TCS, Canada's ICTC to roll out program for high school pupils

MUMBAI: Country's largest software services firm TCS today said it has partnered with Canada's Information and Communications Technology Council (ICTC) to develop a program to get high school students interested in pursuing higher education in fields like science and mathematics.

ICTC is a not-for-profit organisation that conducts research, and develops and implements solutions to help Canadians take advantage of the digital economy.

Under its goIT initiative in Canada, Tata Consultancy Services has been working with ICTC to develop a program to get grade 7-10 students in Canada interested in pursuing higher education in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields, TCS said in a statement.

The program will be initially rolled out to 10 schools within the Greater Toronto area starting in the 2013-14 school year, with the intent to expand to more school boards and regions across Canada, it added.

It will be led by TCS professionals and involve multiple in-school workshops throughout the entire school season on some of the latest technology topics.

In the first year, the program will target over 1,000 students.

"Building on a long history of working with Canadian universities, TCS is delighted to introduce our goIT program which is designed specifically for students at the stage that they most likely start making career choices," TCS Canada Marketing Head and local goIT Program Owner Loucas Saites said.

Canada needs to attract more students into ICT and TCS is proud to partner with ICTC to further this cause, he added.

In 2009, TCS launched the goIT program within the US to address the issue of decreasing university enrolment in careers related to science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

The TCS Canada goIT program is designed to encourage students to take up ICT as a career choice to solve the long term skills shortage in the country.

"Preparing the workforce of the future will be critical to our economy and who better to bring on board than our youth, we're thrilled to see TCS' leadership in this arena striving to be part of the solution," ICTC President and CEO Namir Anani said.

This program brings emerging technologies into the classroom and gives students direct interaction with some of today's leading experts, he added.