Leading Change – Introduction
Northern Ireland has made considerable progress since Women in STEM was published and there is now a range of organisations across NI looking at supporting girls and women through the pipeline and into employment. This raises three important issues for our strategic response to the challenge of encouraging more women in to In demand STEM employment, however:
- There may be too many organisations – which may lead to confusion or crowding out;
- There is no apparent co-ordination of activities across the pipeline – which may lead to overlaps, inefficiencies and sub-optimal outcomes; and
- The organisations are not distributed evenly along the pipeline and there are notable gaps in the 0-5 years and after A levels.
These issues need to be addressed as we move forwards. A critical first step must be to bring organisations together to review existing provision and to determine how to co-ordinate services to plug existing gaps and to remove existing overlaps.
More urgently, the existing network of organisations are focussed on the broader definition of STEM that predates DfE’s Vision for a 10x Economy and NI’s need to focus on In Demand STEM Skills that support development of the new and emerging technologies and priority clusters we need to deliver our decade of innovation. We therefore require a strategic refocussing of the pipeline to ensure that we can deliver the In Demand STEM Skills we need.
The key tasks are:
Bring organisations together to review existing provision and to determine how to co-design and co-ordinate services to plug existing gaps and to remove existing overlaps.
Bring forward proposals to create a new priority channel within the pipeline that is focussed on increasing the volume of In Demand STEM skills.
Continue to support wider STEM skills development through the pipeline to provide the foundation for future growth.
Draw on the support and expertise of the Women in STEM Steering Group in leading the transition.
Hold follow up events with providers to lay out the proposed changes and to secure their buy-in.
Bring organisations together to review existing provision
A critical first step must be to bring organisations together to review existing provision and to determine how to co-ordinate services to plug existing gaps and to remove existing overlaps.
Bring forward proposals to create a new priority channel
The existing network of organisations are focussed on the broader definition of STEM that predates DfE’s Vision for a 10x Economy and NI’s need to focus on In Demand STEM Skills that support development of the new and emerging technologies and priority clusters we need to deliver our decade of innovation. We therefore require a strategic refocussing of the pipeline to ensure that we can deliver the In Demand STEM Skills we need.
Continue to support wider STEM skills development
We cannot do this to the exclusion of broader STEM skills and we will continue to support them throughout the pipeline to provide the foundation for future growth – while recognising that we must retain our focus on In Demand STEM skills.
Draw on the support and expertise of the Steering Group
This is a substantive change and one that needs to be done quickly. Our success in delivering it will rely on strong leadership and a managed transition to a twin
channel pipeline. We will draw on the support and expertise of the Women in STEM Steering Group in leading the transition.
Hold follow up events with providers to secure buy-in
Success will also require buy-in from suppliers along the pipeline. We will therefore hold a second event with them to lay out the proposed changes and to secure their buy-in.
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