STEM Education as a Strategy to Move from the New Structural Economy to the Endogenous and Sustainable Growth Model in Latin America

Abstract

The different economic models implemented by the states in the last decades range from a simple tendency for accumulation and growth in terms of the Gross Domestic Product to the development of people’s well-being under the premises of sustainability. Those that invest in individual development through education in strategic areas, facilitate the generation of intrinsic value, without relying on the exploitation of their natural resources or on the physical labor force of their citizens, thus achieving the effective sustainable development. In this paper, we analyzed the importance of introducing legal and political changes, focused on encouraging education in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), mainly in those economies that are oriented on the structural or developmental paradigm, whose most current form of expression is found in the theory of the New Structural Economy, to favor endogenous growth in accordance with the sustainable development paradigm, using LATAM as an example.