There is a longstanding imperative from both government and industry for a workforce with the skills needed to drive forward the scientific and technological advances that are considered so crucial to the economic prosperity of the nation. However, the skills of this workforce have purportedly been both in short supply and inadequate for many decades, leading to the well-established narrative of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) skill shortages. One solution to this challenge has been to encourage, through myriad policies and initiatives, more young people, particularly young women, to study more science for longer. This paper contributes to the literature on the supply of STEM workers by documenting the long-term trends in the participation and attainment of girls and women in STEM education: from school science through to graduate entry into the highly skilled STEM labour market. Using population datasets that extend across seven decades and include millions of students, it shows that gendered patterns of participation in science subjects have varied little in recent decades, suggesting that efforts to increase the number of women studying science in school have not resulted in a substantial increase in well-qualified female graduates entering highly skilled STEM jobs. Furthermore, studying STEM appears to be generally advantageous for men, in terms of field-related employment outcomes, but is not always associated with such higher status occupations among women.

Whether enough highly qualified STEM workers are being educated and trained in the UK is an important question. The answer has implications not only for educators, employers and policymakers but also for individuals who are currently engaged in, or are considering entering, education or training in this area. Set against a policy backdrop that prioritises students studying more science for longer, this paper considers long-term patterns of participation in STEM education - from school science through to graduate entry into the highly skilled STEM labour market. Using a unique dataset that extends across seven decades and comprises many hundreds of thousands of students, the paper finds that patterns of participation in most STEM subjects have varied little over the period considered; suggesting that efforts to increase the numbers of students studying science in school has had limited impact on the throughput of students who study STEM, including the pure sciences, at university level and, subsequently, on the number of graduates who would be available to undertake highly skilled work in areas for which degree-level skills are a pre-requisite.

Concerns over the supply of highly-skilled (HS) science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) workers are well established and have been a feature of policy discourse in the UK for more than 50 years. Since the 2016 referendum on leaving the European Union, these concerns have been exacerbated by uncertainty about the movement of labour between UK and Europe. More recently, the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of STEM skills in a wide range of areas. However, despite continued government investment in initiatives to address these concerns, the evidence base for shortages is neither well-established nor compatible with economic theories of labour supply. In order to fill a gap in the current evidence, we report on a unique analysis following the career destinations of STEM graduates from the 1970 British Cohort Study. While only a minority of STEM graduates ever work in highly-skilled STEM jobs, we identified three particular characteristics of the STEM labour market that may present challenges for employers: STEM employment appears to be predicated on early entry to the sector; a large proportion of STEM graduates are likely to never work in the sector; and there may be more movement out of HS STEM positions by older workers than in other sectors.

Increasing the number of women in the STEM labour market has been presented by policymakers and industry representatives as an opportunity to address purported skill shortages in the sector. National governments have spent considerable sums on initiatives aimed at increasing the proportion of girls and women who study science and work in STEM jobs, with a particular focus on increasing the number of female STEM graduates. Although there is a considerable literature on gendered patterns of STEM education, the employment of recent STEM graduates, and gender pay gaps in the STEM workforce, there are important gaps in our knowledge about the position of STEM graduates. We combine several high-quality large-scale data sets to provide a comprehensive overview of the relationship between gender, STEM degree subjects and employment destinations in the first decade of this century. We found that labour market destinations were closely linked to undergraduate STEM subject choice but that gendered differences persisted within subject areas. Throughout their early and mid-career years, women with STEM degrees were more likely than their male peers to be employed in 'caring' professions, such as health and education, be employed in 'lower status' associate professional positions, and less likely to hold managerial positions.

Problems with the supply of highly skilled science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) workers have been reported by employers and governments for many decades, in the UK, the USA, and elsewhere. This paper presents some key findings from a project funded by the Nuffield Foundation that examined patterns of education and employment among STEM graduates in the UK. Five large-scale secondary datasetscomprising administrative, survey, cross-sectional and longitudinal datawere analysed in order to provide the most comprehensive account possible. The findings suggest that there is no overall shortage of STEM graduates but there is considerable variation in the career outcomes and trajectories of different groups. Recruitment to STEM degrees has stalled over the past 20years but most STEM graduates never work in highly skilled STEM jobsin any case, the majority of professional STEM workers do not have (or presumably need) degrees. Some groups of STEM graduates are currently under-represented in the highly skilled STEM workforce and increased recruitment from these groups could grow the numbers entering STEM occupations. However, employers may have to modify their views on exactly what constitutes a valuable or desirable employee and to what extent it is their responsibility to train their workers.

