Microsoft announces plan to cut cybersecurity workforce shortage in half by 2025 — from cnbc.com by Lauren Feiner

Excerpt:

  • Microsoft will partner with community colleges across the U.S. and provide free resources in an attempt to help end a shortage in cybersecurity workers, the company announced Thursday.
  • The company believes it can help train and recruit 250,000 people into the cybersecurity workforce by 2025.
  • Microsoft also believes the effort will help diversify the cybersecurity workforce.
 

The STOP Award $1 Million Prize — to honor education providers that continued to perform for underserved families during Covid.

We would like to support and endorse their work in the future to provide Sustainable, Transformational and Outstanding education for students in Permissionless settings.

A $1 million cash prize will be awarded to the education provider that best demonstrates that it delivered for underserved students an outstanding and transformational education during Covid.

 

Amazon offers to pay college tuition for most US workers — from cnn.com by Nathaniel Meyersohn

Excerpt:

New York (CNN Business)Amazon is offering to cover four-year college tuition for most of its approximately 750,000 hourly workers in the United States, the latest major employer to offer the perk to attract and retain hourly employees in a tight job market.

Starting in January, Amazon for the first time will pay for tuition, fees and books for warehouse, transportation and other hourly employees who want to pursue bachelor’s degrees. It will also begin covering high school diploma programs, GED’s and English as a Second Language (ESL) certifications for employees.

Amazon (AMZN) has not finalized a list of colleges workers will be eligible to attend using the benefit.

 

Earning a Living and College Credit at the Same Time — from insidehighered.com by Susan H. Greenberg
IBM software engineering apprentices can now translate their training into three semesters of college credit at participating institutions.

Excerpt:

IBM is the latest company to win recognition from the American Council on Education’s College Credit Recommendation Service as part of its recently launched Apprenticeship Pathways project, which allows apprentices at selected companies to earn digital credentials that they can apply to six participating institutions:

  • Bismark State College
  • Excelsior College
  • Ivy Tech Community College
  • Rowan University
  • Tidewater Community College
  • California State University, San Bernardino
 

Drexel Researchers Will Develop Artificial Intelligence Technologies for Adult Learning and Online Education as Part of $220 Million NSF Initiative — from drexel.edu with thanks to Ray Schroeder for this resource out on LinkedIn

Excerpt:

Researchers in Drexel University’s College of Computing & Informatics, who are studying artificial intelligence as a tool for teaching, have been selected to join a $220 million National Science Foundation initiative to expand the use of AI technology in areas ranging from agriculture and food supply chains to adult and online learning. Drexel’s team will join AI researchers from around the country in an effort to use the technology to make education more accessible for Americans who are adapting to rapidly changing workplaces. The NSF’s Adult Learning & Online Education (ALOE) Institute will be supported by $20 million over five years.

 

‘Best of Both Worlds’ — from insidehighered.com by Alexis Gravely
The expansion will allow more people to participate in prison education programs while the department prepares for across-the-board Pell Grant access for incarcerated students.

Excerpt:

The Second Chance Pell Experimental Sites Initiative will be expanded for the 2022-23 award year to allow another 69 colleges and universities to participate, paving the way for even more incarcerated individuals to gain access to higher education.

A maximum of 200 two- and four-year colleges will be able to offer prison education programs with the support of the Pell Grant, up from the 131 institutions currently participating. The department is also planning to broaden the geographic scope of Second Chance Pell, with the goal of having programs in most or all 50 states.

 

How Morehouse School of Medicine is growing the biotech worker pipeline — from highereddive.com by Chandra Thomas Whitfield
The historically Black institution created summer bridge programs to attract students to a sector in which diversity has long lagged.

College students and recent graduates considering a future in the biotechnology sector have a new way to try it out, thanks to a tuition-free summer program at the Morehouse School of Medicine.

 
 

This Michigan school just landed a record gift for a public university: $550 million -- from washingtonpost.com by Nick Anderson

This Michigan school just landed a record gift for a public university: $550 million — from washingtonpost.com by Nick Anderson

Excerpt:

Western Michigan University, usually overshadowed by certain other state schools in Ann Arbor and East Lansing, announced Tuesday that it has landed the largest private gift ever to a public university: $550 million.

