Citing a potential shortfall in quality STEM workers, a report from the National Academy of Engineering and National Research Council [1] urges the Department of Defense to overhaul its recruitment practices and reassess its requirement for security clearances for some science, technology, engineering and math positions, the Huffington Post reports.
“STEM assignments at the DOD that involve more procedure and bureaucracy than technical challenge and mission are unlikely to satisfy the high-quality STEM professionals the DOD needs to recruit,” C.D. Mote, professor of engineering at the University of Maryland, College Park said in a statement. “Making DOD employment an attractive career choice to the most qualified and motivated professionals will pay enormous dividends to the department and the nation.” Mote is also co-chair of the committee that wrote the report. Due to the hierarchical learning of mathematics, students must generally decide very early in their educational careers whether to retain the option of pursuing a career in a science, technology, engineering, or mathematics field [2]…