Cummins launches new global education strategy to encourage STEM opportunities

Cummins launched its new global education strategy on Thursday, molded as a holistic effort to encourage STEM learning and associated skills in communities the company touches from childhood up to adulthood.

The strategy is called Cummins READY, with a goal of “empowering 1 million learners” around the globe by 2030, according to the company.

Cummins officials convened for a panel discussion streamed simultaneously online and were joined by Cummins employees, local education officials and community members during the launch.

Cummins Global Education Director — Corporate Responsibility Danette Howard, who moderated the discussion, said the strategy is Cummins’ way “to help address the worldwide education crisis,” exemplified in part by students in Indiana and worldwide currently struggling to reach basic levels of proficiency in subjects such as math and reading.

The company plans to do so through a variety of local and global educational partnerships to support PreK through post-secondary and workforce training.

Cummins is investing an initial $5 million towards strategy-aligned partnerships with a willingness to invest more as time goes on, Vice President of Corporate Responsibility and Cummins Foundation CEO Jim Schacht told The Republic.

When asked how Cummins plans to reach their goal, Schacht said it would be through organizations with subject matter expertise and supported by the company’s experience with other strategic initiatives including Cummins TEC, Cummins Powers Women, and Cummins Water Works.

“We have been able to scale and grow these large community-facing initiatives, so that in fact today we affect millions of people in our communities around the world, those communities in which we work and live,” Schacht said.

Three partnerships announced that are part of the strategy include ones with Math Corps, INCO, and SAE International, which each address a portion of what Schacht called the “educational continuum.”

Math Corps will initially work with North American communities. The non-profit trains students in math and makes them available to local community schools. Math Corps focuses on early childhood up to the age of 14.

“They make sure that the students are proficient in math at the appropriate time, so then they’re ready to continue on either in their education or ultimately towards jobs,” Schacht said during the panel discussion.

INCO is a nonprofit that operates in 50 countries with a mission to “train the workforce of tomorrow,” according to Schacht. The organization focuses on high school students continuing up to the age of 29.

“What they do is bring STEM-related programming and capabilities to, in their terms, unlock the future STEM-related jobs for these learners,” Schacht said.

INCO’s work will start as a pilot locally in North America and then expand to a global reach later on, according to Cummins officials.

SAE International has a STEM program called “A World in Motion” that Cummins is investing in.

“What it is, is STEM-related programming and actual experiments— electric, solar, hydrogen, all sorts of different experiments that can then be brought into the classroom to both teach and inspire students along that entire continuum,” Schacht said. “Either by offering that to teachers, or by providing that to our volunteers and employees who go in and offer their time and their talents to teach and inspire.”

Howard added that SAE’s work with Cummins READY will reach every kindergarten through second grade student in Detroit public schools.

Cummins READY will locally involve BCSC, the Community Education Coalition, Indiana University and Purdue University.

The Design and Innovation Studio, located at The Cummins and Purdue Indiana Next Generation Manufacturing Competitiveness Center and also launched this week, is an outgrowth of the Cummins overall education strategy.

Crystal Morton, associate professor of mathematics education at Indiana University – Indianapolis, said addressing educational shortcomings will take a collective effort, especially when considering who does and who doesn’t have access to high-quality learning.

“What I’m learning in STEM is not just for me, it’s not just for Cummins,” Morton said. “It’s not just for a company, it’s about improving the human condition.”

She said Cummins READY may help expose people to STEM early on and help reach students depending on their specific needs and experiences, something she said is crucial to ensuring access to populations that have experienced barriers to opportunity — whether structural or financial.

Morton referenced a 2014 study that illustrated Black students have the requisite skills to go into STEM fields, but lack exposure. She also pointed to information from the Data Science Foundation that showed about one-third of the STEM workforce is composed of women and for Black women that number drops 5%.

“Black girls start off having higher confidence and interest in STEM careers than their counterparts. As they progress through educational systems, it doesn’t translate into them entering those careers, and if they enter those careers, they leave,” Morton said. “Those are very unique experiences that we need to pay attention to, because if we ignore it, we won’t attend to it. But if we are able to elevate it, we can really make changes to make sure that all scholars, all students are having those humanizing experiences.”

Measuring the impact of the Cummins READY will be done with help from organizations like The Brookings Institution and Ford Foundation, Schacht said.

The impact could reveal itself in less qualitative ways as well, according to Morton. Even if a particular student influenced by the strategy’s work doesn’t pursue a career in STEM, they still could come away equipped with foundational skills such as problem solving that help in all walks of life.

“I think it’s important to remember than you can capture that impact from having conversations with the scholars, with the communities to just see how it is impacting you as a person because that’s going to take them a very long way,” Morton said.

Providing people with multiple pathways to expand their skill set is important because not everyone today is inclined or able to pursue traditional college degrees, Cummins Vice President and President, Power Systems Jenny Bush said.

“Having a broad spectrum is important to me, not only because it enables the company to be more successful, but actually it enables us to help people at different points in their journey,” Bush said during the panel discussion “…If we just say four year degree or you’re done, I just think we miss 80% of the population of available talents and available skills that can be built and developed towards something that they’re passionate about.”

Schacht said the idea for the strategy came about a year and a half ago while he was traveling to different Cummins locations globally when he started to notice a number of small, very separate and distinct STEM-related activities in many Cummins locations.

“This is where we believe at Cummins, we can have the greatest impact and contribute the most, and then two, we believe these are precisely the skills that our learners in our communities require today in order to be ready for the workforce of the future, tomorrow,” Schacht said.