How Better Tech Education Can Unlock a Half-Trillion Dollar Opportunity

At the Code Conference, Code.org co-founder Hadi Partovi and Harvey Mudd College President Maria Klawe highlighted the grand challenge of getting more students into coding, particularly females and minorities.

The nonprofit Code.org aims to boost computer science skills by making classes available in more schools. Specifically, they want to make coding part of the core curriculum in education, alongside reading, writing and arithmetic. A growing amount of attention has been paid to getting more students interested in STEM subjects -- science, technology, engineering and math -- but both Partovi and Klawe said the effort is too broadly defined. There are more graduates than jobs in fields like biology and chemistry, but a yawning gap between graduating computer science students and open positions. “It drives me crazy when Obama says we need more STEM graduates,” Klawe said. “Because we overproduce in biology and chemistry in particular, and then they don’t get jobs that use any of that education.” She added that programming skills help students or professionals in any field they choose. “From my perspective, computer science is something that everyone needs,” she said.