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A NEW SURVEY has revealed students are most concerned about whether they will ‘fit in’ when deciding on what courses to study at third-level.
Science Foundation Ireland is concerned this could mean students are avoiding science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) courses simply due to stereotypes.
In the survey of 2,000 students by Amárach Research, 56% considered career prospects to be the most important factor.
This is compared to 62% being more concerned about fitting in.
Students were split on their view of STEM courses. Roughly half considered them to be either too difficult to require too much work.
Dr Ruth Freeman from SFI said: “We know that there are a number of stereotypes about STEM careers that may discourage a student from choosing these subjects for their Leaving Cert, or as part of the CAO.
The reality, however, is that there is no end to the variety of careers in areas like technology or science.
Freeman is calling on parents to ensure that when discussing students’ CAO options over the Christmas break STEM courses aren’t ruled out.
“Sometimes potential career routes aren’t as obvious to parents when thinking of science, technology, engineering or maths,” she said.
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That’s odd. If I was good at any of those courses they would’ve been first on my CAO. Who cares if you don’t fit in when can draw the structure of (CH3(CH2)16CO2)2Mg
Mag stearate?
god knows :o
I think it’s magnesium stearate, an excipient lubricant used in tablet formulation to improve powder flow a day stop it adhering to the equipment. I can’t copy the formula to check but ya…
Anyone with a propensity to take this kind of study seriously should watch this:
Ok i’ll bite….whats a stem course?
Science technology engineering and maths. First letter of each.
Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.
Thanks sam, asked a question i was too embarassed to!!
Great crowd in the dunces corner tonight!
There’s a lot about looking at STEM education that bothers me.
First of all, STEAM is not just the new acronym; adding a focus of creativity makes a significant difference. When people see that they can create their own mark, you have the educational gift that is intrinsic motivation.
I think I’ve addressed some of these in this post; https://medium.com/@TonyCanningJnr/when-digital-meets-everything-else-5cdd2c680960
Lastly, I heard someone on the radio talking about starting European languages at about 7 yes old. I agree. In the same way, if you’re looking to address the issue of women in stem areas; you’re too late. Forget gender and address kids before they get to an age that they become concerned about gender identity which has a major effect on the direction people take.
Just wondering if I’m being a bit thick?!?
“56% considered career prospects to be the most important factor.
This is compared to 62% being more concerned about fitting in.”
112% of people wondering how this adds up? Or am I missing something?!
Could have been a multiple answer quesitonaire Tony
But in a multiple answer surely a single point hits on the “most important”
@Thejournal.ie can we have some intelligent reporting facts please, what was the survey? Who commissioned it? Who funded it ?
Why don’t you send a correction. There is an embedded link beside the author’s name and contact details.
I’ve sent numerous corrections on various articles and the majority are ignored…until the mistake gets publicly announced in the comments section!
The geeks will inherit the Earth.
Okay so when we have a world full of STEM geeks who is going to do all the other things like design buildings, put out fires, build buildings, protect people, treat people etc? It’s all well and good encouraging kids to become scientists and engineers but if there are too many of them the wages in these industries goes down and tbh it takes all sorts to make an economy/society work.
Someone disagrees with the simple logic that not everyone can be a rugby player no more than there can be a society based on just one type of worker in one industry.
Give yourself a round of applause you idiot.
Nobody is saying that everybody should go into this field of study/work, the point is that there isn’t enough people going into it to keep up with future demand. There is actually a bit of a shortage right now in some areas of the STEM subjects.
Having done a STEM course in college, and still working in the area, the stereotype doesn’t exist! Students studying science (or any of its close counterparts) at 3rd level are as varied as those doing arts degrees. If not more so nowadays, as school students are very aware of high paid jobs at the end of it. While all of those promised “knowledge economy” jobs might not exist yet, we are getting there as a country.
In terms of difficulty, of course a STEM course will be challenging at times, but surely that’s why people decide to get an education in any discipline at any level – to challenge themselves!
Dunno
I do Computer Science in DIT and I have to say this whole idea is entirely true in my experience, but not necessarily from the prospective students.
I was helping with the science open day last year (the one for people who have applied for the course on the cao, so they were interested in the course) and I had six or seven parents come up with their daughters asking questions. The daughters themselves were asking questions like what the college was like and if the maths was difficult, fairly standard useful questions. But the parents were asking how many girls were on my course and if it was as nerdy as you’d imagine and things like that. I even had two mothers saying that it makes sense that there’s less women in computer science because men are naturally better at maths. They’re saying this utterly wrong sentence in front of their daughter who is genuinely interested in the course!
Stereotypes, of course, need to be broken, but honestly I think the students themselves want to break them.
Same here, any free computer lab in our college was pretty much taken up by lads having a large team deathmatch in COD2 which was distributed illegimately across all the PCs oin the college and run without the need of installation (we were computer students afterall) And may have not provided the safe environment for people to habitulise themselves into, but we would’ve never told someone to leave, and on more than a couple of occasions we have left the lab to let another class study or use it for project work.
If you pick your course based on fear of stereotypes, you’re too stupid to succeed in a STEM field.
http://twitter.com/NickyRyan_ Hey Nicky do you just pluck this nonsense out of the web ethereal ?
Don’t be ridiculous, what’s stopping people becoming scientists is the terrible career prospects and terrible pay. Young people aren’t stupid!
Being in a Software development course I could kind agree, but one of the people who finished with was Ola, a 40 something immigrant from Nigeria who wanted her qualification in Computers.
She didn’t really fit in but was an adult and didn’t give a toss.
I’d say its the maths aspect that holds people back and not stereotypes, certainly was the case with me anyway
have your say