Strengthening STEM in technical education

Professional technical education in Venezuela and America is characterized by the development of practical learning oriented to an occupation, responding to the needs or expectations of the territories; it aims to promote holistic and practical learning, addressing the challenges of an increasingly technological world and in accordance with training processes based on the STEM approach (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics), creating a hybridization with the development of soft skills and power skills such as emotional intelligence, collaboration, and administrative skills; as well as the development of critical thinking, problem solving, innovation and vital competitiveness in work performance. The STEM approach is interdisciplinary and makes it possible to integrate areas that are circumscribed in an institutionally endorsed curriculum, providing an academic response and the reality of the context depending on the country in which the training is provided. This research is qualitative, since it includes the social field, characterized by the study of descriptive properties and is developed as a non-experimental field research, because the variables studied are already given in the environment and its data is obtained directly from reality. As a result, a foundation of the technical training processes is defined based on daily problems, their requirements and solutions, as well as the development of soft and power skills in a plan oriented to leadership, adaptability, and positive transformation of the territories of a practical order in their intervention, which requires training in the specific area of knowledge.