Computer Science Education: In September, the Code.org Advocacy Coalition, Computer Science Teachers Association and the Expanding Computing Education Pathways Alliance released their 2022 “State of Computer Science Education” report, which summarizes the national and state landscape of K-12 computer science (CS) education policy, access and participation throughout the past year. The following are a few national-level trends pulled from the report:
- About 53% of high schools offer at least one foundational CS course, representing a 35% increase from 2018, but only a 2% increase from the year prior.
- Urban and rural high schools and schools with higher percentages of economically disadvantaged students were less likely to offer foundational CS coursework.
- When looking at the 36 states with available CS enrollment data, only 5.6% of students are enrolled in a foundational CS course.
- Approximately 23 states have adopted or updated 35 policies to make CS a foundational subject, including 18 states that allocated over $50 million to fund CS.
The report also includes a dedicated section for each state so that readers can explore recent CS education data specific to their state. To learn more about the connection between CTE and CS education, as well as STEM more broadly, check out ACTE’s newly released “STEM is CTE” fact sheet.
Diversity in the Tech Workforce: Recently, Wiley Edge published a report that discusses diversity in the technology workforce and what actions the industry is employing to improve equity in the field. Researchers surveyed 2,000 18- to 24-year-old individuals both working and not working in a tech-based role, as well as interviewed 200 senior business leaders about their technology teams to reveal the following key findings:
- Although 57% of businesses stated that they work hard to foster an inclusive company culture, 43% said they are facing challenges retaining diverse employees.
- Half of technology workers stated that they have felt uncomfortable in a job because of their gender, ethnicity, socio-economic background or neurodevelopmental condition.
- About 39% of businesses struggle to recruit diverse entry-level tech employees. However, the same percentage says that they are more likely to hire, or exclusively hire, from top universities.
Keeping Pace with the Manufacturing Innovations: A study by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and Autodesk discusses how current manufacturing training must be modernized to prepare learners to enter a field that is expected to evolve rapidly over the next 5 to 10 years due to technology advancements. Based on multiple literature reviews as well as surveys with industry and education representatives, the study concluded that learners will need to be equipped with more technical, employability and interdisciplinary skills. Included in the report are also recommendations for education, industry and government stakeholders to consider in order to improve manufacturing training.
The Construction Labor Market: In October, the Home Builders Institute released their annual Construction Labor Market Report. The report compiles findings from a variety of sources, such as the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics, to provide an overview of the current state of the construction industry labor market, including workforce shortages, job growth, wages and demographics, among other metrics. The following are some of the report’s key findings:
- Currently, construction employment totals 7.7 million, and the average annual number of occupational openings in construction is 740,000.
- The number of women working in the construction field is growing, with women comprising 11% of employees in the industry during 2021, a nearly 2 percentage point increase since 2017.
- Average hourly earnings for construction workers increased by 5.5% over the past year, reaching $35.
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