The blockbuster donation to the university in Kalamazoo, from anonymous Western Michigan alumni, eclipses the previous record of $500 million on a list kept by the Chronicle of Higher Education.

 

As school districts move from “reopening” to “recovery,” what will they be recovering from? — from crpe.org by Paul Hill & Michael DeArmond

Excerpts:

Coming out of the pandemic, these leaders thought it was time to try something fundamentally different. “We have to rethink school, period,” one told us. 

They thought schools needed to “recover” from traditional conceptualizations of schooling that had never provided all students with high-quality learning opportunities. As these leaders talked about rethinking public education, they put lots of ideas on the table, some of which they piloted during the pandemic:

  • Hybrid or blended instructional models that combine in-person and online learning
  • Fully remote options
  • Learning pods where students work independently or receive one-on-one support
  • Mixed-age classes based on proficiency level
  • Grade band progression as opposed to grade levels
  • Self-paced individualized instruction
  • Co-teaching
  • Weekend and intersession camps and instructional programming
  • Evening learning opportunities (e.g., time in CTE shops, art studios, etc.)
  • Enhanced summer programming
  • “Do-over years” (where students aren’t identified as having been “retained”)

Also see:

How Six School Systems are Responding to Disrupted Schooling: Will It Be Enough?

From DSC:
When I see the word acceleration mentioned here…it (at least initially) raises a red flag for me. Speeding up the trains will leave many further behind. And if that’s not what’s happening here, I’d say that another word or phrase be identified and used here…as many others will have the same initial reaction to this word. A PR problem.

K-12 education in America is a like a quickly moving train that stops for no one.

 

 

Why Tech Companies View the Job Search As Big Business — from edsurge.com by Ayesha Khan

Excerpt:

A pre-pandemic study shows that more than 4 in 10 college degree holders are underemployed and are likely to remain that way for decades to come. This coupled with the astronomical cost of college and mounting student loan debt raises a need for alternative pathways into America’s workforce. The current college system is not putting all Americans to work.
Jobtech has the potential to be more effective for job seekers by aligning their aspirations more directly with the needs of employers. Unlike higher education institutions, a jobtech company’s profit and survival depend on people getting placed in good jobs.

The success of these businesses hinges on securing opportunities for job seekers. This guarantees customer satisfaction, repeat business, positive margins and a healthy, sustainable business model.

 

 

45 Hand-picked Disability Scholarships for 2021 — from hyetis.com by Hicham Benali
Regularly updated (listed by deadline) disability scholarships that you can apply for, to reduce your fees.

 

 

U of Minnesota System makes tuition free for low-income students — from highereddive.com by Jeremy Bauer-Wolf

Dive Brief:

  • The University of Minnesota System greenlit a program eliminating tuition costs for students whose families earn $50,000 or less in a year.
  • The system’s regent board approved the move unanimously on Friday, according to local media reports. It’s a part of its five-year strategic plan, which also set the goal of reducing the average debt of undergraduates with loans to $25,000 at graduation.
  • President Joe Biden touted free college proposals on the campaign trail. Such arrangements have also seen renewed interest in the wake of the economic tumult of the pandemic.
 

Michigan residents over 25 without degrees can now apply for tuition-free community college, skills training — from mlive.com by Lauren Gibbons

Excerpt:

Michigan residents 25 and older who don’t have a college degree can now apply for funding to cover community college tuition costs or skilled trades training scholarships.

The initiative, known as the Michigan Reconnect program, is being funded initially by a $30 million appropriation in the state budget that had bipartisan backing from Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and the Republican-majority legislature.

 

 

A Record Year Amid a Pandemic: US Edtech Raises $2.2 Billion in 2020 — from edsurge.com by Tony Wan

Excerpts:

In 2020, U.S. education technology startups raised over $2.2 billion in venture and private equity capital across 130 deals, according to the EdSurge edtech funding database. That’s a nearly 30 percent increase from the $1.7 billion invested in 2019, which was spread across 105 deals.


Largest US Edtech Funding Deals in 2020


 

 
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