About 50 percent of all STEM jobs are open to workers with less than a bachelor's degree, and about 30 percent of today's STEM-intensive jobs are in blue collar fields.[i]
Jobs that require STEM competencies are not just for those with a bachelor’s degree or higher—many are available to those with less than a four-year degree.
According to research from the Brookings Institution, about half of all STEM jobs are open to individuals with less than a bachelor’s degree. These occupations are primarily in the fields of installation, maintenance and repair; construction; production; transportation; and health care support. Not all these jobs require the same level of STEM competencies: Occupations that require a higher level of STEM skills include automotive service technicians, HVAC mechanics and installers, electricians, chemical plant and system operators, and computer numerically controlled machine tool programmers, among many others.
When sharing this statistic with policymakers, the media or education leaders, follow up with data on STEM labor market demand and earnings in your state or region. Explain how CTE prepares students for many of these jobs through a variety of STEM-related courses as well as work-based learning experiences and career and technical student organization competitions.
Check out ACTE fact sheets and our other policy and advocacy publications for more CTE data and research.
[i] Rothwell, J. 2013. The Hidden STEM Economy. Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution.
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