Apple co-founder Steve “Woz” Wozniak has founded Woz U, “a world-class digital institute to help fill the employment gap for high-paying technology jobs across the U.S.”
It’s designed to get people into the workforce quickly and affordably, creating long-term financial stability for a new generation of tech workers while providing prepared hires and training solutions for businesses. Arizona-based Woz U launched today with programs online, and plans to add ground campuses in more than 30 cities across the country and around the world.
“Our goal is to educate and train people in employable digital skills without putting them into years of debt,” Wozniak says. “People often are afraid to choose a technology-based career because they think they can’t do it. I know they can, and I want to show them how.”
To help, Woz U has created a mobile app to help match people with the technology-based career best suited for them. Current programs will train computer support specialists and software developers; data science, mobile applications and cybersecurity programs are coming soon.
All Woz U programs incorporate the latest technologies and skills in high demand by tech employers, and programs include comprehensive career services, according to Wozniak. It will include multiple platforms to teach and train.
One will work with tech companies to recruit and train, or even retrain, a workforce through subscription-based curriculum or on-site customized programs. Another will provide school districts with K-12 STEAM programs, exposing digital engineering concepts to students at a younger age to nudge them toward a possible tech-based career. There soon will be an accelerator program to identify and develop elite tech talent.
