For Digital Success, Computer Scientists Say Look Beyond STEM Skills

Many basic STEM skills are well on the way to being automated.

But to keep expanding technology's applicability to new uses and audiences so that the business grows, tech firms have to hire people who understand the needs and capabilities of those new customers. JL

Joe McKendrick reports in Forbes:

Success in the digital economy requires more than ramping up STEM capabilities -- it requires participation from people with a variety of backgrounds, skillsets, and perspectives. "We're going to be bringing in more people who don't have deep analytical coding capabilities. To be focused on the no-code, low-code on driving AI to solve business problem we want products and solutions and technologies that appeal to the dancer and the linguist, not just the engineer. So we have to bring them in."
Organizations seeking to get ahead in the digital game and fend off disruption will need to be creative with technology – and this is going to require a diversity of skills and viewpoints beyond traditional science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) expertise. Even some leading computer engineers state that it's going to take more than technology skills to move things forward.

Some of these computer scientists shared their observations on the digital skills gap at a panel discussion at the recent CA World confab in Las Vegas. Otto Berkes, chief technology officer for CA Technologies and moderator, asked about the skills needed for today's and tomorrow's digital businesses. STEM skills development needs to be introduced and encouraged earlier in children's education, the panelists agreed. However, success in the digital economy requires more than ramping up STEM capabilities -- it requires participation from people with a variety of backgrounds, skillsets, and perspectives.
"We over-rotate on finding and developing STEM only as the solution," said Debra Danielson, distinguished engineer and senior VP for CA Technologies. "I think as we evolve, we're going to be bringing in more people who don't need to have that deep analytical coding technologist-type capabilities. Because they're going to be focused on the no-code, low-code on driving AI to solve business problems. We want products and solutions and technologies that appeal to the dancer and the linguist, not just the engineer. So we have to bring them in."
There's a strong business case to be made for diversity as well. “If you were to try and solve one of your top technical
or business challenges you could stick some white middle-aged men with aerospace engineering degrees in a room, and we would definitely find an answer,” said Howard Abrams, distinguished engineer and senior VP of engineering at CA Technologies. “Not necessarily the right one, not necessarily the best one, but we will find an answer quickly.”
Rather than confine innovation the way it has always been, “what you really need to do is get people with diverse opinions in a room with diverse education and skills in a room to brainstorm, and figure out how to best solve the problem and be creative," said Abrams. "If you're gonna get diverse skills and interests and backgrounds that ultimately means diverse people need to be in that room. That's a key challenge.”
Diversity is a real business enabler -- "it's not a fashion statement it's how you get the best outcome,” Berkes agreed. “We have to make sure that we're really developing you multidisciplinary cross-disciplinary problem solvers you know for next-generation challenges."
Richard Philyaw, distinguished engineer and senior VP at CA, urges a “return to the classical values of the liberal arts education, bringing STEM in as part of that as an integrated part of it." He added that the focus needs to be on three critical factors: "critical thinking ability, learning how to learn, and communication." Communication, he said, "is not just being able to express your ideas, it's being able to listen, able and willing to listen and then take what you've heard and translate that into how you're going to use technology to make the world a better place.”
It's critical "that we develop the right kind of creative problem-solvers, because the challenges today are complex and are going to get increasingly so,” said Philyaw. “We also have to make sure that we provide, as both industry and government, opportunities for the fresh talent that's coming out of the end of the pipeline and make sure that we nurture that talent.”
This requires opening up “the aperture of the type of talent that we bring in to technology-based businesses,” said Danielson. "Every business is becoming a technology-based business, so this talent gap is only going to get bigger. "