TCS Expands IT Education Program to 11 U.S. Cities

Indian outsourcing giant TCS says it has expanded its IT education program to 11 cities across the United States and the Canadian city of Toronto.

Known as goIT, the program is designed to provide hands- on technology education to high-school students so as to encourage them to launch a career in lucrative information technology sector.

Since inception in 2009, TCS goIT has engaged more than 7,500 students across 50 school districts. The results so far have been encouraging, said the IT firm headquartered in Mumbai, India, with goIT schools reporting a 27% increase in high school students choosing STEM disciplines in college.

As part of the program, TCS volunteers host workshops, teaching basic programming to open source 3D modeling.

“STEM education is necessary to ensure that each and every child is prepared for a 21^st century global economy,” said U.S. Congressman Michael M. Honda (CA-Silicon Valley). “Programs such as goIT provide our students the tools and opportunities to succeed and compete for quality jobs.”

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), there will be two jobs available for every graduate with a Computer Science (CS) degree between 2013 and 2023, and more than 1.4 million jobs created by 2020 that require CS and programming skills – but only 400,000 CS college graduates to fill those jobs. Currently, less than 2.4% of U.S. college students graduate with a degree in CS, with just 12% of CS degrees awarded to women.

Furthermore, nine out of ten schools do not even offer computer programming classes, and in 30 of 50 states Computer Science does not count towards high school graduation in math and science requirements.

This October, goIT will launch an in-school program in Canada, with grade nine students from five high schools learning to develop apps.

Meanwhile, UST Global, another IT firm from India, is also providing STEM education to women across the United States.