Virginia To Produce 25K-35K Additional CS Grads As Part of Amazon HQ2 Deal (loudounnow.com)

theodp writes: Developers! Developers! Developers! To make good on the proposal that snagged it a share of the Amazon HQ2 prize, the State of Virginia is also apparently on the hook for doubling the annual number of graduates with computer science or closely related degrees, with a goal to add 25,000 to 35,000 graduates (Amazon's HQ2 RFP demanded info on "education programs related to computer science"). To do that, the state will establish a performance-based investment fund for higher education institutions to expand their bachelor's degree programs, and spend up to $375 million on George Mason University's Arlington campus and a new Virginia Tech campus in Alexandria. The state will also spend $50 million on STEM + CS education in public schools and expanding internships for higher education students.

Amazon is certainly focused on boosting the ranks of software engineer types. Earlier this month, Amazon launched Amazon Future Engineer, a program that aims to teach more than 10 million students a year how to code, part of a $50 million Amazon commitment to computer science education that was announced last year at a kickoff event for the Ivanka Trump-led White House K-12 CS Initiative. And on Wednesday, Amazon-bankrolled Code.org -- Amazon is a $10+ million Diamond Supporter of the nonprofit; CS/EE grad Jeff Bezos is a $1+ million Gold Supporter -- announced it has teamed with Amazon Future Engineer to build and launchHour of Code: Dance Party, a signature tutorial for this December's big Hour of Code (powered by AWS in 2017), which has become something of a corporate infomercial (Microsoft recently boasted "learners around the world have completed nearly 100 million Minecraft Hour of Code sessions"). Students participating in the Dance Party tutorial, Code.org explained, can choose from 30 hits like Katy Perry's "Firework" and code interactive dance moves and special effects as they learn basic CS concepts. "The artists whose music is used in this tutorial are not sponsoring or endorsing Amazon as part of licensing use of their music to Code.org," stresses a footnote in Code.org's post. So, don't try to make any connections between Katy Perry's Twitter endorsement of the Code.org/Amazon tutorial later that day and those same-day follow-up Amazon and Katy Perry tweets touting their new exclusive Amazon Music streaming deal, kids!

Comments

In my neck of the woods these are mostly H1-Bs

[rsilvergun]

Well, technically it's a different program, but here's how it works:

Already trained programmer comes over from India, goes to "school" and at the same time works for a company who's sponsoring them. Ordinarily the programmer couldn't keep up with a full time school and work load, but they've already been trained in their country. Meanwhile the programs are closed to Americans, and even if they weren't again, nobody can keep up with 40+/week at a job + 300/400 level class workloads unless they already know the material.

The company gets cheap labor, the school gets a quick influx of cash from a student who doesn't need any time from his professors. Everybody wins except the American worker who's out a job (or at least has lost 30% of his/her wages due to reduced demand, yep, supply & demand works both ways folks) and the American student who is competing for a limited spot in 300+ level courses with somebody who already took the course.

I'm gonna call BS on that

[rsilvergun]

His travel ban was upheld. And he's repeatedly shown a willingness to do thing that'll get him sued. Face it, he forgot about us. I'd be less angry if it wasn't such a central plank of his campaign. But hell, he forgot about the Carrier Air folks too. Their jobs are on the way to Mexico. And they get to keep the multi-million dollar subsidy Trump gave them to boot.