City discovery inc11/21/2023 “CS Starter Academy is a needed program to work toward a Chicago tech workforce that is representative of Chicago. “In order to build for everyone, we need everyone,” said Jessica Holberg, Google’s tech education outreach lead in Chicago. “This new program will create greater access for historically underrepresented groups in tech to pursue computing fields and build smoother pathways to four-year universities and into a successful career in tech.” “The disparities in CS education have been driven by a lack of access, inclusion, and clarity about the pathways into these fields,” said Stephanie DeCicco, associate director of community college programming at DPI. The program includes an employer consortium of over 150 companies - including Google - that considers graduates for relevant open roles. Students will also have the opportunity to earn an industry-recognized Google Career Certificate, which prepares people for entry-level jobs in growing fields including cybersecurity, data analytics, and User Experience (UX) design. Its goals include increasing awareness of the diverse tech sectors in Chicago, fostering belonging and interest in four-year colleges, encouraging students to envision themselves in CS careers, and clarifying the CS pathway from community college to a four-year institution. The CS Starter Academy offers a holistic approach to address these issues. However, Black and Latinx populations currently make up just 12-14% of Chicago’s tech workforce overall, an inequity driven largely by inadequate and uneven access to high-quality computer science education opportunities.Ĭommunity Colleges play an essential role in providing equitable access into higher education, however, fewer than 31% of these students matriculate to a four-year institution within six years due to barriers such as credit transfer issues, financial constraints, complexity of transfer processes, lack of self-efficacy, and inadequate support. The program represents a partnership with the City Colleges of Chicago, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and the University of Illinois Chicago, and has been made possible through generous support from Google, as part of Grow with Google, the company’s economic opportunity initiative.Ĭomputing is the top source of new wages in the United States, and computer science accounts for the majority of new STEM jobs, according to. The CS Starter Academy to serve more than 200 City College students through programs that address barriers and support student journeys into computer science and technologyĬHICAGO - The Discovery Partners Institute, part of the University of Illinois System, today launched the CS Starter Academy, a new, comprehensive year-round program to support City Colleges of Chicago students with an interest in computer science (CS) and technology while addressing the barriers they face when transferring to four-year universities and entering computer science and tech-related fields.
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