Comments welcome. How does this advice complement or confound how we promote STEM careers?
Sunday, September 15, 2013
Monday, September 9, 2013
Udacity's Alliance for Tech Jobs
from today's GeekWire:
SAN FRANCISCO–If you want to land a job at Google, a new industry alliance, not a fresh B.S. in Computer Science, may be the key to your future.
Sebastian Thrun, Udacity’s CEO, took the stage at Monday’sTechCrunch Disrupt conference alongside California Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom to talk about the future of higher education. While there, he announced the Open Education Alliance, a new venture that combines the efforts of online education with tech industry giants to form an alliance that helps to train more people with skills to succeed at tech companies.
Udacity’s partners in the alliance include tech industry giants like Google, Nvidia and Autodesk, as well as other players in the online education space like Khan Academy and Georgia Tech.
“So if you want to get a job at Google, if you want to get a job at Nvidia, if you want to get a job at Autodesk, come to us and that way you can learn the skills necessary,” Thrun said.
While Newsom remained a staunch proponent of California’s education system, he said that ventures like Udacity and other Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are an important part of the future of education.
“You can’t educate my daughter like I was educated,” Newsom said.
Seattle non-profit Code.org, led by twin brothers Ali and Hadi Partovi, also is making efforts to raise the awareness of computer science education in the U.S. Hadi Partovi will provide an update on this efforts at the GeekWire Summit on Thursday.
Blair Hanley Frank is a technology journalist based in the San Francisco Bay Area. He has also worked for Macworld, PCWorld and TechHive. He can be found on Twitter @belril.
Udacity announces Open Education Alliance to prepare students for tech jobs
L to R: Sebastian Thrun and Gavin Newsom
SAN FRANCISCO–If you want to land a job at Google, a new industry alliance, not a fresh B.S. in Computer Science, may be the key to your future.
Sebastian Thrun, Udacity’s CEO, took the stage at Monday’sTechCrunch Disrupt conference alongside California Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom to talk about the future of higher education. While there, he announced the Open Education Alliance, a new venture that combines the efforts of online education with tech industry giants to form an alliance that helps to train more people with skills to succeed at tech companies.
Udacity’s partners in the alliance include tech industry giants like Google, Nvidia and Autodesk, as well as other players in the online education space like Khan Academy and Georgia Tech.
“So if you want to get a job at Google, if you want to get a job at Nvidia, if you want to get a job at Autodesk, come to us and that way you can learn the skills necessary,” Thrun said.
While Newsom remained a staunch proponent of California’s education system, he said that ventures like Udacity and other Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are an important part of the future of education.
“You can’t educate my daughter like I was educated,” Newsom said.
Seattle non-profit Code.org, led by twin brothers Ali and Hadi Partovi, also is making efforts to raise the awareness of computer science education in the U.S. Hadi Partovi will provide an update on this efforts at the GeekWire Summit on Thursday.
Blair Hanley Frank is a technology journalist based in the San Francisco Bay Area. He has also worked for Macworld, PCWorld and TechHive. He can be found on Twitter @belril.
Sunday, September 1, 2013
WP: myths about millennials
from the Washington Post:
If you missed this weekend’s exposé about millennials destroying America from their parents’ basements, updating their social-media status while neglecting to address their jobless status, and rejecting marriage in favor of the hookup scene, don’t worry. There’s always next weekend. Suffice it to say, millennials take it on the chin pretty often. Some of the criticism is deserved. Much of it isn’t.
1. Millennials depend on their parents and can’t find jobs.
We have all seen the satirical cartoons portraying millennials — also known as Generation Y and echo boomers, variously defined as young adults born sometime between 1978 and 2000 — moving back in with their parents after college or graduate school. It’s true that a larger share of young people live with their parents today than did in the ’60s. But the difference is not vast (36 percent today vs. 32 percent in 1968, according to a Pew Research Center analysis). And more of them live on their own or with a roommate than in prior generations.
Parents report giving their 18-to-29-year-olds more financial support than they remember receiving in their 20s, according to a poll conducted by Clark University. But tuition and the cost of living are far higher now. The rise of the unpaid internship hasn’t helped, either.
