STEM 'brainwashing' keeping young people out of tech - CompTIA
The STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) movement is discouraging young people from entering the tech industry, according to IT trade association CompTIA's president and CEO, Todd Thibodeaux.
Speaking to Channelnomics at a CompTIA event in London, UK last week, Thibodeaux said STEM has "brainwashed" high school and college graduates into thinking they aren't qualified to work in tech.
"Kids don't look at tech as a really good career right now because they think they need to be math and science geniuses," Thibodeaux said. "STEM has brainwashed kids and parents into thinking they need all these skills to work in tech - like they need to be really good at science or math or coding - but they don't. Or that they need a degree to work in tech. None of these things is true."
As a result, he says there is a "confidence gap" where "people think they can't work in the industry when they are perfectly positioned to work in the industry".
Thibodeaux said the industry should place more emphasis on 'soft skills', particularly in the IT channel, where sales, marketing and customer-facing experience is valued.
"That's what people coming into the industry lack, and that's a bigger deficit today because of [tech's] alliance with sales and teamwork and solution selling," he said, adding that it is easier to for someone with soft skills to learn about tech, than vice versa.
The CEO also said young people need to be educated as to the benefits of working for a small or midsized IT firm, as opposed to a multinational company.
"Kids coming out [of college] all think they need to work for Microsoft or Intel when the majority of the jobs are with small to medium-sized companies in the channel. We need to do more to educate up-and-coming tech workers that there's lot of great opportunities with these smaller companies," he said.
In SMBs, Thibodeaux said "you get a lot more responsibility right away, or probably get to be a lot more customer-facing, with more flexibility, and more of your input is taken into account. In a small company you get to learn a [greater number of] skills much more quickly".
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