A-Levels: STEM on the rise but teacher crisis deepens

18th August 2017 11:32 am

This year’s A-Levels saw a small jump in the numbers studying STEM subjects, but a shortage of teachers across technical disciplines could threaten these gains in coming years.

A total of 41 per cent of total A level entries were in STEM subjects (up slightly from 39 per cent in 2015 and 40 per cent in 2016). For girls, the figure remains static at 35 per cent, while 46 per cent of entries for boys were in STEM. As was widely reported, boys outscored girls in the overall results for the first time in 17 years.

Girls are better represented in biology (61.7 per cent), and there are more female entries in chemistry A-Levels for the first time since 2004. Gender splits in traditionally male-dominated subjects persist, however, with girls accounting for 21.5 per cent of physics and just 9.9 per cent of computing students. While overall participation in STEM is climbing, there is a continued shortage of teachers across technical subjects that could prove detrimental to plans for STEM expansion.

“The jobs of this generation will increasingly benefit from skills learnt through science and maths subjects: analysis, critical thinking and combining creativity with tech know-how,” said Dr Sarah Main, director of CaSE (Campaign for Science and Engineering).

(Credit: Alegri via CC)

“The government has put science and engineering at the heart of its industrial strategy. But we still have a lot to do to encourage young people from all walks of life to benefit from the opportunities that developing maths, science and engineering skills offers. As a first step to achieving this, government must urgently address the shortage of teachers in specialist subjects such as maths, computing, engineering and physics.”

According to the most recent Department for Education Initial Teacher Training census (2016-17) teacher recruitment targets were not met in maths (84 per cent), physics (81 per cent), computing (68 per cent) and design and technology (41 per cent). Worryingly, a recent report from the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) also found that science and maths teachers were also leaving the profession in the highest numbers.

While the need for more take-up in STEM A-Levels is well established, some industry voices were keen to note that not all jobs in the technology sectors require top marks in maths and physics.

“It’s vital for us to be communicating just how relevant digital skills are across all sectors and industries,” said Lynn Collier, COO, Hitachi Data Systems, UK&I. “STEM skills aren’t just for developers and coders, and will be vital in helping the next generation of business leaders build successful careers.”

“Yet it’s also important for us to remind those receiving their exam results today of exactly what the technology sector is looking for. We don’t just need employees with a technical background; there are also roles available in many areas including marketing, leadership and consultancy. As a result, technology companies should be welcoming in A Level students and employees from all disciplines – as we build a varied and diverse talent pipeline.”

Tectonic activity may have scuppered UK fracking potential

17th August 2017 12:01 pm

Heriot Watt University geologist warns that folding and fracturing of rocks may have had a detrimental effect on evolution and recoverability of UK shale gas

The potential for recovering shale gas by fracking in the UK may have been overhyped, because the geological history of the region has been overlooked, Prof John Underhill, chief scientist at Heriot Watt’s Institute of Petroleum Engineering has warned.

Caudrilla hopes to carry out studies to better understand geology that may hold gas reserves

Plate tectonics and the effects of volcanism millions of years ago may have deformed the rocks in which hydrocarbon deposits form, prevent their formation in the first place or making them uneconomical to recover. This would mean that the debate over the environmental effects of fracking is a sideshow, said Underhill: “Both sides of the hydraulic fracturing debate assume that the geology is a ‘slam dunk’ and it will work if exploration drilling goes ahead. The inherent complexity of the sedimentary basins has not been fully appreciated or articulated and, as a result, the opportunity has been overhyped.

In the US and Eastern Europe, where shale gas is plentiful, deposits formed in the middle of continental plates. But this is not true of the UK, which is at the edge of a continental plate and its geology is, therefore, vulnerable to deformation by the effects of plate tectonics. The crucial event in this case, according to Prof Underhill, was the formation of the Atlantic Ocean 55 million years ago, accompanied by an upward surge of molten magma under Iceland. This surge tilted the rocks that now make up the UK and pushed the sedimentary basins where material had collected that would be turned into natural gas by the heat and pressure of overlying rocks against the stable geology of continental Europe.

This would have two effects, Prof Underhill said. First, the sedimentary material would have been lifted up to a level where they would no longer generate petroleum. Second, the geological processes pressing the basins against the continental geology would have folded and fractured the shales where deposits may have already formed into compartments and faults along which gas may have escaped.

“There is a need to factor this considerable and fundamental geological uncertainty into the economic equation,” he said. “It would be extremely unwise to rely on shale gas to ride to the rescue of the UK’s gas needs only to discover that we’re 55 million years too late.”

Three potential fracking sites, the Weald Basin in south-east England, the Bowland Shale in Lancashire and the West Lothian Oil Shale in Scotland are all known to have undergone geological deformation since their formation, Prof Underhill noted, leading to complex structures in their rocks and uncertainty as to whether they would yield economic amounts of gas.

The technical director of fracking firm Caudrilla, Mark Lappin, told the BBC that the company wants to undertake drilling tests to better understand the nature of shale deposits under the UK. The British Geological Survey (BGS) estimated that there were large potential gas reserves but has not done research that would confirm Prof Underhill’s suspicions. “It’s the purpose of our current drilling operations to better understand the reserve, reduce speculation from all sides and decide if and how to develop it,” Lappin told the BBC News website. “I expect Professor Underhill would be supportive of the effort to understand the resource including geological variation.”

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