Advanced skills in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) are essential to discovery, innovation and the responsible development and use of technology. In this report, advanced STEM skills are defined by the depth, combination and application of skills needed to address complex problems and not in terms of specific fields of study, qualifications or occupations. Advanced STEM skills comprise disciplinary, interdisciplinary, transversal and professional competence. Scientific and artificial intelligence (AI) literacy provide foundations for advanced STEM skills by enabling people to assess evidence and AI outputs, understand their limitations and use them responsibly.
Advanced STEM skills develop cumulatively through education, research and professional experience and require continuous skills renewal. Opportunities to develop, demonstrate, use and renew advanced STEM skills are unequally distributed. Learners differ in access to relevant school subjects, high-quality teaching, guidance, financial support, specialist programmes, research experience, professional placements and networks. These differences affect who enters and completes STEM education, progresses to advanced levels and demonstrates advanced STEM skills in practice and renews advanced STEM skills across working life. Inequalities may continue in employment, where personal circumstances and employer practices influence whose skills are recognised, used and further developed. Policymakers seeking to broaden the STEM talent base in national economies therefore need to pay attention to structural barriers in education and employment.
STEM is a useful policy construct for connecting education, research, innovation and employment and supporting co‑ordination, priority setting and monitoring across these policy portfolios. Its use should not, however, imply that STEM is a single homogeneous category with fixed boundaries. Fields grouped under STEM also differ in their disciplinary foundations, provision costs, capacity requirements, educational and professional routes, and patterns of demand. Policymaking needs to take this into account. Investment in STEM should also be considered within the broader public purposes of higher education, including education and research across the natural sciences, mathematics, engineering, the arts, humanities, social sciences and other fields. Sustaining advanced STEM skills does not require placing STEM in opposition to these disciplines. Significant reductions in their capacity can weaken the interpretive, behavioural, ethical, legal and creative knowledge needed to define and address major societal challenges. Challenges such as improving healthcare, for example, require scientific and technological advances to be connected with knowledge of human behaviour, institutions, culture, ethics and the conditions under which innovations are introduced and used.
Shortages of advanced STEM skills are difficult to detect and interpret. Qualifications and occupational classifications provide useful but incomplete evidence. Advanced STEM skills may be used outside formally classified STEM occupations, while not every STEM job requires advanced skills. Employment in a STEM role does not mean that work requires sufficient complexity, autonomy or professional judgement. Recruitment difficulties may indicate insufficient supply, but may also reflect demand for experienced specialists, narrow recruitment criteria, pay and working conditions, geographical constraints, weak onboarding or employers’ limited ability to recognise and use available competence. Skills analysis and planning should therefore examine the causes of reported shortages rather than assume that more STEM graduates are needed.
Drawing on in-depth discussions in the Mutual Learning Group on Advanced STEM Skills Development in Higher Education, organised by the OECD Secretariat, the report presents a framework for diagnosing bottlenecks, defining policy priorities and developing effective strategies for advanced STEM skills. Chapter 1 maps five interconnected bottlenecks: entry into STEM higher education; persistence and completion; progression to advanced levels; career entry and effective skills use; and skills renewal across working life. The framework identifies where constraints become visible in the development, use and renewal of advanced STEM skills, while recognising that they may originate earlier, accumulate across transitions or continue from education into employment. It sets out common questions to help policymakers define the observed pattern, identify the advanced STEM skills, fields, levels, population groups and locations concerned, test possible explanations, select and sequence suitable policy instruments, allocate responsibilities and assess the capacities and resources required.
Chapter 2 presents four areas for policy action: enabling entry, persistence and completion in STEM education; enabling progression to advanced STEM expertise and skills renewal across working life; renewing STEM programmes; and improving career entry and the effective use and continued development of advanced STEM skills. The relevance of each priority depends on national, regional and institutional conditions. Each considers the rationale for public intervention, intended outcomes, implementation requirements and potential risks. Examples from Europe, Asia-Pacific, North America and beyond illustrate possible approaches, implementation conditions and unintended consequences of policy intervention.
Chapter 3 explains how governments and other stakeholders can use the bottleneck framework and policy priorities to diagnose constraints, identify and sequence strategic responses, allocate responsibilities and align policy ambitions with sustainable implementation capacity. Its eight areas for policy action are intended to inform the design, implementation and evaluation of national strategies for advanced STEM skills and support co-ordinated action across education, science, technology, innovation and employment policy portfolios.
The report concludes with eight areas for policy action to strengthen the development and effective use of advanced STEM skills. These areas highlight the role of higher education institutions in skills development and policy learning.