IBM High School To Churn Out IT Pros 34
theodp writes "This week, NYC mayor Michael Bloomberg announced that the City University of New York and IBM are creating a computer science-focused school in the city that will span grades 9-14 (students leave with an associate's degree). Graduates who pass muster will reportedly be first in line for jobs at IBM. 'The idea is to create a new [educational] model for science, technology, engineering, and math — areas where companies are aggressively hiring,' explained IBM's Stanley Litow. 'If you look at hiring requirements, you won't see a huge amount of difference in a lot of entry-level IT jobs.' No word yet on the school colors or whether a uniform will be required. IBM is giving the city $250,000 to create the school, which might have looked pretty generous if that Zuckerberg kid hadn't upped the ante with his $100,000,000 donation."
The Cynical Reply (Score:4, Insightful)
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i'm the 'e' in stem and am about to grad and get a job. What evidence do you have of IBM "discarding" employees? may you point me in the dir. of some news articles or the like?
I guess you don't keep up with the latest news from your future colleagues at EE Times India [eetindia.co.in] (Electronics Design & Engineering).
"IBM is reportedly laying off about 400 U.S.-based engineers who have been working on the development of components for one of IBM's most important hardware products, according to sources familiar with the company's plans."
"IBM has publicly stated its intention to invest $6 billion over the next three years developing its high-tech workforce in India. Engineers and programmers
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You don't even have to go that far to be cynical about IBM. IBM is buying for a piddling $250,000 an entire school to train new hires for it for however many years IBM wants. That school will cost tens of millions to start up and operate. $250,000 is less than how much IBM spends in HR expenses in a single year finding the number of people it might hire in a single year from that school.
It's a huge subsidy to IBM, for which IBM gets the reputation of "saving NYC schools". Bloomberg is the ultimate corporati
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Samzenpus sleeps with the fishes (Score:2)
Good thing he woke up to allow comments on this story.
Corporations teaching kids... (Score:3, Interesting)
What could possibly go wrong? I imagine this will end up as successful as Bill Gates' ventures into education.
Maybe these tech barons should stick to computers and stop trying to play god with children's futures.
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Maybe these tech barons should stick to computers and stop trying to play god with children's futures.
I would, under normal circumstances, agree. The education of children must not be left to private citizens (except their own children), and definitely not private corporations (IBM/Microsoft/Google/Apple/Red Hat/Canonical) - If they want to pay money and help, sure. But they should not even be allowed to put a sticker on their donations, or control/moderate what kids learn.
However, given the hidden agendas and downright stupidity of those actually entrusted with the responsibility of helping our children, I
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IBM gets some tech people with only a HS education. I'm sure they will be paid as well as college grads.
Statistically they will actually be better paid.
excellent (Score:2, Interesting)
i'm always willing to support an attempt at alternative forms of education. i honestly wish i had a similar opportunity as a high-schooler.
the only concern i'd have (and which has probably already been addressed) is to make sure the students get a diploma or GED at the end of the twelfth year. not seeing any indicator on that in tfa.
IBM hiring? (Score:4, Informative)
Has anyone with an Associates degree been hired by IBM lately in the US? Has IBM hired anyone in the US lately?
There's a whole lot of laid off IBM workers that are wondering the same thing, I'm thinking.
rd
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Has anyone with an Associates degree been hired by IBM lately in the US? Has IBM hired anyone in the US lately?
There's a whole lot of laid off IBM workers that are wondering the same thing, I'm thinking.
rd
I don't think anyone with only an associate degree gets hired by anybody nowadays (at least on IT and software). There used to be a time (15-20 years ago) where you could get a decent job developing software with only an associates degree (truth to be told, most software development only requires what a GOOD software-centric AA/AS provides). But now - and thank to the dot-com hyperbole - there is a surplus of developers with a B.S. degree expecting to make $70K right out of school (and many of them with les
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There used to be a time (15-20 years ago) where you could get a decent job developing software with only an associates degree (truth to be told, most software development only requires what a GOOD software-centric AA/AS provides)
I'm from that time, and I have an Associates. I spent first ten years on PC, last twenty on AS/400 iseries.
Collectively, I know from various news reports that we have lots of massive software development failures. For the companies I've wo
Getting it Both Ways (Score:1, Interesting)
Perhaps IBM is looking to hire help that has the same skillset, yet lacks the education. Following the mantra of "you don't have a college education, so we will pay you less...never mind we engineered your education to be college-free". Why go over to India if we can develop a reduced-skillset-less-pay workforce at home?
Uniforms? What? (Score:1)
No word yet on the school colors or whether a uniform will be required.
... and also no word on whether the school canteen will serve wedges with sweet chili sauce, sour cream, or both.
So what?
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Didn't you get the memo? Look, there goes your job. Get on a plane to Bangalore and chase it.
At least it will be easy to find a school song (Score:1)
I'm serious:
Reminded (Score:2)
Reminded of how the owner of a local store chain that includes a pharmacy funding a pharmacy school at one of the local colleges; he didn't make it obvious beyond the "stick donor's name on the building" sense.
Great idea (Score:1)
Wrong country. This high school should have been started in Bangalore. Where are the poor fucks who graduate in NYC going to find work?
Bring out the clones! (Score:1)
Seriously, this is just sliding into some cyberpunk fantasy where the corporations own and run everything. IBM has a special school; these kids will be exploited as little codemonsters until they grow up and decide whether to move on or accept their predetermined lot in life. New grads are cheap, but you usually have to teach them how to acceptably code and work with your tools. Well, now IBM has that angle covered. Instant productivity!
I don't like it, but if that's your bag, I won't hold it against yo
What a terrible idea (Score:1)