The White House is continuing its drive to steer today’s youth towards the fields of tomorrow’s innovations. Teaming with hundreds of public-sector and private-sector groups, the Obama administration is leading what is now called ‘Early Active STEM learning’ which is, at its simplest, STEM pre-school.

This drive is in response to new studies pointing to STEM jobs being the jobs of the future. The United States Department of Commerce released a study finding that the growth in employment in STEM fields will double that of non-STEM fields over the next decade. At the Department of Education, Libby Doggett, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy & Early Learning, explains, ““We know that most of the jobs of the future are going to involve heavy math and science and technology backgrounds… It will not be a fad.” School-aged children in the United States, as many note, are behind those in other countries in Math and Science.

With much attention being paid to the lack of diversity in tech, part of the Administration’s push will target children from underrepresented communities and low-income backgrounds. The notion with early active STEM learning being that it can “catch kids before we lose them from science in the first place,” explained Department of Education Director of STEM, Russell Shilling.

Groups like NASA and the Sesame Workshop will seek to teach pre-school aged children – as young as 3 years old – science, technology, engineering and math through public outreach. Partnering with teachers, they’ll try to find ways to turn the curious mind of children towards the nature of exploration and discovery of STEM.