{"id":17443,"date":"2013-03-18T08:11:48","date_gmt":"2013-03-18T12:11:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/?p=17443"},"modified":"2013-04-23T16:49:21","modified_gmt":"2013-04-23T20:49:21","slug":"will-floridas-push-for-high-tech-degrees-pay-off","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2013\/03\/18\/will-floridas-push-for-high-tech-degrees-pay-off\/","title":{"rendered":"Will Florida&#8217;s Push For High-Tech Degrees Pay Off?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_17446\"  class=\"wp-caption module image left\" style=\"max-width: 276px;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2013\/03\/18\/will-floridas-push-for-high-tech-degrees-pay-off\/college-grad-2\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-17446\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-17446\" title=\"college grad\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/files\/2013\/03\/college-grad.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"276\" height=\"183\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Best Online Colleges\/flickr<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">A Georgetown report found &quot;that STEM talent winds up outside of STEM occupations because STEM jobs often do not fully satisfy individual social and entrepreneurial interests.&quot;<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Curtis Nyarko is putting in a lot of late nights followed by early mornings at the lab \u2013 hoping to snare a high wage job in a high-tech field.<\/p>\n<p>Nyarko is a junior at Florida State University majoring in biology. He wants to stay in Florida and pursue a career in medicine.<\/p>\n<p>Nyarko says his STEM degree &#8212; science, technology, engineering and math &#8212; will be worth it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis degree is not an easy degree at all. But at the end of it all when you have your career \u2013 and it\u2019s a good career \u2013 it is worth it,\u201d Nyarko said. \u201cYou know, nothing great comes without great sacrifice.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Jacqueline Arbelez also hopes to attend medical school in-state. She\u2019s studying animal biology at the University of South Florida.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve heard that having a major in the STEM field guarantees you a spot in the industries after you graduate. You\u2019ll have a stable job. That\u2019s what I look forward to,\u201d Arbelez said. \u201cI can enjoy my major as well as look forward to finding something stable after I graduate, even if I don\u2019t get into medical school.\u201d<\/p>\n\n<p>In January, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.flgov.com\/2013\/02\/26\/gov-scott-online-demand-for-stem-related-jobs-continues-to-increase\/\">Florida had more than 56,000 job openings in STEM fields<\/a>. That\u2019s up 15 percent from a year ago.<\/p>\n<p>Gov. Rick Scott says the state needs more workers trained in STEM majors.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2012\/12\/14\/governor-says-job-openings-show-the-need-for-more-stem-graduates\/\">The governor says jobs in those fields pay better<\/a> than the average salary and could boost Florida\u2019s economy.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Maybe that\u2019s why two-thirds of the new degree programs USF created this year are in STEM-related fields.<\/p>\n<p>Dr. Paul Dosal, USF\u2019s Vice Provost for Student Success, says higher education has to keep up with the needs of the market.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo we have been responding already and trying to steer students into those fields and provide them the training they need,\u201d Dosal said. \u201cThey\u2019re coming in and they know STEM degrees are in high demand and STEM fields also pay very well.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Others see a downside to STEM programs:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The federal government\u2019s\u00a0Bureau of Labor Statistics finds that <a style=\"font-size: 16px;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.bls.gov\/emp\/ep_table_103.htm\">only a few of the country\u2019s fastest growing jobs require STEM training<\/a>. Other fields include construction, event planning, and plumbing.<\/li>\n<li>A study by Georgetown University found that in 5 years, <a style=\"font-size: 16px;\" href=\"http:\/\/www9.georgetown.edu\/grad\/gppi\/hpi\/cew\/pdfs\/stem-release.pdf\">STEM occupations will account for only 5 percent of all jobs<\/a> in the U.S.<\/li>\n<li>The Georgetown report also finds that less than half of graduates with STEM majors are working in those fields 10 years after graduation.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re making it out like the education is something that is going to boost Florida\u2019s economy,\u201d says Florida State University Economist Randall Holcombe.<\/p>\n<p>He says the key to graduates getting high paying jobs has more to do with the economy than what students major in.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPeople can get those STEM majors and a lot of them are going to go out-of-state,\u201d Holcombe said. \u201cOn the other hand, if we create the STEM jobs in Florida, it\u2019ll attract people from out-of-state.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As an economist, Holcombe thinks the state should do a study looking at the number of students majoring in STEM fields, what jobs they get right out of college, and whether they even plan to stay in Florida.<\/p>\n<p>Regardless of the statistics, student Curtis Nyarko is banking on a high paying medical career near his family in Miami.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPeople are always getting sick. Hospitals are always in need of new doctors, new nurses, new physical therapists, a lot of things,\u201d Nyarko said. \u201cSo I\u2019m pretty confident that I\u2019ll be able to get a job.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Curtis Nyarko is putting in a lot of late nights followed by early mornings at the lab \u2013 hoping to snare a high wage job in a high-tech field. Nyarko is a junior at Florida State University majoring in biology. He wants to stay in Florida and pursue a career in medicine. Nyarko says his [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[1070,1027,1082],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17443"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/55"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17443"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17443\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17465,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17443\/revisions\/17465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}