Countries around the world have made a concerted effort to try and encourage more young people to take an interest in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM), with an understandable belief that these topics are vital for the competitive edge of a modern economy.

One of the more interesting projects in this field is undertaken by pharmaceutical giant GSK, who offer their GSK Science in the Summer program to 2nd-6th graders to help engage them in STEM-related topics.  The project focuses on exciting minority and vulnerable students, including migrants and homeless youngsters.

The program operates from 27 locations across the United States, including New Mexico, Maine, Montana and Louisiana.  For instance, in New Mexico, a cohort of homeless and migrant children are taught about science in both Spanish and English, while free programming classes have been offered via the City of Las Cruces Museum of Nature and Science.

Alternatively, kids at the Native American Indian Reservation in Maine were provided free STEM tuition from educators from the Maine Discovery Museum, who aimed to deliver top quality learning to the remotest of areas.

“Programming for GSK Science in the Summer™ is carefully curated to include rigorous and thought-provoking activities that are age-appropriate and tackle questions that are familiar to elementary-school children,” GSK explain. “Our goal is to demonstrate that by thinking about everyday processes – like what happens to food when you eat it or how your brain tells you to move – that you are thinking like a scientist, and this could be your future.”

With STEM something of fundamental importance to economies across the world, it’s promising to see companies taking matters into their own hands.  The GSK project is certainly interesting, but the time limited nature of it means it falls short of projects such as the partnership between IBM and P-Tech, which was launched in 2011, mixes regular public school education with community college courses and paid work experience.  It was rolled out in New York through a partnership between IBM, New York City and the City University of New York.

The aim of P-Tech is to fundamentally alter what it means to undertake vocational education.  It differs from most schools in that it offers a six year program as opposed to the traditional four, at the end of which students hopefully obtain an associate degree that hasn’t cost them a dime and a chance of work at IBM.

The curriculum has been designed with a strong input from IBM, and the focus is very STEM related, albeit with exposure to the usual school subjects such as English and geography.

The company offers students a range of mentoring and internship options, and they regard their P-Tech work as a significant improvement upon previous philanthropic efforts that ended with the writing of a check.

The nascent nature of many of these programs means that ROI is still uncertain, but heuristically it seems fundamentally good that companies are taking responsibility and trying to do good in this way.