By Samia Burridge, Sponsor Scientific.
Each year, In2science puts around 500 low-income young people into STEM work placements. The majority go on to study STEM degrees. Students need not be “gifted”. This work matters because STEM careers pay better than most, driving social mobility. It also expands and diversifies the STEM workforce (economic benefits) and equips more people to understand complex information and reject misinformation. The charity was selected for the BBC Radio 4 appeal, a competitive process which looks at a charity’s effectiveness. An external evaluation showed statistically significant increases in key indicators related to skills and progression. Funding is now needed to achieve their goals by 2023: They want to expand to support 1,000 students and to boost progression of their alumni onto PhD level qualifications. To achieve this, they are seeking more partnerships with learned societies, universities and science-focused companies as well as donations from the public.