Governor Whitmer is working to bring awareness to computer science education programs across the state. She recently declared Dec. 6-12 “Computer Science Education Week.”
“From what’s happened in the last 20 years, to what’s going to happen in the next 20 years… there’s definitely a need for a lot of students to be prepared to go out there and set things up,” said Jeremy Houser, a Computers, Networking, Electronic & Technology instructor at Wexford-Missaukee Career Technical Center.
The week was put-in-place to highlight the computer industry, which plays a crucial role in our everyday lives.
“I think it is a good idea… to have students… kids… know that this industry is important,” Houser said. “It’s obviously growing, with everything that’s happened in the last two years, it’s changed a lot of jobs.”
According to the 2021 State of Computer Science Education report, there were almost 15,000 open computing jobs here in Michigan.
“Every single employer has to have somebody that can do their IT work, so it’s important that we have a lot of students, a lot of new workers, ready to go out and take those jobs,” he said. “Everything from the hospitals, to communication companies, to regular retail stores, to fast-food restaurants… they all have somebody who runs their IT and their computers.”
Houser said in the last few years, the Career Technical Center has seen a record-breaking number of students enroll in their computers program.
“I think with the way the last couple of years went with some online teaching and things like that, the students came to CTC in general just because they wanted to make sure that they were getting as much hands on stuff as they could, and that’s what we try to do in the class,” said Houser.
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