Steve Wozniak announces launch of Woz U tech education platform

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak yesterday announced the launch of Woz U, which will start as an online learning platform focused on both students and companies that will eventually hire those students.

Based out of Arizona, Wozniak hopes to launch physical locations for learning in over 30 cities across the globe.

The platform will initially be centred around computer support specialists and software developers, with courses on data science, mobile applications and cybersecurity to be added in the future.

In addition to the education platform, Woz U will also offer platforms for tech companies to recruit, train and retain their workforce through on-site customised programmes and subscription-based curricula.

The offerings would also include a platform for K-12 students, which will be distributed to school districts, offering STEAM programmes to identify talent and nudge those individuals into a tech-based career.

Also, Woz U will eventually offer an accelerator programme ''to identify and develop elite tech talent.''

According to a release, "Woz U is 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 programmes 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,'' said Wozniak, who co-founded Apple Computer along with the late Steve Jobs, and invented the Apple II computer that launched the personal computing revolution. ''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 programmes 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.

Woz U 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.

''My entire life I have worked to build, develop and create a better world through technology and I have always respected education,'' Wozniak said. ''Now is the time for Woz U, and we are only getting started.''

Woz U launched in October 2017 online and with planned ground campuses in more than 30 cities across the country and around the world. With a corporate headquarters in Scottsdale, Arizona, Woz U is named after Apple Computer co-founder Steve ''Woz'' Wozniak. Woz U is ''education reprogrammed,'' a new approach to higher education for the tech industry.

Woz U offers online curriculum to educate computer support specialists and software developers, with data science, mobile applications and cybersecurity programs coming soon. Woz U has customised curriculum programmes for companies, K-12 STEAM programmes, and accelerator programmes for elite tech talent, among other offerings. Woz U is part of Southern Careers Institute (SCI).