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Read the full report: Boosting Diversity in UK STEM

When Carla Aldington was young, life was tough. Growing up in Cornwall, she was one of a handful of people from an ethnic minority in a town of over 20,000. The racism she encountered was relentless. Then she found support from an unlikely source – her chemistry teacher. Aldington recalls thinking: “Wow, I want to be just like her”. With this teacher’s encouragement, Aldington excelled through college and later graduated top of her class with a master’s degree in chemistry.

Many young people from minority backgrounds are not so fortunate. Despite positive change in recent years, the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM, still have a significant diversity problem. There is an under-representation of women, people who identify as LGBTQ+, people with disabilities, people belonging to a racial or ethnic minority, or who come from lower socio-economic backgrounds. This has resulted in a STEM ecosystem that fails to reflect the diverse society it aims to serve and fails to benefit from the increasingly clear advantages that diversity brings.

Change is afoot, however. Mentoring schemes, collaborations and an increasing awareness among stakeholders across different sectors, including industry, government and NGOs, about the benefits of an inclusive workforce, are all having a positive effect. GSK, the global biopharma company, has invested £6 million over ten years into UK STEM-focused initiatives that aim to boost STEM career progression for young people from under-represented groups, including through high-quality mentoring that is delivered in collaboration with grassroots partner organisations. “We know how much diversity, equity and inclusion matters for our own organisation — from fuelling our ability to discover and develop ground-breaking medicines and vaccines to understanding the needs of diverse patients – so we wanted to do more working with partners to support the broader ecosystem of diverse innovators of the future,” says , senior vice president, Global Communications and Government Affairs and CEO Office at GSK.

Understanding that collaboration is key to making a difference, GSK recently brought together STEM experts to discuss the barriers that persist for under-represented groups entering STEM careers, what solutions are working best, and what steps are needed for a more inclusive future for STEM.

Role Models

The major challenge for minority groups is a lack of role models, says , co-founder of the Association for Black and Minority Ethnic Engineers. Many people don’t come from families of scientists, and they don’t see figures who look like them in the curriculum, either. , chief executive of Stemettes, a social enterprise that connects women and non-binary people with STEM, says the STEM curriculum is currently failing to tell the whole story and needs to include many more people from under-represented groups who have successfully contributed to scientific understanding and progress.

A second barrier is exposure. People in deprived areas have fewer opportunities to study triple science at GCSE, for instance, which is often a precursor for further study in STEM. They also have less exposure to science activities in schools and clubs. , chief executive of STEM Learning, argues that more student-facing activities and opportunities for work experience are needed to expose children to STEM and nurture their interest.

Challenges also exist at later career stages, says at the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC). For instance, research funding applications for women , from 71 per cent for pre-doctoral programmes to 37 per cent at senior investigator level. “We’ve got a leaky pipeline,” says Hendry.

Some of that attrition may be due to another barrier: bullying and victimisation. Part of the . For instance, a from the RSC, Institute of Physics and Royal Astronomical Society showed that some people who identify as LGBTQ+ do not find sciences like physics and chemistry to be comfortable working environments, and have thoughts about leaving.

Collective action is needed to address these challenges. That might involve STEM organisations linking up with industry to create mentorships that provide valuable guidance at critical career transitions, or businesses going into schools and providing work experience to give young people a foot in the door and then supporting people throughout their careers. Organisations need to come together to provide role models, share data to gain a better understanding of which groups are being missed and pursue policies that promote more systemic change. “When collaboration happens, it can be a really powerful thing,” says Jackson.

Business Imperative

Alongside the moral imperative, there is also a strong business case for industries to invest in diverse workforces. For instance, shows that companies with better ethnic diversity are 39 per cent more likely to outperform companies with less diversity.

Diverse and inclusive teams are also and solve problems faster. By becoming more inclusive, where people feel welcome, valued, safe, and supported to thrive, organisations harness different perspectives, ideas and experiences that are vital to address the complex challenges posed in STEM.

However, to enhance diversity, companies must adopt a more “youth-ready and youth-friendly approach,” says , chief executive at charity Spark!. This may mean changing the way they work. “Young people want more flexibility, more autonomy and more enfranchisement, and businesses need to respond to that,” says Lent.

What’s clear is that long term commitment, from industry and government, is vital to effecting real change. For a start, STEM organisations need industry to provide more financial support and more volunteers for longer periods of time (see The future of mentoring box below). The curriculum also needs an overhaul. The upcoming UK curriculum and assessment review is an exciting opportunity to make changes, says Imafidon. “It is a chance to rebalance the curriculum with skills alongside knowledge, and to develop a more diverse picture of science.

Imafidon also proposes having a social charter whereby diversity and inclusion criteria are built into government-funded contracts. She notes there is also an opportunity to make other systemic changes like the curriculum review, “changes that will ensure that an organisation like ours doesn’t need to exist in the future.”

For now, young people rely on these organisations more than ever. Through the RSC’s “Broadening Horizons in the Chemical Sciences” programme, Aldington received support in the form of an internship and from seeing relatable role models for the first time. “Being in a room full of chemists that look like me was the best feeling ever,” she says. “For the first time, I realised I did belong in the world of chemistry.”

The future of mentoring

A GOOD mentor is hard to come by for many people in minority groups. “They don’t see people in STEM in their everyday lives, so making the right mentor and mentee match is really important,” says Matt Lent at Spark!.

One of their recent mentees, Destiny, a year 12 student, was paired by gender with Celine, a strategy and operations director at GSK. Destiny says the matching process was great; her mentor “soothing and calming – the perfect person to be paired with.”

Mentorship structures take many forms. At Spark! it is youth-led, so the mentee brings their agenda – there’s no cookie-cutter approach, says Lent.

Another scheme run by STEM Learning provided a text message-based mentoring service for people aged 13-19. Matched with a “STEM Ambassador”, each participant could freely text their mentor over a 10-week period. A review of the scheme showed that more than a quarter of mentees attributed their decisions about their next steps to their involvement with mentoring.

There are ways to improve, however, not least in getting more people volunteering over a longer period and by ensuring support can be provided throughout careers. “Mentorship at its best is about creating that human connection and giving people enough of your time,” says Anne-Marie Imafidon, chief executive of Stemettes. “We have to build relationships and trust so that we can give young people something that is bespoke.”

Ultimately, mentoring schemes need to be scaled to reach more people, which relies on more financial support from industry and longer-term commitments from government. “People have very complex lives and situations. Mentorships, sponsorships, apprenticeships – they take a lot of investment to get right,” says Imafidon.