Developing a National STEM Workforce Strategy A Workshop Summary (2016) / Chapter Skim
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7 Alternative Pathways and Alternative Providers
7 Alternative Pathways and Alternative Providers
Pages 63-70
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From page 63... ...
These presentations, said session moderator Mary Alice McCarthy, senior policy analyst at the New America Foundation, challenge the notion of what STEM education can be in the United States. The four panelists were Liz Simon, vice president for legal and external affairs at General Assembly; Adam Enbar, president of the Flatiron School; Ruan Pethiyagoda, chief strategy officer at Hack Reactor; and Maureen Grasso, dean of the Graduate School at North Carolina State University.
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From page 64... ...
skills." General Assembly graduates about 4,000 students per quarter, she added. Enbar said the Flatiron School, founded 3 years ago, delivers immersive, intensive programs with courses running from 3 to 5 months designed to provide people with little or no background in software engineering with the skills to become immediately employable in full-time software engineering jobs in a variety of industries.
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From page 65... ...
There is close to a 50-50 gender breakdown, Simon noted, and while the students are ethnically and socioeconomically diverse, General Assembly has programs focused specifically on increasing diversity, including a scholarship program that has already produced 80 graduates. Enbar explained that Flatiron School approaches the challenge of addressing the technology talent gap from two perspectives, one aimed at individuals with college degrees who can pay $15,000 for an intensive program to turn them into software engineers.
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From page 66... ...
He noted that Oakland's Telegraph Academy looks for the same traits in those who do not have college degrees and come from underrepresented minorities. There are some qualified students who cannot afford any program with a five-figure price tag, and Hack Reactor has been working to develop financing programs.
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From page 67... ...
Examples of hybrid jobs include digital marketing and mobile developing, jobs that have risen 350 percent in number in just the last year, said Simon. "Those are jobs that if you break down the skills, it is not just a hard technical skill that you need." She said while there is a technical component in all of General Assembly's curricula, they also include the soft skills required for these hybrid jobs.
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From page 68... ...
The federal government might also consider increasing funding for workforce development, she added. Grasso said she would like NSF to provide opportunities to study how these immersion models can be extended successfully to other areas of STEM and to help prepare future faculty through programs that connect teachers and future teachers with industry.
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From page 69... ...
One suggestion she had would be to include provisions in NSF grants that would make faculty accountable for the skills development that industry needs. NSF could also carve out a part of every research grant that would go directly to the graduate school, which would then offer these kinds of programs and skills training.
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From page 70... ...
The first was the failure of traditional credentials to reflect the value of these alternative pathways and the availability of venues such as GitHub to enable employers to evaluate potential employees regardless of their formal credentials. This new model opens a space for a new type of provider, she said.
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