Abstract for: Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Career Attractiveness

A system dynamics model was developed in response to the apparent decline in STEM candidates in the United States and a pending shortage. The model explores the attractiveness of STEM and STEM careers focusing on employers and the workforce. Policies such as boosting STEM literacy, lifting the H-1B visa cap, limiting the offshoring of jobs, maintaining training and a combination of strategies are explored as possible solutions. The system is complex, with many feedbacks and long time delays, so solutions that focus on a single point of the system are not effective and cannot solve the problem. A deeper understanding of parts of the system that have not been explored to date is necessary to find a workable solution.