Online kurs – Opening Schools to STEM Careers

It is widely known that Europe needs more young people to pursue STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) subjects and careers to become part of a much-needed qualified workforce in the upcoming years.

At the same time, a wide range of factors affects students’ interest and pursue of STEM careers. From the given curriculum to teachers’ knowledge to even participation in professional development activities. Whatever these, they will be usually directly linked to school organization.

For this reason, it will be of much importance to build capacity to empower the most relevant stakeholders in school leadership and school organization. The Opening Schools to STEM Careers MOOC is meant to train and empower Heads of Schools and Career Counsellors in successfully equipping -and adapting- schools with tools for introducing and attracting young people to choose STEM careers.

In this MOOC, participants will:

1. Understand why STEM is critical for students’ future welfare and success;
2. Recognize which are some of the most relevant STEM career pathways;
3. Appreciate different types of career counselling approaches at school-level;
4. Determine the most significant soft skills and STEM abilities, methodologies and pedagogical approaches that teachers and career counsellors should use/focus on;
5. Learn how to address gender stereotypes and foster a culture of understanding;
6. How to collaborate at in-school-level for STEM career counselling, including parents and teachers;
7. How to initiate and maintain community partnerships for STEM career counselling;
8. How to host and create STEM career events;
9. How to build a STEM career counselling vision and an action plan for schools (including leadership perspective aspects);

During the course, we will be reflecting, discussing and sharing on the topics above. Furthermore, you will also have the opportunity to find a community of like-minded professionals who can support each other in improving their classroom practices. We will be using a variety of online tools and social media outlets to communicate with each other and to engage in a number of peer review activities, as part of the course.

Join us already in the Opening Minds to STEM Careers MOOC’s Facebook group and share your ideas about the topic on Twitter using #STEMcareersMOOC.

This MOOC is a result of the collaboration of three different projects:

SYSTEMIC, Scientix, and STEM Alliance.

The SYSTEMIC project is a joint initiative of both Ministries of Education and industry, with the overall objective of increasing young European’s interest in STEM careers and providing teachers with the appropriate pedagogical tools to enable them to teach STEM topics in a more attractive way.

Scientix, the community for science education in Europe, promotes and supports a Europe-wide collaboration among STEM teachers, education researchers, policymakers and other STEM education professionals.

The STEM Alliance – inGenious Education and industry, brings together Industries, Ministries of Education and education stakeholders to promote STEM education and careers to young European’s and address anticipated future skills gaps within the European Union.

 

 

Scientix 3 is supported by the European Union’s H2020 research and innovation programme (Grant agreement N. 730009). SYSTEMIC is Co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union. The content of this course is the sole responsibility of the organizer and it does not represent the opinion of the European Commission (EC), and the EC is not responsible for any use that might be made of information contained.