Building up a head of STEAM

We’re all familiar with STEM: Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths. We view them as necessary skills for a changing world of digital everything and continued innovation, but for some time there has been a tendency to separate these subjects from other areas, those which are also at the core of the human experience. The creative arts had largely been considered extraneous to the commercial world, while STEM qualifications soared in value.

However, business leaders are recognising that being effective requires more than just technical abilities, and that critical thinking and creativity are necessary for success. It seems that the world is ready for a more rounded skillset and adding ‘Arts’ into the acronym is the clear place to begin. After all, creative education brings more to the table than just self-expression. It strengthens engagement with learning, communication, problem solving, observation and risk taking.

But while organisations embrace this change of approach, there is a concerning lull in incoming skills, as education systems operate at a disparate speed. This gap has meant that many enterprises – Canon included – have forged ahead with their own programmes. The approaches differ, but they all seek to introduce creatively inclusive experiences to teachers and students alike.

Inspiring Educators

Canon Medical Research Europe (CMRE) creates medical imaging software that, put simply, saves lives. From their hub in Edinburgh, STEM professionals work in Artificial Intelligence, hand-in-hand with clinical research and product development. But, as Principal Scientist of AI Research, Dr Keith Goatman stresses “creativity is the key”. So, he and his colleagues regularly open their doors to educators to share experiences and learn about the challenges of attracting young people to exciting and meaningful careers. Visiting teachers are also introduced to partner hospitals where CMRE work translates into real life, including skills beyond the technical. This arms teachers with routes from classroom to career that they would perhaps never know to consider.

But, as Keith points out, “choice is lifelong, not just for school” and having an education that encompasses both soft and hard skills equips us to handle change, which is key in a fast-moving world. “People can change paths at any stage of their career – in this industry, changing track is actually very natural,” he assures. “However, loving what you are learning, discovering how to handle knowledge and applying analytical thinking are fundamentals.” He believes strongly in removing educational silos so that organisations like CMRE can benefit from talent with a blended set of ever-developing skills.

Heather MacCrae, Chief Executive of the Ideas Foundation, also champions the need for educators to be more attuned to industry. In her work, with Canon and other global brands, students are given challenging real-world creative briefs, simulating a classic advertising agency experience. Employers are changing before her eyes, she says, valuing soft skills that come from exposure to creative problem solving. “They [creative skills] are an enabler. Technical skills are important, but if you can’t listen, read, interpret and generate ideas then you’re not going to become top of your field.”

Inspiring Students

The Canon Young People Programme tackles precisely this, offering training in specialist technical tools in a setting that requires collaboration, critical thinking, ideas generation and problem solving – and the results can be quite astonishing. It demonstrates that academic and technical skills can only be enhanced by taking a more blended approach.

“Because some of the content is dull, there’s no getting round it.” says Heather. “Academic writing, for example, is very different to the writing you need now in everyday life. That’s a skill that needs consideration. How do you translate what you want to say for the different audiences?”

Incorporating the arts and humanities into teaching creates a fertile ground for learning and openness to new approaches in the classroom – and beyond. And for the future talent pipeline, this is essential in the early school years even before children start to consider the future.

Educational transformation

While focusing on STEM alone was once necessary, today it leads to frustrating groupthink. Recently, however, Heather has seen institutions realise that the practice of likeminded people with similar aptitudes working together is actually reducing their collective creativity. “Diversity of thinking is where real innovation comes from” she says. But change must begin early, with the youngest pupils who might believe that art and maths, for example, don’t mix – immediately limiting their potential if they show talent in both.

It’s also accepted that the ability to learn is as necessary as having qualified, with ‘lifelong learner’ featuring high on the list of desirable soft skills. In an age where the speed of technological advancements is breathtaking and new jobs are created as quickly as others become obsolete, future careers are more likely to follow a ‘mountainous terrain’ than a ‘path’.

A generation of inspiring self-starters

While education plays catch-up and organisations are taking a proactive approach, in the middle are the students themselves. With an absence of up-to-the-second information in the classroom, frustrated students are taking matters into their own hands. Gen Z and Gen Alpha are incredibly capable self-educators, with everything they need to learn at their fingertips – whether it’s app development, filmmaking or bricklaying. “There’s a real sense of possibility and risk taking, whereas perfectionism is something from an older generation.” Heather observes. “Again, this is why we try to have a mix of ages and perspectives in our workshops – to model each other’s learning.”

It certainly brings into question what education will look like in the future. Should we expect to see the traditional path to graduation replaced and institutions, individuals and organisations working together to create a lifelong experience of learning? It certainly looks like there is a desire to modernise, but in the meantime recognising and nurturing STEAM is way forward in realising an innovative future without limits.