Recruiting, training, and retaining qualified teachers to meet demand. Fostering partnerships among educational institutions, industry, and nonprofit organizations. Actively recruiting women and minorities to pursue science and technology coursework and careers. The ASME paper determined that new research must be supported and the findings applied to the development of curricula, materials, and standards. Research should focus on how and when students learn rather than on what they should learn in scientific and technological subjects.
Employers are concerned about the lack of technically skilled workers.
Recent studies suggest that, in the United States alone, 2.2 million new teachers will be needed in the next decade. Yet, statistics indicate that U.S. colleges of education will not produce nearly enough graduates with degrees in education to meet the expected demand. Furthermore, graduates with degrees in science, mathematics, or engineering are unlikely to pursue teaching careers. A related concern is the number of teachers who are currently teaching out of their respective fields of expertise. In the same way, ASME encourages the development of partnerships among educational institutions, industry, and nonprofit organizations through several mechanisms.