A Vision for STEM Education at the University of Technology, Jamaica

This vision paper articulates the author's perspective for developing a quality education system at the University of Technology, Jamaica. The vision is consistent with the expectations under a well published provision of an Industry 4.0 framework, and the future of work in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). This is built on the principle that the Digital skills ecosystem requires a technology savvy workforce that apply smart innovation with a greater need for competencies around both Cyber-Security and Data science curriculum in all areas of Engineering and Computing (i.e., Electrical and Computing, Mechanical, Industrial, Chemical, Agricultural, Computer Science and Information Systems, Networking, Artificial Intelligence, Computer Animation, Game Development). While in the core Engineering and Computing disciplines the applications for a range of different products and services are significant, there is equal opportunity in applying these disciplines with their respective competencies within the areas of Health Care, Law, Sports, and Education as some of the University's opportunities while leveraging the complete data cloud infrastructure. The future of tomorrow's digital business is now and leveraging access to micro-credentials has become our new gold standard for redefining relevance with respect to building the technology talent pipeline and closing the technology skills gap of today's workforce as a Faculty of Engineering and Computing (FENC).