For years we’ve talked ad nauseam about the shortage of qualified Science, Technology,
Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) graduates and seen numerous – often extremely expensive – programmes initiated to encourage young people into STEM education. However, a recent study from the University of Leicester and the University of Warwick, funded by the Nuffield Foundation, suggests we might be focusing our efforts on the wrong problem: that it’s not a lack of STEM graduates that’s the problem for most industries, rather it’s that STEM graduates choose not to, or are unable to, find work in scientific industries like life sciences.