The outputs would then feed into the next iteration of delivery across the UK.

Partnerships are key!

Funders and sponsors to enable:
- The pre-festival educational activities
- The STEAM festival
- The data analysis and reporting
- The post-event sharing of outcomes
We want to secure university/large employer partners to act as the regional hubs:
- Offer students/apprentices and staff the opportunity to develop their skill sets and gain work experience
- Research partners
- Delivery partners
  - Deliver outreach activities as part of their Widening Participation activities
  - Act as a host for events such as tournament events and STEAM festivals. In the case of universities this will contribute to a legacy of engagement that will help them with student experiences and skills development, widening participation and local outreach
Other delivery partners offer connections to their community; variety; financial and in-kind support; hands-on activities, workshops and volunteers; and, specialist knowledge. Examples include:
- Activity providers – for contributions to the festivals and collaboration on programme development and delivery including employers and their representatives
- Careers knowledge – Careers and Enterprise Company representatives, employers, employers’ representatives
- Educators – schools, FE & 6th Form Colleges, home and extra-curricular educators