STEM Degree Essay

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1. The US Air Force will need to recruit only officers with science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) degrees as the majority of officer positions benefit from having a STEM degree. Recruiting officers that have a STEM degree are essential to the US Air Force operations and mission. Excluding non-STEM degree candidates, however, will eliminate potential officers that could be more qualified for a position. All, non-STEM officer positions require STEM knowledge, therefore having an officer with a STEM degree will make them more competent and effective in their position.

2. Having the mission - “To fly, fight, and win… in air, space, and cyberspace”, the US Air Force is highly dependent on having personnel with STEM degrees within their ranks. As technology progresses the need for STEM-educated personnel within the US Air Force increases daily. To stay up-to-date and competitive it is imperative to have Airmen that are capable of providing the services needed by the US Air Force.1 The US Air Force relies on a skilled STEM workforce to develop, field, and employ its operations.2 Currently, many career fields in the Air Force have career-field consultants to provide STEM expertise where needed. When polled many career fields stated that they would like to have more STEM-educated officers, with …show more content…

Unfortunately, if the US Air Force were to recruit only STEM-educated officer candidates this could potentially drastically reduce the number of incoming officers. Based on statistics from June 2010, 59 percent of US Air Force officers were non-STEM by DAFSC (Duty Air Force Specialty Code).4 Assuming the amount of officers recruited fall within the same range, the theory of loss in recruits looks supported. Various career fields – Space and Missile, Logistics, Force Support, Intelligence, Finance Management, Special Forces, and Contracting, would not have many recruits coming in.5 This would eliminate potential officers that could be more qualified for a

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