"Raytheon became aware of the shortage of a skilled workforce due to their own hiring needs and wanted to find out why," explained Alex Sanchez, Senior Principal Systems Engineer on the Mission Innovation Cross Business Team for Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems. He and his team were challenged by CEO Bill Swanson to use the engineering approach to model a system to help assess and diagnose the situation. The goal was to determine what would be required to double the number of STEM graduates in the next ten years.
The process follows students from birth through high school and then to college. One study showed that from the 8th grade through college graduation, the numbers of students who graduate with STEM degrees continues to diminish. Currently, that figure is approximately 6%. They would like to see if they can double that to 12% within the next 10 years and hope that their diagnostic tool will help determine where the shortfalls lie. Raytheon believes that more must be done to assure that students are taught by capable teachers. They have also determined that in schools where students form social work clusters for networking, their GPA’s are higher, interest and focus remain, they stay in school, and are in the more challenging programs.
