Earlier this year, at the Independent Public Schools (IPS) alliance leadership day in Brisbane, Principals were joined by Professor Hugh Williams, the CEO of CS in Schools. He spoke about the national shortage of computing professionals and the role that schools can play in helping address that lap.
Hugh is a former Google, Microsoft, and eBay executive who spent much of his career in the United States, and is now working on a free Australian program to build industry connections with schools, provide complete Digital Technology pathways for all secondary students, and support teachers in their ongoing professional development.
CS in Schools has a unique model that pairs a volunteer computing professional with a secondary teacher, and brings the industry professional into the classroom to support teachers in their ongoing professional development. In 2020, around 60 Australian teachers are participating in the program from 27 school campuses, and more than 4,000 students have learnt to code this year through their work. The program is expanding nationally in 2021.
We are pleased to share that we are partnering with CS in Schools next year, and introducing their industry-led coding course to our Year 7 students in 2021. If you are a computing professional and would like to volunteer in one of our classrooms, CS in Schools is actively recruiting volunteer computing professionals to support our school. You can learn more about volunteering at https://csinschools.com/volunteer/ and you can express your interest at https://csinschools.com/apply/
Please submit your applications ASAP
We are excited to be part of the CS in Schools program and look forward to sharing more about the program next year.