Young job-seekers are at a disadvantage in today’s economy, but only the youngest millennials are really having a tough time. As of July, the unemployment rate for 20-to-24-year-olds was 12.6 percent — more than double that of Gen-Xers and far higher than the population as a whole. However, the rate for 25-to-34-year-olds was 7.5 percent — about the same rate as the broader population.
2. They’re the most self-involved generation.
A Time magazine cover story in May called millennials “The Me Me Me Generation” and, in smaller type, “lazy, entitled narcissists.” The story contended that self-absorption and self-aggrandizement are on the rise and that millennials represent the apex of a culture that cannot look away from the mirror.
The truth is that although millennials value and fret over their self-image, they also care about the world around them. They want jobs that affect social change, and they give what they can. A 2012 study found that three-quarters of young people surveyed gave to a charity in 2011, and 63 percent volunteered for a cause. More than half said they would be interested in making monthly charitable contributions.
Millennials also set loftier social goals than prior generations. Each year, a survey conducted by the University of Michigan asks high school seniors to rate their life’s ambitions. Data compiled by Jeffrey Jensen Arnett, a psychology professor at Clark University, shows that millennials rated “contribute to society,” “correct inequalities” and “be a leader in the community” higher than baby boomers did when they were younger.
Family, too, is important to millennials. In a recent Pew study, 84 percent of 18-to-29-year-olds said adult children should be financially responsible for their elderly parents, the largest percentage of any cohort asked.
Five myths about millennials
By Mark Glassman,
Mark Glassman is a journalist in New York and may be an early millennial, depending on your definition. He last wrote for Outlook about fines in the NBA.If you missed this weekend’s exposé about millennials destroying America from their parents’ basements, updating their social-media status while neglecting to address their jobless status, and rejecting marriage in favor of the hookup scene, don’t worry. There’s always next weekend. Suffice it to say, millennials take it on the chin pretty often. Some of the criticism is deserved. Much of it isn’t.
1. Millennials depend on their parents and can’t find jobs.
We have all seen the satirical cartoons portraying millennials — also known as Generation Y and echo boomers, variously defined as young adults born sometime between 1978 and 2000 — moving back in with their parents after college or graduate school. It’s true that a larger share of young people live with their parents today than did in the ’60s. But the difference is not vast (36 percent today vs. 32 percent in 1968, according to a Pew Research Center analysis). And more of them live on their own or with a roommate than in prior generations.
Parents report giving their 18-to-29-year-olds more financial support than they remember receiving in their 20s, according to a poll conducted by Clark University. But tuition and the cost of living are far higher now. The rise of the unpaid internship hasn’t helped, either.
Young job-seekers are at a disadvantage in today’s economy, but only the youngest millennials are really having a tough time. As of July, the unemployment rate for 20-to-24-year-olds was 12.6 percent — more than double that of Gen-Xers and far higher than the population as a whole. However, the rate for 25-to-34-year-olds was 7.5 percent — about the same rate as the broader population.
2. They’re the most self-involved generation.
A Time magazine cover story in May called millennials “The Me Me Me Generation” and, in smaller type, “lazy, entitled narcissists.” The story contended that self-absorption and self-aggrandizement are on the rise and that millennials represent the apex of a culture that cannot look away from the mirror.
The truth is that although millennials value and fret over their self-image, they also care about the world around them. They want jobs that affect social change, and they give what they can. A 2012 study found that three-quarters of young people surveyed gave to a charity in 2011, and 63 percent volunteered for a cause. More than half said they would be interested in making monthly charitable contributions.
Millennials also set loftier social goals than prior generations. Each year, a survey conducted by the University of Michigan asks high school seniors to rate their life’s ambitions. Data compiled by Jeffrey Jensen Arnett, a psychology professor at Clark University, shows that millennials rated “contribute to society,” “correct inequalities” and “be a leader in the community” higher than baby boomers did when they were younger.
Family, too, is important to millennials. In a recent Pew study, 84 percent of 18-to-29-year-olds said adult children should be financially responsible for their elderly parents, the largest percentage of any cohort asked.
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