WORKFORCE
campusreview.com.au
STEM isn’t for everyone
Even the head of the company whose guide
praises technical degrees’ strength in the jobs
market advises students to follow their passions.
By James Wells
D
espite the opening pages of the recently released
inaugural edition of The Good Careers Guide preaching
STEM and all its glories – the guide’s education chief has
urged students to pursue careers they’re passionate about, even if
they aren’t STEM-related.
The Good Careers Guide is the replacement to the previously
federally funded Jobs Guide, which was cut last year. The Good
Education Group, a privately owned advisory company, purchased
the rights and assets for the guide, and released the new version in
early May.
In its opening pitch to its target audience of high school students,
job seekers, career advisers and those seeking a career change, the
new guide spruiks data from its cousin, The Good Universities Guide,
and the National Centre for Vocational Education Research that states
STEM higher education and vocational education graduates earn
about $10,000 more in starting salary, on average, than graduates in
non-STEM fields and have far higher employment rates.
Even so, Good Education Group chief executive Chris Lester
says students shouldn’t let the data push them into STEM careers if
that’s not their passion.
“Studying STEM is not a guaranteed road to a job and wealth,” Lester
says. “Students shouldn’t be making decisions just based off salaries. It’s
a matter of doing what students have a passion to do. [We hope] the
guide gives them many different perspectives based on their skills.”
Meanwhile, Grattan Institute higher education program director
Andrew Norton cautions against career guides being overly
optimistic about the STEM labour market.
“It is misleading to talk about STEM as if there was a common
STEM labour market,” Norton says. “The job prospects of people
with generalist science degrees are very poor. For example, more
than half of people with degrees in biological sciences who are
looking for full-time work have not found it within four months
of completing their degrees; that’s double the proportion of civil
engineering graduates in the same situation.
“It is true that people with STEM interests are more employable if they
take a vocationally oriented degree, especially in a health field. But even
these fields do not offer the employment guarantees they once did. In
2011, 94 per cent of dentistry graduates looking for a full-time job had
one within four months. That was down to 80 per cent in 2014.”
Lester says he broadly agrees with Norton adds the guide’s focus
on STEM is largely an effort to provide perspective about the kinds
of things such careers encompass and have to offer.
“It does focus [on] what sorts of jobs you can get and the salary
outcomes you can get – the data there supports that,” Lester says.
“But [it’s important to realise] it’s not saying that if you do STEM you’re
guaranteed a [high-paying] job. It really gives you a perspective on
what sorts of salaries you can look at when you study STEM. For a
subject such as engineering, for example, obviously the [probable]
outcomes there, from a salary and employability perspective, are
very [good].” ■
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