Lenovo, IBM Partner on IT Education Program for High Schools

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As the need for more IT workers becomes more and more dire, major vendors are making efforts to seed the industry with trained technology staff by reaching out to potential candidates in high school.

Lenovo recently announced an effort with the National Academy Foundation to launch a program to help high schoolers learn mobile app development in the U.S. Last year IBM in partnership with the City of New York kicked off a new school to teach kids IT skills and graduate them with a free associate s degree. And a New York-based venture capitalist along with a group of industry supporters has contributed to the creation of a new high school to teach software engineering in the city.

On Jan. 24, Lenovo and the National Academy Foundation (NAF) launched an innovative program to teach mobile app development to high school students across the United States. Five schools from NAF s network of career academies are piloting the program as part of Lenovo’s initiative to encourage greater student interest in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) subjects.

North Carolina governor Bev Perdue and members of Lenovo and NAF’s executive leadership team announced the joint effort at Apex High School’s Academy of Information Technology in Apex, N.C., one of the participating schools.

“High-tech skills are critical for North Carolina’s pipeline of future workers,” Perdue said in her remarks. “Unique partnerships like this one not only give high school students real-world, real-time learning opportunities, but they align with the broader goals of business, education and government to create North Carolina’s next generation of professional leaders.”

To aid the students and teachers implement the curriculum, Lenovo provided a package of technology products to each school, including Android-based ThinkPad Tablets and large format ThinkCentre HD All-in-One desktops, among other items.

“To succeed in tomorrow’s workforce, students need a solid foundation in science, technology, engineering and mathematics with fluency in the technologies that will power the global economy,” said Michael Schmedlen, worldwide director of education at Lenovo, in a statement. “This exciting program engages students via the technology and apps they use every day. By partnering with the National Academy Foundation, we re delivering a rigorous and relevant curriculum that will help create our next generation of developers and entrepreneurs.”

The other schools that will offer the app development course are part of the National Academy Foundation’s Academies of Information Technology: Grover Cleveland High School in New York City, Downtown Magnets High School in Los Angeles, Pathways to Technology Magnet School in Hartford, Conn., and A.J. Moore Academy of Information and Technology in Waco, Texas. The program aims to ultimately make the curriculum available to NAF’s 100 Academies of Information Technology. 

"Our schools are strong because we have great partnerships with business and industry,” said Anthony J. Tata, superintendent of North Carolina’s Wake County Public School System, in a statement. “This unique program gives our students practical experience with innovative technology at a time when they’re making decisions about their future careers. We’re creating the next generation of entrepreneurs."

The course is designed to be implemented as either a 12-week after-school or out-of-school time activity to supplement the NAF-developed IT courses students take during the school day or as part of the existing NAF daytime curriculum. Student teams will develop a working wireframe, business plan and implementation schedule for an Android-based mobile application.

To read the original eWeek article, click here: Lenovo, IBM Look to High Schools for Future IT Workers

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