STEM is the way of the future
I was bringing my daughter to her jazz workshop one afternoon and so I decided to start a conversation. I use this time of driving her to and fro her classes to bond with her and know what she thinks. She told me that she has been practicing the steps of her dance number on her own. I applauded her and encouraged her to keep doing it. Then I challenged her to also learn other dance moves by imitating online videos. I then started to share to her how abundant resources have become for their generation. Instead of just being entertained by Youtube, she can also be educated by Youtube videos. I shared to her the things I learned in Youtube that I did not have to learn in school or with a teacher.
I also revealed to her that we don’t have Youtube when I was still studying. I told her there was no internet yet, when I was college. (Actually, there already was in March 1994 at the university that I was studying in. The Philippines was first connected to the internet through the initiative of the University of San Carlos (Cebu), where I was studying in 1992-1997.) And even if there was already internet then, we were still on dial-up. To illustrate further, a two-minute Youtube video would probably take about an hour to “buffer” so that we can watch it non-stop or no stalling. I don’t think kids of this generation even understand what buffer means.
Giant steps have been made in the area of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). And this has also brought about a demand for more development and more tools to go through life. People hunger to advance some more. And not only that, newer discoveries almost always give companies that are focused in this area of business a good return for their investment. And because of the rat race, they are willing to fight against each other to get the best of the best experts in their particular field. And the best thing is, they are willing to pay big.
Jobstreet.com has revealed that in Bacolod, jobs that are STEM-related are very much in demand and are paying very well, especially in the supervisory and managerial positions. They are also the highest paying jobs among other professionals.
As a parent, I have decided to expose my kids to technology and at make them find fun in this area. In this manner, I believe that when they get to work in this field or develop their own new technologies in the future, they know how to have fun doing it and still get paid handsomely for their work.
So if you have children in high school with strengths in either of the STEM fields of study, let them pursue their chosen fields with passion. And support them wherever you could.
