As part of the struggle to promote IT skills early on and increase training availability while in school, high schools and universities are teaming up with local businesses. The goals are to introduce high school students to the IT profession, encourage them to study computer science in college, and familiarize teachers with opportunities and technologies so that they teach more computer courses. In Dallas, SMU is partnering with local TV station WFAA to target northern Texas high schools by offering scholarships for continued technical education. Teachers will also be trained in the future. If a company says 'We have e-commerce initiatives and need networking skills,' we seek out vendors who can provide this type of curriculum, and we teach it in our classrooms.
Teachers also receive training four days per week.
Others work at SMU and at HISD, setting up PCs, troubleshooting, and performing networking functions. Associations and businesses team up Meanwhile, independent associations and businesses are looking for ways to enlarge and enrich the available pool of IT talent to help them fill the steadily growing list of open positions in the industry. AIM has developed internships with companies such as US West and Union Pacific. Keith Bigsby is an educator on loan to the AIM Institute from the Omaha public schools system. His job is to build a pipeline into post-secondary institutions and develop relationships that address the needs and challenges of both organizations.