Earlier this spring, the European Commission published a Communication on the European Union's strategic plan to address critical challenges in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education. A key initiative of the Union of Skills, the STEM Education Strategic Plan sets out measures to reverse the trend of declining performance in STEM skills at school, and encourage more students, especially girls and women, into STEM studies and careers. To act upon these challenges and leverage opportunities, the EU STEM Education Strategic Plan will be guided by three key objectives: 

• anchor STEM as a strategic pillar in the EU’s education and skills policy (LEAD);
• build a stronger and more inclusive EU STEM talent pipeline (LEVEL up); 
• advance women in STEM and inspire future innovators (LIFT barriers). 

The plan puts forward EU-level STEM targets for by 2030: 

• 45% of students enrolled in STEM fields in initial medium-level vocational education and training (VET), where 1 out of every 4 students is female; 
• 32% of students enrolled in STEM fields at tertiary level, where 2 out of every 5 students are female; 
• 5% of students enrolled in ICT PhD programmes, where 1 out of every 3 students is female. 

The European Commission proposed a series of measures to support the achievement of the afore-mentioned goals and targets, particularly:  

• Setting up a European STEM Executive Panel that will bring together high-level representatives from business, political or administrative sectors to advise decision makers on strategic issues such as curriculum modernisation ensure that educational contents reflect business needs and job market realities.  
• Improving STEM skills intelligence by measuring graduate outcomes collecting strategic data to better anticipate sector-specific skill needs. 
• Developing a new STEM competence framework to help students, educators and employers clearly understand what competences STEM sectors need and take the necessary steps to develop those competences and skills. 
• Working towards a European degree for Engineers, to provide high quality and relevant education to the future generations of students who wish to embark on engineering careers. 
• Supporting the development of joint education programmes (Bachelors, Masters, and Doctoral levels) and specialist training for strategic STEM sectors, leveraging the skills academies and the European Universities Alliances. 
• Propose ‘Capacity Building for STEM’ for education institutions in enlargement countries and other EU priority partner countries such as beneficiaries of EU Talent Partnerships and propose ‘International Partnerships on STEM’ to foster STEM excellence. The upcoming New Pact for the Mediterranean also offers particular opportunities in this regard. 

The implementation of the STEM Education Strategic Plan starts in 2025, through policy coordination of reforms and investments, based on skills intelligence. Coordination among EU countries will be strengthened through additional focus on STEM in the context of the European Semester (the annual exercise that coordinates the EU's economic and social policies).