STEM for Growth Taskforce: (L-R) Dr Glen Christian, chairman of the Cari-Med Group; Gary “Butch” Hendrickson, chairman and CEO of National Baking Company; Dr Ashburn Pinnock, president of The Mico University College; Dr Albert Benjamin, dean of the Faculty of Science and Technology at The Mico University College; and Marlon Lindsay, co-founder and CEO of TechTrep, at the STEM for Growth Taskforce’s consultative breakfast meeting at Pegasus Hotel on Wednesday December 4. (Photo: Garfield Robinson)

In a mission to propel economic growth and prepare the Jamaican workforce to function in a digital economy, the STEM for Growth Taskforce on Wednesday sought to garner support for a National STEM Centre to be sited at The Mico University College in Kingston.

STEM for Growth Taskforce, spearheaded by business leaders Dr Glen Christian, chairman of the Cari-Med Group, and Gary “Butch” Hendrickson, chairman and chief executive officer of National Baking Company, aims to lend the leadership of the private sector to the force to create an embedded science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education at all levels of the education system, with a major focus on teacher education and support.

Speaking at the STEM for Growth Taskforce’s consultative breakfast meeting at Pegasus Hotel, Christian implored that the private sector is the engine of growth in any economy and must consider human resource not as expenditure, but an investment.

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/sunday-finance/stem-for-economic-growth_181540