OREANDA-NEWS. In conjunction with The White House Science Fair 2016, Oracle and The White House today announced Oracle’s plan to invest $200 million in direct and in-kind support for computer science (CS) education in the United States over the next 18 months. Oracle’s pledge supports the Administration’s Computer Science for All initiative and is part of the company’ greater annual worldwide investment of $3.3 billion to empower CS educators and engage diverse student populations globally. Today’s commitment expects to reach more than 232,000 students in over 1,100 U.S. institutions through Oracle Academy, its philanthropic CS-focused educational program that impacts more than 2.6 million students in 106 countries.

In 2015, only two percent of all participants in the College Board’s AP program took Computer Science and a mere 22 percent of those participants were female. Yet, programming jobs are growing 50 percent faster than the market overall, according to new research by Oracle Academy and Burning Glass Technologies, a leading labor market company. The study (2016), which analyzed and interpreted real-time data from millions of online job postings from nearly 40,000 sources, revealed that demand for CS, programming, and coding skills is large, growing, and far more widespread than just IT jobs.

“Our latest research findings confirm that access to computer science education in the United States is both an economic and social equality issue. Moreover, these findings help quantify and contextualize the need to expand CS to all students regardless of race, gender, or socio-economic status,” said Alison Derbenwick Miller, vice president, Oracle Academy. “We’ve been working to advance computer science education globally for more than two decades, and today’s commitment takes Oracle Academy to a new apex in our journey. It’s an honor to be part of this collaborative mission, led by the White House. The potential power of Computer Science for All to change the lives of our children and the future of our nation is awe-inspiring.”

As part of the White House announcement, Oracle Academy will provide free academic curriculum, professional development for teachers, software, certification resources, and more. Further, Oracle will work with K-12 schools, community colleges, and 4-year colleges and universities to support continuous CS education pathways through a number of new and meaningful ways, which include:

  • Training more teachers in computer science. Aims to double the number of U.S. teachers Oracle Academy trains in the 2016-17 academic year.
  • Providing access to free Oracle software. Offers students hands-on experience through free software licenses for a large number of Oracle products.
  • Expanding outreach to underrepresented populations. Commits to invest more than $3 million in nonprofit organizations focused on inspiring young girls and engaging underrepresented students in pursuing STEM and CS degrees.
  • Launching innovative courses in emerging CS fields. Introduces new Cloud-focused boot camps in the 2016 academic year and expands access to Oracle Academy’s Big Data Science boot camps.
  • Connecting world class innovators with educators and students. Plans to build an innovative new public high school, d.tech, at Oracle’s headquarters in California.
  • Driving efforts to ensure CS counts as an academic credit. Expands policy push and partnerships with other corporate and nonprofit leaders to encourage all 50 states to recognize CS as an academic graduation credit in K-12 schools.