Germany

During a special ZDI webinar, European Commissioner Mariya Gabriel discussed gender gaps in STEM and STEAM with Mr. Klaus Kaiser (state secretary) and Ms. Sabine Verheyen (chairwoman of the Culture and Education Committee of the European Parliament). Please find below a short meeting report. A full video report of the event as well as a summary video (German subtitles) are available through the ZDI website (link above).

Meeting report

EU Commissioner Gabriel calls on youth: We need you and your ideas! 

Mariya Gabriel, EU Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, and Sabine Verheyen, Chairwoman of the Committee on Culture and Education in the EU Parliament, discussed how the European Union can support STEM initiatives. The stimulating exchange between two women who are enthusiastic about youth and education would like to extend the success story zdi has written in North Rhine-Westphalia together with the children and young people in Europe.

From STEM to STEAM: Creating links with arts, humanities and social sciences

Commissioner Gabriel speaks with passion about the opportunities that a solid STEM education brings. "We need you" - she appeals directly to young people in Europe. She has no doubt that STEM knowledge is needed to solve social challenges. And she even opens up new perspectives: We need to put STEM into contexts and treat the content less abstractly. It is important to show the connections between STEM and other fields of study and to break down traditional boundaries. STEM becomes STEAM- the "A" is supposed to stand for art, culture, humanities and social sciences.

Klaus Kaiser, Parliamentary State Secretary to the Minister of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia also addresses this aspect in his forward-looking greeting right at the beginning of the online discussion organised by zdi.NRW and the Representation of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia to the EU. "We are increasingly dealing with interdisciplinary knowledge," says Kaiser. Accordingly, it is necessary to show how STEM knowledge affects all areas of life. Girls and young women in particular could be inspired to take up STEM issues if these were brought into larger, attractive social contexts and if it was made clear what benefits physics, mathematics, technology or computer science bring, for example, to the development of solutions for climate change.

Reduce the Gender Gap and promote the talents of women 

Gabriel proves that the gender gap is also a problem across Europe: Only about 30 percent of graduates in STEM subjects are female. And with regard to the important information and communication technologies, it is even only 20 percent. If the number of STEM graduates should be increased, the gender gap must be narrowed. Sabine Verheyen is obviously also very concerned about this topic. To this day, society conveys role models and stereotypes that divide the world into typical male and female professions and abilities. 

At this point it becomes clear that Gabriel and Verheyen are pioneers: Both see the great opportunities an improved inclusion of all talents and potentials will bring. And both are committed to offering young people room and opportunities to develop themselves.

Supporting the Green Deal: Can STEM save the world?

Nevertheless, all discussants with the vision of extracurricular STEM education know that there is more than the mere shortage of skilled workers. During the discussion, Gabriel in particular repeatedly picks up on topics such as sustainability, digitalisation and environmental protection. All these topics are part of the European "Green Deal", which aims to realise a sustainable economy and make Europe a climate-neutral continent by 2050.

With zdi, topics such as environmental protection, sustainability and resource conservation are placed at an early age and taken up again and again in higher grades. Sharing these experiences with others, exchanging knowledge and working together across Europe is also in the interest of the zdi community.

During a web-conference of the Franco-German Chamber of Commerce the EU STEM Coalition was presented by Ms. Nelly Guet, a long-time contributer to the EU STEM Coalition. In her presentation Ms. Guet focused on the background of the EU STEM Coalition and previous outcomes of international best-practice sharing in the field of STEM education, as well as an ongoing initiative in the French region of Bretagne. This initiative (supported by the EU STEM Coalition) aims to develop a region-wide coordinating programme for school-company cooperation based on existing best practices from Denmark (Tektanken programme), the Basque country (STEAMsare programme) and the Netherlands (Jet-Net programme). 

The full web-conference can be found via the link above (French / German only). 

The different regional networks in the zdi-community in the German region of North Rhine-Westphalia have responded to the COVID-19 crises by developing several online offers for students (see previous article).

A ZDI Network – also referred to as a ZDI Centre – is a regional partnership of players from politics, schools, universities, enterprises and other partners involved in education who wish to foster young people’s skills in STEM fields. Each ZDI Network is different and tailored to the specific requirements of its region.

Students who would like to learn about programming their own games can now register for online webinars “Learning about online programming with scratch!”. The course covers in total four hours, distributed at two succeeding afternoons. The target group includes boys and girls starting from the seventh grade.

Other online webinars cover topics like “how to design and program a website”, a basic class about CAD 3D Design and “STEM-very close – how to save the world with mathematics!”. To promote the webcourses, the organisers rely on the cooperation with STEM teachers in the region who are informing their students about these possibilities. The online courses are highly sought-after.

Further information is available at the zdi-network’s website (German only - see link above)

Zukunft Durch Innovation (ZDI) is the regional STEM platform in the North Rhine-Westfalia, a state in the west of Germany with a total population of 18 million people backed at regional level by three ministries. ZDI focuses on inspiring young people to choose STEM careers, ensuring the availability of sufficient STEM teachers and introduce young people to socially relevant topcis related to technology at a young age.

ZDI's objectives implemented through ZDI networks. A ZDI Network – also referred to as a ZDI Centre – is a regional partnership of players from politics, schools, universities, enterprises and other partners involved in education who wish to foster young people’s skills in STEM fields. Each ZDI Network is different and tailored to the specific requirements of its region.

Equipped with a camera and microphone, young people can continue to take part in a wide range of extra-curricular vocational and study-oriented measures offered by the ZDI-networks. These include new initiatives launched in response to the pandemic. For example, the ZDI Network based in Cologne offers introductory webcourses tailored to young people focused on app development, the programming language scratch and webdesign (see link above).

For more information about the activities of individual ZDI Networks please visit the ZDI website or contact us directly.

Der Arbeitsmarkt ist in Südthüringen fast leer, doch gerade kleine Betriebe buhlen erfolgreich um neue Mitarbeiter und setzen sich sogar gegen Konzerne durch. Ihre Methoden sind ausgefeilt.

This infographic provides an overview of  the position of STEM professions in the metal- and electro industry in Germany, with a specific focus on Baden-Württemberg. Besides general definitions, it covers employment, average salaries and labour market demand.

The indicators in the report present a synthesis of research and innovation performance in Germany. They relate knowledge investment and input to performance and economic output throughout the innovation cycle. They show thematic strengths in key technologies and also the high-tech and medium-tech contribution to the trade balance. The indicator on excellence in science and technology takes into consideration the quality of scientific production as well as technological development. The Innovation Output Indicator covers technological innovation, skills in knowledge-intensive activities, the competitiveness of knowledge-intensive goods and services, and the innovativeness of fast-growing enterprises, focusing on innovation output. The indicator on knowledge-intensity of the economy focuses on the economy’s sectoral composition and specialisation and shows the evolution of the weight of knowledge-intensive sectors and products.