Last week, The Wall Street Journal published an open letter to college graduates from Kirk McDonald, President of digital publishing company, PubMatic. This piece is just one of many recent public outcries from business leaders urging more young people to train in coding and basic computer language, to ensure they are better equipped for today’s increasingly digital workplace.
He raised the point that there are three times as many computing jobs as there are skilled workers and wrote, “It's time to start addressing this crisis….[we need] additional resources to train and employ teachers of science, technology, engineering and maths.”
With a STEM shortage still plaguing Europe, there is more need than ever to engage children and young adults in the subjects that the European – and worldwide – economy is so heavily dependent upon.
This is exactly why Intel has sponsored the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair since 1997: to foster a passion for maths, science and technology in today’s young people, which is an imperative for the global economy and the future of innovation.
With under a week to go until the 2013 event in Arizona, we’ve seen thousands of students from across Europe, Middle East and Africa entering projects across a range of scientific disciplines from engineering to microbiology, computer science to astronomy and we truly believe initiatives like these can make a real difference in inspiring and engaging the inventors, scientists and entrepreneurs of tomorrow.
To find out more about the event check out the website here, and we’ll be announcing more information about the finalists and winners in the next week….