EY today announced the development of a mobile platform in collaboration with Tribal Planet, EY STEM Tribe, to help girls in 13-18 years age group engage in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) curriculum and pursue high-growth careers. India is the first country to launch the global initiative that will provide an entertaining and gamified STEM learning experience to over 6,000 girls in Delhi NCR.
The EY STEM Tribe digital platform forms a part of EY’s global Women in Technology movement, aimed at accelerating gender parity in the technology space and reinforcing the organization’s purpose of building a better working world. Following the launch in India with Delhi NCR, EY will take this to schools in the United States, starting with Seattle and Atlanta.
Available for free on Android and iOS platforms, the EY STEM Tribe mobile app features modules on science, such as climate change, space exploration; technology, such as artificial intelligence, 3D printing or blockchain; the future of work and skills that may be required for future; and inspirational stories of women in STEM. The STEM curriculum on the platform are developed with leading educational institutions around the world. Parents and teachers will also have access to the platform to highlight the need for them to encourage girls to explore STEM as a career choice.
On the occasion of the launch of the technology platform, Manish Sisodia, Deputy Chief Minister and Education Minister of Delhi, says, “In India, only two percent of the CEOs are female. And only one percent of the CFOs are female. Higher secondary classes of Delhi government schools have 57 percent students as females while only 43 percent are in science stream. This situation and stereotypes like boys for science and girls for humanities need to be broken now. And as part of this vision, we are introducing STEM Education for girls in Delhi Government schools in partnership with EY. Through the EY STEM Tribe platform we want to encourage our girl students to acquire 21st century skills necessary to secure jobs not just in India, but globally. We want more girls to be inspired to pursue science and related subjects.”
Rajiv Memani, Chairman and Regional Managing Partner, EY India, says, “As technology continues to shape the future, it has become imperative to provide equal opportunity for girls to pursue high-growth STEM careers. We are pleased to launch this global initiative in India, that will enable STEM learning for 6000 girls across 45 private and government schools in Delhi NCR, and has the potential to scale rapidly, empowering young girls to learn STEM in a pragmatic and contemporary manner.” According to EY future of jobs report, by 2022, 37% of Indian workforce would be employed in jobs that have radically changed skill sets and 9% would be deployed in new job roles that do not exist today.
Developed in collaboration with Tribal Planet, a Silicon Valley based company that develops innovative platforms and ecosystems to engage global citizens around social impact priorities, the EY STEM Tribe platform enables girls to choose topics based on their interests. The app will soon be available in Atlanta and Seattle.
Dr. Vijay Datta, Principal, Modern School, says, “Creative imagination, critical thinking and experiential learning are the key pillars of the foundation of Modern School, and it our constant endeavour to inculcate innovate practices and digital solutions in the day-to-day learnings of the students. The EY STEM Tribe platform is one such unique digital solution that will open new doors, particularly for girls, help ignite a passion for STEM, enable them to learn 21st century skills and participate in the jobs of the future.”
Dan Higgins, EY Global Advisory Technology Consulting Leader, says, “The EY STEM Tribe digital platform forms a part of our global Women in Technology movement, aimed at accelerating gender parity in the technology space and reinforcing EY’s commitment to building a better working world. This platform will help girls to build passion for STEM, learn new concepts and apply them in real life, and most importantly, will inspire even more girls across the world to embark on STEM careers. We purposely chose the themes and designed the platform to trigger real-life actions, where girls can reach out to their communities, individually or collectively, and make a greater impact on the society.”
The EY STEM Tribe platform is fully aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Goals and Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) framework for transferrable skills, such as analytical thinking or problem-solving.
Amanda Gethin, EY Global Talent Leader, Advisory, says, “Technology jobs are increasing – but so is the gender gap. As a result, we need to change the talent pipeline and address this gap, lighting the spark to help ensure that women have equal chances to enter, remain and thrive in the technology industry.”
Incentivizing learning through ‘rewards’
To help incentivize learning, the girls can earn points as they complete an activity, such as reading an article, interviewing members of their community, completing an experiment or watching a video. As girls build their “rewards wallet” and see points accumulate, they redeem points in three ways: fun rewards include STEM-related products; important rewards include work shadowing opportunities or virtual mentoring sessions on topics such as building a CV, honing interviewing skills or understanding how millennials engage in the workplace; or lasting rewards, where they choose to donate their points to a non-profit cause of their choice related to empowerment of girls and women. The point donations are converted into a monetary donation by Tribal Planet to the non-profit.
In addition to earning rewards points, girls earn digital badges aligned with the UN SDGs to help them better understand the goals and empower them to have a personal impact related to the SDGs they care about the most. As they participate in SDG-related activities, their badge levels increase.
Today’s students are tomorrow’s pioneers. Occupations in STEM-related professions are probably the quickest developing and best paid of the 21st century, and they frequently have the best potential for work development. The most ideal approach to guarantee future achievement and life span is to ensure that the students are well versed in these subjects. Building a strong STEM Foundation through a balanced educational plan is the most ideal approach to guarantee that understudies are presented to math, science, and innovation all through their instructive profession. The craze for STEM Learning has now significantly increased in young students. The universities are coming up with various STEM Learning Programs in collaboration with other institutions & researchers. The STEM Learning Ecosystems have a vast potential to teach the young students in masses. Every year students are applying for these programs in a big number because of the real-time practice and to represent their talents.