Technology permeates today’s labor market and will play an even greater role in the future. Despite that, interest is low among young people. This is shown by a new report from the Royal Academy of Engineering.
– The survey shows that interest in technology, science and mathematics steadily decreases from grade four to grade nine, says Magnus Berggren, steering group chairman of the Royal Academy of Engineering Sciences, Iva.
Invest a lot in the beginning
An explanation that was raised in one of the survey’s focus groups was that there is a lot of investment in teaching in the field of technology and natural sciences at the beginning of middle school, after which the teaching decreases the further up the grades the students get.
The image of young people’s view of science and technology as something boring and difficult emerges, and this affects what they want to work with in the future. 26 percent can imagine working with computers and programming, but only five percent with perhaps the biggest challenge of our time – climate and environment.
Twelve year old gets shocked
Ronja Thunell is twelve years old and in the fifth grade. For her, the climate is the most important issue and the fact that such a low percentage of young people can imagine working with the issue in the future shocks her.
– Oh my god, what a little. It really needs to be raised. I’m almost ashamed to be young myself, she says.
Iva’s report does not present any proposed measures, but the responsible minister says that the government is working on the issue.
– Norway has oil, Sweden has engineers. We are getting rich as a country and we all win by getting more young people to choose the technical subjects, says Minister of Education Mats Persson (L).