SCIENCE, more than any other area of business, needs people with higher qualifications and skills 鈥� a first degree is the virtual minimum for entry-level jobs. Any country鈥檚 prosperity is dependent on a robust supply of people with science, technology, engineering and maths qualifications.
Yet the UK, like the US, is failing dismally to train enough people in the science skills that businesses need. In bioscience, for example, the number of universities offering these subjects is in decline, as is the number of first degrees gained, and only a small minority of graduates enter industry or take their learning further.
鈥� is working with key employers and industry bodies to tackle these issues. In late 2006, Semta surveyed 170 bioscience companies and found that nearly one-third of them do not have the science skills they need in their existing workforce and are having trouble finding new people with appropriate skills. These shortages mean that many companies are unable to expand.
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This matters. If the skills gap is not filled, businesses will not grow, some companies may fail and jobs could be lost. Science constitutes a substantial slice of the UK economy: the bioscience sector alone employs 55,000 people and is worth 拢3.3 billion per year. If it ails, the whole economy suffers.
On the global stage, science and technology companies are crucial to improving quality of life 鈥� from developing new medicines and faster computers to making natural resources stretch further 鈥� so we must get this right. China and India are already leaping to meet the challenge, with both countries producing increasing numbers of science and engineering graduates. In the UK and the US, however, we face the serious prospect of being left behind.
鈥淚n the UK and the US, we face the serious prospect of being left behind鈥�
To ensure the growth of our science and technology-related industries, we must forecast which skills businesses will need in the future, then plan to deliver them. As a first step towards that in the UK, Semta recently brokered the , which will launch next month.
This sector includes pharmaceutical companies, businesses in medical diagnostics and equipment, and agricultural feedstock and chemicals. It is particularly dependent on science skills and employs not only biologists and chemists, but also physicists, clinicians, pharmacologists, toxicologists, statisticians and mathematicians.
At the moment there is no coherent strategy for ensuring we have enough science graduates to meet the future needs of the bioscience industry. The new agreement maps out exactly what skills businesses will need to make their workforce more effective, so we have an accurate representation of the needs of the whole sector. This is about training the right number of graduates in different areas, but also making sure that students are taught the skills that businesses need them to have.
The basic principles that underpin academic teaching and research remain crucial, but industry and academia must have a more effective dialogue about science teaching. There are many ways in which they could work together better: for example, Semta is working with the to establish a forum in which employers can tell universities what skills they need, so that universities can develop degree courses that better prepare students for industry.
As maths is the language of science, Semta is also collaborating with the UK maths community to ensure that teaching of the subject is world class, and that the demands of employers are clearly understood. One of the key issues will be making sure that when maths is included as part of a science degree, students are taught applied maths according to their future discipline, rather than pure maths.
The science community is a complex organism, and it needs to function better now if it is to be healthy in the future. All of its parts need to work together. That means attracting more able students to study science, helping higher education to become more attuned to business, or putting in place specialised cutting-edge skills that go beyond those taught at university.
As a key part of the BSSA, Semta is drawing up a detailed action plan with employers, trade and professional associations and universities. This will outline exactly how the skills needs identified by the agreement can be met. We will use the action plan to lobby government and other funding sources to pay for the needed university places.
Please give us your views by posting your comments on 快猫短视频鈥榮 website (www.newscientist.com/article/mg19726409.900). The action plan needs to be the strongest case we can make to ensure that funding and qualification bodies, higher education, further education and the government understand exactly what skills our companies need, right now and in the future.