Statistics released by Microsoft reveal that less than 25 percent of U.S. high schools offer computer science classes and only 2.5 percent of college graduates have degrees in computer science; of this only one in five are women. Microsoft launched YouthSpark in 2012, a $500 million global movement to improve computer science education.
No single company or organization can fully address the computer science education gap. Microsoft Philanthropies have worked with communities and nonprofits to provide access to computer science and to overcome barriers and stereotypes which prevent young people from getting a computer science education even though funds and resources exist.
This echoes the theme of President Obama's initiative to promote computer science education. The White House believes computer science education is critical; in a few years 51 percent of STEM jobs will be in computer science.
Read the Entire Article
A customized collection of news from foundations from around the Web.
Ganesh Natarajan is the Founder and Chairman of 5FWorld, a new platform for funding and developing start-ups, social enterprises and the skills eco-system in India. In the past two decades, he has built two of India’s high-growth software services companies – Aptech and Zensar – almost from scratch to global success.