Do Secondary Graduates in Greece Recognize the Opportunities for Vocational Rehabilitation in STEM Education?

Considering that the development of STEM education in the Western world was due to the low interest of young people in working in one of the STEM fields [1], it is interesting to study the level of interest of Greek students in finding STEM related jobs forty years after the need to stimulate it was recognized in the USA, thirty years after the appearance of the term [2]and eighteen years after the introduction of the first STEM oriented study programmed [3]. As has been noted, 21st century skills are necessary for a competitive workforce that will be able to contribute to national and global economic growth [4]. And since the schools associated with STEM skills are the ones that can lead to the development of 21st century skills and that educate the future STEM professionals, it is deemed necessary to make a list of them. The article analyses the number of admissions to each higher education institution related to STEM fields and the vacancies recorded in these institutions after the introduction of the lower admissions threshold. The main conclusion of the research is that there are vacancies in science departments even in large urban centers. A fact that shows that candidates do not recognize them as STEM. There are also many vacancies in engineering departments even in smaller provincial towns.