The numbers speak clearly. And they don’t lie. According to what the Excelsior Information System relating to 2024 in Italy, in the five-year period 2024-2028, the forecast of needs for workers with tertiary education in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) should be between 72 thousand and 82 thousand units on average per year. However, the reduced presence of students with this type of training will lead to a shortage of between 8 thousand and 17 thousand young people every year, despite the fact that the number of registrations is increasing. And also significantly: there is even talk of an increase of over 70% between 2000 and 2024, according to what Censis reports.
The challenge is therefore important: we need to increase the number of people trained in STEM, increasing access to this path. But how can it be done? Here are some opportunities that emerged at CICAP Fest 2025 in Padua, where the commitment of the Amgen Foundation was also remembered, which, through various training programs in the life sciences, offers university students the opportunity to have research experiences in universities and centers of excellence around the world.
Fighting inequalities
The social front certainly represents the first obstacle in this sense. And unfortunately it severely limits the dynamics of competitiveness, as well as representing an efficient engine of social promotion, providing people with technical and problem-solving skills and improving their career prospects. Unfortunately, however, inequalities weigh heavily. Here I am.
“Economic and social inequalities have an enormous weight in educational choices and the University today is no longer a real social elevator. The children of graduates have a better chance of graduating themselves”
reports Lorenzo Montali, President of CICAP, Associate Professor of Social Psychology, Department of Psychology, University of Milan-Bicocca.
“According to ISTAT 2025 in the period 1992-2022, net of individual (gender) and territorial characteristics, it is estimated that one of the two parents with a degree increases the probability of their daughter/daughter graduating by 20 percentage points compared to children of parents without a diploma”.
Strengthening STEM skills is one of the objectives of the European Commission, which last March launched a strategic plan for training in these disciplines, based on a specific recommendation contained in Mario Draghi’s competitiveness report. Compared to countries such as China and India, where over 30% of graduates come from STEM areas (CSET Georgetown 2024 data), in Europe the percentage of STEM graduates is around 25% (OECD/European Commission 2023 data).
The social elevator is missing
Economic and social inequalities have an enormous impact. Economic barriers influence educational choices. Just look at the distribution of students: in classical and scientific high schools wealthier families prevail, in professional high schools we find more students from migrant families or with lower incomes. In any case, education in STEM disciplines represents a resource for personal growth, helping to train citizens who are more aware and capable of making responsible decisions.
However, during their school career, many students – and especially female students – end up feeling “not suited” to scientific subjects. According to experts, in psychology we talk about self-efficacy, that is, the perception that a person has of being capable of carrying out a task. The underlying question is: why do individuals with initially similar skills end up choosing such different study or career paths?
An answer comes from a study that appeared on Nature a few months ago. Data relating to approximately 2.6 million children aged between 5 and 7 years in their first and second year of school in France were used: differences in interest towards mathematics – which often anticipate scientific choices – are already forming after four months of school.
“It means that the perception of oneself as “capable or not capable” begins to form very early. This perception is the result of two factors: personal experience and the way in which the context – school, family, society – reacts to our behaviors. When a girl achieves good results in an area considered “appropriate” for her gender, she is praised and encouraged. If, however, she excels in a field considered “masculine”, such as mathematics, she receives less recognition. For boys the opposite happens. Stereotypes are like water for fish: we live in it, we don’t see them. We are consciously subjected to them, but they are part of the social order.”
comments Montali.
Gender gaps exist
School and family implicitly convey different expectations for boys and girls. The result is that, with the same skills, girls tend to feel less suited to scientific subjects, while boys feel more legitimated in continuing on those paths.
According to 2024 European Commission data, Italy ranks 19th among the 27 European Union member states in terms of percentage of female researchers, just above the EU average. According to UNESCO, internationally less than 30% of people involved in research are women. Only 30% of all female students choose STEM-related fields in higher education. Globally, female student enrollment is particularly low in the fields of ICT (3%), natural sciences, mathematics and statistics (5%).
According to the Women in Digital score (Plan International), Italy ranks 25th among 28 European countries: 12 positions below the European average for digital gender equality. The percentage of students enrolled in STEM universities is 37%, but only 15% choose IT (Anvur). Women represent nearly half (49.3%) of total employment in non-STEM professions, but only 29.2% of all STEM workers (World Economic Forum, Global Gender Gap Report 2023).
“Active policies are therefore needed, not only “female quotas”, but also scholarships and a more inclusive language that makes these areas welcoming for all”
reports Donata Columbro, journalist, communicator and writer.
“Some faculties, such as biology or medicine, have almost closed the gap, but in others – such as computer science or engineering – the gap remains large. The European Commission’s study “Women in the digital age” shows that in Europe only 24 graduates out of 1000 have an ICT-related specialization – of which only six find work in the digital sector. Finally, in Europe there are four times more men than women completing ICT-related studies. The share of men working in the digital sector is 3.1 times greater than that of women.”
