Dive Brief:
- President Barack Obama's new "Computer Science for All" initiative, included in his 2017 budget proposal, calls for a $4 billion commitment to computer science education in K-12.
- The budget proposal also calls on the National Science Foundation and the Corporation for National and Community Service to spend upwards of $135 million on computer science-related teacher training.
- The White House is partnering with companies like Apple, Microsoft and Facebook to help launch the education initiative. The Cartoon Network is also spending $30 million on a campaign to attract young people to creative coding, the Dayton Business Journal reports.
Dive Insight:
The president's new initiative is likely thrilling to those in the soaring ed-tech industry, where investment last year reached a peak high of $1.85 billion, as such an initiative is sure to require new platforms and tools in the classroom.
The plan is focused on the future IT job market, where skilled IT professionals are well-paid and in high demand.
"Last year, there were more than 600,000 high-paying tech jobs across the United States that were unfilled, and by 2018, 51 percent of all STEM jobs are projected to be in computer science-related fields," according to a White House statement, the Business Journal reported.
The initiative also works to try and promote diversity in STEM, with small percentages of women, African-Americans and Latinos taking the AP Computer Science exam, according to the White House.
CIOs are under increasing pressure when it comes to finding technical talent and find it difficult to retain professionals who can sometimes seek higher salaries and a better work-life balance at other companies.
