STEMfluencers Bring Industry into the Classroom

Only a small proportion of Belgian students choose a STEM, or technical, field of study. This is a problem, because Belgium does have a great deal of industry and there is strong market demand for graduates in these disciplines. That is why essenscia launched the STEMfluencers initiative two years ago, in which young technical professionals from industry visit secondary schools to promote their profession.

Yannick Engelmann, Sari Walscharts and Maja Vanhalle are among these STEMfluencers. According to Engelmann, it is very difficult for teenagers to get a sense of what industry actually does. His employer Evonik is keen to promote the profession. Engelmann studied chemistry, and even then it remained unclear for years what a job in industry actually involves. ‘It stays a question mark for pupils. I want to show them what kind of job it is, what the mentality is like, and what collaborations exist.’

Lighting up Paris

The STEMfluencers focus specifically on the first two years of secondary school. The speakers receive thorough preparation from essenscia, says Engelmann. ‘We first attended a workshop on how to keep pupils of that age engaged. They also came up with original suggestions for experiments you can demonstrate — nothing as standard as elephant toothpaste.’ Walscharts, who works as a process engineer at Ineos Inovyn, is equally enthusiastic. ‘I want to show that industry is closely connected to their everyday lives and that it isn’t as dull and theoretical as they think.’

Vanhalle works at Borealis Polymers as a patent attorney and had a passion for experiments from an early age, though she only discovered at secondary school that this was called chemistry. Her teacher conveyed that passion to pupils brilliantly, she says. ‘I want to inspire young people in the same way and show them how much we need chemistry. Borealis, for instance, makes plastics used to manufacture subsea power cables. When I explain that a single cable like that can light up the whole of Paris, you can see the light switch on in their faces too.’

The three STEMfluencers noticed one clear similarity between all the classes they visited: they all wanted to know how much money they would earn. ‘The pupils are very interested in that. But beyond an engaging job with attractive remuneration, the chemical industry also paves the way towards a better future — and that is what we want to show,’ says Walscharts.