Germany

The National MINT Forum describes itself as the "voice of MINT education" in Germany. We are an association of more than 30 large, nationally active organisations and institutes that are all involved in the field of STEM education along the entire education chain. Our members come from the following areas: Educational and corporate foundations, trade associations, university associations, non-university research institutions. Together with our members, we develop impulses and positions to strengthen STEM education for political communication. We organise parliamentary evenings, background discussions and do press and public relations work.

We basically want to build a stronger international network. The provision of education in general and STEM education in particular is still not innovative enough in Germany. We hope to gain impulses for our work in Germany through the EU STEM Coalition. In addition, many of our members, especially the foundations, are already active in the field of international cooperation - even beyond Europe. We may be able to incorporate these perspectives into the work of the EU STEM Coalition through our members.

Germany has been experiencing a massive shortage of skilled workers for years, especially in the STEM disciplines. Since 2019, the Federal Ministry of Education has launched several "MINT Action Plans" in an attempt to strengthen STEM education nationwide. Some of the state ministries are also trying to provide impetus through their own programmes. However, the massive shortage of teachers in the STEM field in particular is leading to a loss of competence among pupils. In Germany, there is a large and very active extracurricular learning scene that tries to cooperate with schools. Unfortunately, the structures and access are often difficult.

matrix gGmbH for the promotion of democracy, participation and sustainable social development is the non-profit company of the matrix group, where a total of around 70 people work. It bundles the numerous non-commercial projects and the matrix commitment.

These include:

• projects for equal opportunities through inclusion and health promotion in social spaces,
• projects for and with young people, for example in the area of STEAM promotion.

The matrix gGmbH team works in close professional exchange with the matrix group to ensure a high quality of work, especially in the STEAM area.

One thematic and project focus at matrix is STEAM.

• As a leading partner in the MINTvernetzt project, funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (FMER), we are helping to establish the central nationwide contact point that supports the STEM actors with service offers, advice and networking formats.
• We are also working on the MINT Campus project, which aims to provide offers for STEAM experts on a digital learning platform (also funded by the FMER).
• We have our own matrix lab, where we want to implement STEAM education offers. Here we especially plan to address so called “easy to ignore” groups, such as children with participation restrictions, e.g. because of their gender, socio-economic or cultural background.
• In the matrix group, we are also in charge of the project Zukunft durch Innovation (zdi) on behalf of the Ministry of Culture and Science North Rhine-Westfalia (NRW). With over 5,000 partnerships with actors from science, business, schools and other education places, politics and society, zdi.NRW is the largest network in Europe for the promotion of young STEAM talent.
   

• We implement a program for career and study orientation in the STEAM sector on behalf of the Ministry of Culture and Science and the Federal Employment Agency called zdi-BSO-MINT. This involves in-depth offers for young people which are implemented by the zdi networks and school labs.
• We accompany and advise extracurricular learning venues in their development.
• We are experts in setting up and advising regional network structures to establish STEAM promotion locally.

Overall, our projects give us a high level of expertise at the interface between formal and non-formal education.

The STEAMAction Plan is the strategic umbrella for existing funding measures of the FMER. Here, people along the education chain, from kindergarten to higher education and initial and continuing training, shall experience STEAM.

There is an active STEAM scene in Germany, but it varies depending on the federal state. While in North Rhine-Westphalia, with zdi.NRW, a systematic extracurricular STEM community has been growing for almost 20 years now. The federal networking agency "MINTvernetzt", which is funded by the FMER, aims to bring the entire STEAM scene in Germany closer together and create synergies.

MINTvernetzt is a nationwide umbrella organisation for German STEM education that caters to the STEM-educator community in Germany as a service and contact point. MINTvernetzt is part of the 'MINT Actionsplan' (STEM Action Plan) of the Federal Ministry of Education in Germany. 

The main objectives of MINTvernetzt is to support STEM educators by providing:

• networking spaces,
• knowledge transfer activities 
• inspiration and incentive for innovation topics 
• addressing broader and more diverse target groups in the process with a focus on girls and young women

In response to the diverse and heterogeneous landscape of learning sites, initiatives, actors and networks for STEM education, the MINTvernetzt-initiative aims to:

• Create a digital STEM platform to create direct access to and among all stakeholders concentrated on a digital platform
• Build an autonomous STEM community for networking, knowledge sharing, and strengthening purposes
• Help to amplify the impact as well as the degree of self-professionalization among our stakeholders
• Showcase best practice projects
• Improve the integration of in-school and extracurricular STEM education
• Promote the transfer of expertise from educational research to practitioners.
• To support stakeholders in disadvantaged regions to foster an equitable geographical distribution of STEM education opportunities
• Increase the number of STEM professionals and increase the proportion of women in these professions