This paper aims to raise awareness of the importance of education in economic growth and not just education in general, but mainly of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) education. Such signals are always useful, in order to align ourselves with other countries that have already acquired experience in implementing STEM education and can measure positive effects for the economy. The present research proposes to approach STEM education through the perspective of the most effective strategies applied so far in various regions of the world and that can be adapted to the Romanian reality. This is also useful for the steps needed to implement the recently adopted project "Educated Romania" (2021), which essentially aims to support education based on STEM competencies. The micro-research in the second part of the paper is a quantitative one that verifies whether there is, at the population level of parents in general, an awareness of STEM education competencies. It was investigated in what extent people are familiar with STEM education, if they can describe it and how interested would be to encourage their children to learn science, technical subjects, engineering and math skills. Moreover, the respondents' perception regarding the impact that such an approach would have on the economic development of a country was questioned.