Full STEM ahead on the roller-coaster of life
An agile approach to career development is preparing students for the future of work
In the York School’s university counselling office, two black arrows bisect the white background of one of the many posters adorning the walls. One arrow, rising in a straight diagonal line, is accompanied by a caption: “What people think success looks like.” The caption for the other arrow, which reaches the same destination in spaghetti-like fashion, reads: “What success really looks like.”
Such is the nature of 21st-century career trajectories, says director of university counselling David Hanna. “The path today is more of a roller-coaster. If students have the skills and are open to learning, there is no limit to what they can do. We shouldn’t be asking students what they want to do when they grow up. We should be asking them what problems they want to solve when they grow up.”
This agile approach to career development is being embraced by many of Ontario’s independent schools. Rather than preparing students for specific lines of work, they’re fostering problemsolving skills in disciplines that are expected to be in high demand over the coming years — and no skills are in higher demand than those involved in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).
While Canada’s overall job market chugs along at a 1.8 per cent annual growth rate, STEM careers are proliferating nearly three times as quickly, the Conference Board of Canada reports.
Upper Canada College in midtown Toronto may well hold the title for the most STEM-related programming anywhere. Of the 100 clubs and co-curriculars on tap for 2021-22, nearly 20 per cent involve fields such as artificial intelligence, cryptocurrencies, blockchain, quantum computing, neuroscience, coding and algorithms.
“We really encourage and empower students to create a culture where they have the agency to pursue what they’re interested in,” says Thomas Babits, UCC’s director of community service, clubs and the International Baccalaureate’s Creativity, Activity and Service (CAS) Program. “In the wake of COVID, those interests are really skewing towards fintech, advanced programming and AI.”
As a required component of the International Baccalaureate Diploma offered at UCC, CAS requires students to complete a project that is both self-initiated and requires sustained collaboration. In one recent case, Babits recalls, a student standardized the software used on the school’s webserver and wrote a program called “Moonbase” to allow students to manage their online projects more easily.
St. Mildred’s-Lightbourn School in Oakville, meanwhile, has seen its STEM and Robotics Signature Program achieve several Canadian firsts: NASA sponsorship, winning the World Engineering Inspiration Award at the FIRST World Championships and becoming the first all-girls team to win a Regional Chairman’s Award.
Participants in grades 1 to 3 build models, grades 4 to 7 create small robots, and grades 8 to 12 fashion larger machines. “Students select specific, real-world problems, and are then tasked with researching them, interviewing experts and ultimately creating prototypes of their solutions,” says Amy Clark, marketing and communications head at SMLS.
The program isn’t only about building robots. “There is a business team that works on securing sponsors and ensuring the team is sustainable; there is a media team, an outreach team and an awards team,” Clark explains, adding that all participants work alongside and learn from industry mentors. No wonder about 50 per cent of SMLS’s graduating classes enter STEM- and roboticsrelated study programs.
Robotics is also a big deal at Richmond Hill Montessori Private School, where elementary learners apply reasoning, questioning, researching and critical thinking skills to the construction of programmable Lego robots. Students can go on to attend the Canadian First Robotics Competition at the University of Waterloo, where teams can earn a berth at the First Robotics Competition World Championship.
Given the abundance and popularity of STEM programming, the meteoric growth of the University of Toronto Schools’ annual Girls in Tech Conference should come as no surprise. Four years after being founded by a small group of UTS students, GITCon 2021 welcomed nearly 200 participants from across Ontario.
The city’s first student-run conference for young girls interested in tech features free workshops and panel sessions led by senior UTS students and staff from tech A-listers such as Google, IBM and Ubisoft. Through free workshops and panel sessions, participants have the opportunity to network with likeminded girls and Canadian tech industry leaders, and explore career paths in areas ranging from 3-D printing and robotics to AI and computer science.
As one of the first schools in Canada to offer a one-to-one laptop program, the York School remains focused on technological opportunities that enhance learning. Guided by its Learning, Technology & Innovation department, all grade levels use iPads to participate in online learning activities that complement the curriculum, with classrooms sporting digital projectors, interactive whiteboards and digital audio equipment.
York students “are so fearless with technology and pushing the limits to what tech as a tool can do for them,” Hanna says. “Many people will never return to a traditional 9-5 office job in favour of working at home — a skill that requires focus and dedication.”
However, as befits the school’s holistic approach, its Wellness team and Learning, Technology and Innovation department recently teamed up to create Digital Citizenship Resources that provide best practices and address risk factors involved with children on social media.
“STEM is not the be all and end all,” says Hanna, director of university counselling. “Our relatively non-specific program is all about teaching lifelong skills to communicate, collaborate and think critically, and producing informed, wellrounded, articulate human beings. These are the same soft skills needed by CEOs of Fortune 500 companies.”
CEOs like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerburg? “And, of course, you need math and digital skills too,” Hanna adds with a chuckle.