Creating India’s next generation of STEM talent

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Creating India’s next generation of STEM talent

Nithyanandh Dayalan

Country HR Manager
Rolls-Royce, India & South Asia

Today, India is one of the fastest growing economies in the world. It is embracing technology at an increasing pace across all spheres of industry, society and nation building.

As one of the youngest nations in the world, with around 250 million young people expected to join the workforce over the next decade, India needs to ensure that its future talent pipeline is prepared for the fast-changing needs of the industry.

This is because skills that seemed important until last few years are becoming irrelevant today. Emerging technologies are demanding an entirely new set of capabilities such as problem-solving and creativity as well as specialised skills in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields for advanced technology adoption.

At Rolls-Royce, STEM is at the heart of everything we do. It helps us create amazing products and services that have a profound impact on the world and people’s lives. And it is our highly-skilled, diverse group of people who create these world-leading products and help us pioneer the power that matters to our customers.

That’s why we’re committed to advancing STEM subjects amongst young people.

Partnering for progress

In India, out of the many STEM initiatives that we support to ensure quality access to STEM education is through project Muskaan and mobile science labs. While inspiring the students to enhance their learnings in STEM subjects, we’re building a future pipeline of skilled STEM workers, scientists, innovators and engineers of tomorrow.

Among our partners are the Charities and Aids Foundation (Project Muskaan) and Agastya International Foundation (Lab-on-Bike and Science Vans), both of which work on the principles of 'learning by discovery', 'learning through activity' and 'learning from the environment' in contrast to text-book based 'learning by rote' methods.

Charities and Aids Foundation, through project Muskaan, creates science based activities and innovative teaching tools to enhance the level of interest and participation of children towards STEM thereby inspiring them to consider a STEM-based career choice.

We’ve had great results so far. Since 2015, Project Muskaan has reached over 4000 students from our partner schools across Bangalore, New Delhi and Mumbai. This programme also brought in sustainable changes in the educational methods through capacity building sessions for the teachers.

In order to really move the needle, we partnered with Agastya International Foundation in the year 2017.

Mobile science labs and lab-on-bikes, equipped with a collection of activity kits and innovative teaching tools, travel to rural parts of Pune and Ankola bringing STEM to government schools, parents and community. Through experiential science-based activities, these mobile vans & bikes spark curiosity while encouraging critical-thinking and problem-solving. These labs also train teachers at the schools in hands-on pedagogy and low-cost model making.

To date, the initiative has reached almost 40,000 students and over 50 teachers across government schools in Pune and Ankola.

Inspiring and empowering young minds

From being passive listeners, these STEM initiatives act as a catalyst to empower and transform students into active participants.

Principal Anju Tandon of Bhartiya Vidya Bhavan, New Delhi said the Muskaan programme has benefitted both students as well as her teachers.

“We have seen a remarkable increase in attendance from both boys and girls working together on STEM activities, and that’s a very good measure of this programme’s success. Even the capacity building trainings conducted for the teachers have been extremely helpful in facilitating them to teach the STEM-related topics.”

Students like Snehal Rajesh Shinde, who with the help of lab instructors built a low-cost model of Solar System, believes that science has the answer to all the issues faced by humanity.

“Observing these experiments and learning activities have made me more confident with regards to my ideas and thoughts. I want to use my science learnings to become a doctor when I grow up, and help the people in India live better lives,” said Snehal, from N.M.V. Girls High School in Pune.

At its core, in addition to teaching skills applicable to the real world, students emerge with a better understanding of STEM career options.

Giving back

Our employees regularly engage with students by volunteering. Through museum visits and science camps, students are able to connect with our employee volunteers and STEM ambassadors regularly. Not only do they get the opportunity to showcase their learnings, they are also able to ask questions on various topics of interest.

Srisoumya Pelluri, one of our employee volunteers, said, “Science camps are an important way for children to share their learnings. Over the course of the initiative, we saw an increase in their confidence in STEM subjects.”

Sahiba Chaudhary recalls about instances where children saw the telescope for the first time and were thrilled to use it again and again. “STEM is not easy, but these initiatives have enhanced their interest and overall learning abilities, and will also help them in their future career,” said Sahiba.

As volunteers, our employees experience just as much fun and learning as the students!

Conclusion

Our philosophy here is very simple.

We believe that by actively engaging young people in schools, we will help increase interest and encourage diversity amongst those taking STEM subjects and create a future talent pipeline of people with skills, aptitude and curiosity required for building a better India.

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Rolls-Royce develops and delivers complex power and propulsion solutions for safety-critical applications in the air, at sea and on land.