Building Wales' STEM capabilities – vital for growth
Nurturing and capturing science, technology, engineering, and maths (STEM) talent to help build Wales’ already impressive research and development capabilities remains a key priority for the Welsh Government.
Over the last 12 months, with strong input and support from Professor Julie Williams, Wales' chief scientific adviser, concerted efforts have been made to introduce new policies and measures to help promote growth across this vitally important area and encourage more people, particularly women and girls, to pursue STEM opportunities and careers.
Our Sêr Cymru – Stars Wales – programme continues to go from strength to strength in attracting world-class scientific talent and research funding into Wales.
Although the original phase of the programme is now nearing its planned completion date by the end of 2018, latest figures show it has succeeded in attracting some additional £66.5m of grant research income into Wales and helped to leverage a further £50m of UK funding to support the development of a new compound semiconductor catapult facility, which is due to open at Cardiff University’s Innovation Campus in 2018.
The second phase of the programme, Sêr Cymru II, is also showing early promise, with more than 100 fellowship awards, including COFUND, Recapturing Talent and Rising Stars, already offered to date with a total value in the region of £25m.
An additional £19m in research chair packages has also been offered, helping to bolster Swansea University and Bangor University’s research capabilities across the energy and nuclear sectors respectively.
Efforts to encourage more people to pursue STEM opportunities and careers also moved a step forward earlier this year when the Welsh Government published its new apprenticeship policy, Aligning Apprenticeships to the needs of the Welsh Economy, which places a greater emphasis on addressing skills shortages in growth areas including engineering and construction.
The Welsh Government also accepted all 33 recommendations outlined in Talented Women for a Successful Wales, an independent report commissioned by the Welsh Government and led by Professor Julie Williams.
The report examined the education, recruitment, retention and promotion of women and girls in STEM in Wales and put forward solutions to help break down existing barriers and create the skilled workforce needed to support the country’s future economic growth.
Changes to the Welsh schools’ curriculum, including the prioritisation of girls’ progression in maths, physics and computing and gender balance in STEM education conditions of grant funding, are also beginning to bed in and will have a positive affect at GCSE and A-level.
The National Science Academy is also playing an invaluable role by funding programmes across Wales to help enthuse children and young people in STEM-related subjects and encouraging them to pursue career opportunities within these fields.
While it is recognised there is still more that needs to be done by government, the academic and private sectors to ensure STEM talent is fully nurtured and captured across Wales, the programmes that have been put in place so far are certainly helping to provide a step change in the way research is developed in Wales, helping to put it firmly on the map as a centre of scientific discovery.