In their response to our paper, Nicholson and Ridgway agree with the majority of what we wrote. They echo our concerns about the misuse of inferential statistics and NHST in particular. Very little of their response explicitly challenges the points we made but where it does their defence of the use of inferential techniques does not stand up to scrutiny. Their statements are either contradictory, agreement ‘dressed up’ as disagreement, appeals to authority, semantic slights of hand, or irrelevant to our original claims. It is not clear why such a response was needed. First published May 2017 at Statistics Education Research Journal Archives

Concerns about a shortage of highly skilled workers in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) sector have been expressed frequently since the late 1940s. Although these claims have been challenged as being insufficiently grounded in evidence, they have formed the basis of policies directing considerable resources to STEM education, particularly in the university sector. This paper uses data from the Higher Education Statistical Agency from 1994 to 2010, covering more than threemillion UK graduates, to contribute to the existing research into the purported skills gap in the STEM sector. It examines their destinations six months after graduation to establish the proportion of graduates from different subject areas that enter graduate careers, with a particular focus on STEM graduates and highly skilled STEM occupations. The findings show that only a minority of graduates enter graduate' positions within six months of finishing their degree and many find themselves unemployed or underemployed. Overall, STEM graduates fare little better than non-STEM graduates and while graduates in some STEM subjects fare slightly better than average, those with other STEM degrees fare worse than those with non-STEM degrees. The findings appear incompatible with a true shortage of potential STEM workers and raise questions about employers' expectations and the continued subsidisation of STEM degrees.

This paper contributes to the empirical evidence on participation and attainment in higher education by reviewing the patterns of entry and success of undergraduate students. It examines the characteristics of entrants to different subjects and considers the role that subject studied plays in determining the likelihood of graduating with a ‘good’ degree. The data used were drawn from the administrative records of over 38,000 UK‐domiciled undergraduate students from one ‘elite’ British university. Despite considerable between‐subject variation in degree outcomes, multivariate analysis of the relationship between students’ social and academic characteristics and achievement at university revealed that once social background and prior attainment had been controlled for, the subject students studied added little explanatory power to models predicting final degree classifications. Differences in degree outcome were most strongly related to attainment on entry to higher education, sex and ethnicity. In contrast with attainment during the earlier phases of education, the relationship with occupational class was relatively weak. Disparities between the proportion of higher level classifications awarded in different subjects can be largely explained by the background characteristics of the students who choose (and are accepted) to study on these degrees. This finding has particular implications for policies aimed at increasing both the number and quality of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) graduates in what is often argued to be a ‘shortage’ or ‘priority’ area.

This paper contributes to the empirical evidence on participation and attainment in higher education by reviewing the patterns of entry and success of undergraduate students. It examines the characteristics of entrants to different subjects and considers the role that subject studied plays in determining the likelihood of graduating with a ‘good’ degree. The data used were drawn from the administrative records of over 38,000 UK-domiciled undergraduate students from one ‘elite’ British university. Despite considerable between-subject variation in degree outcomes, multivariate analysis of the relationship between students’ social and academic characteristics and achievement at university revealed that once social background and prior attainment had been controlled for, the subject students studied added little explanatory power to models predicting final degree classifications. Differences in degree outcome were most strongly related to attainment on entry to higher education, sex and ethnicity. In contrast with attainment during the earlier phases of education, the relationship with occupational class was relatively weak. Disparities between the proportion of higher level classifications awarded in different subjects can be largely explained by the background characteristics of the students who choose (and are accepted) to study on these degrees. This finding has particular implications for policies aimed at increasing both the number and quality of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) graduates in what is often argued to be a ‘shortage’ or ‘priority’ area.

This paper presents the results of multi-variate analyses of the social, economic and educational characteristics associated with reporting both access to the Internet and using the Internet for four key purposes: banking and finance, purchasing goods or services, accessing government or official services and looking for work or employment. The research was conducted using nationally representative, individual-level, repeated cross-sectional data (n?=?47,001) collected in annual surveys in the UK between 2002 and 2010. The results of the analyses show that although Internet access and use have increased over the period studied, both continue to be structured according to occupational class, educational background and, to some extent, age. The sex and ethnicity of respondents had little impact on the probability of reporting Internet access and were only strongly related to using the Internet for purchasing goods or services. Additionally, the presence of children in a household was unimportant in relation to both Internet access or use. While the findings differ slightly from previous studies they confirm that both Internet access and use remain structured along socio-economic and educational lines that work against already disadvantaged groups. This has remained the case in the UK throughout the 2000s despite considerable technological change and policy interventions specifically targeting marginalized sections of society. The paper concludes that policy interventions aimed at both increasing and widening Internet access and use will be ineffective unless the social, rather than technological, basis of inequalities in access and use are recognized.