NEF Cyberlearning Offers $1 Million in STEM Grants to Schools Across the United States; Interested Applicants Should Apply by November 28th
(PRWEB) November 22, 2013 -- There is a growing emphasis on creating partnerships between students, teachers, organizations and businesses to help foster STEM fields, this emphasis is echoed by the National Education Foundation’s Adopt-A-School initiative and demonstrated by its partnership with TEKsystems.
NEF is looking for corporations who will answer that call to support STEM initiatives in schools. This initiative saves corporations over $1 million dollars in training. The initiative provides top-quality training, using online courses and online live teachers, in IT, business and management to businesses at a fee that is 80% below market fee, and utilizes the funds ($190 per employee) paid by businesses to set up a free world-class STEM+ academy for students in a school chosen by a business. Businesses can choose from 5,500 CyberLearning courses including 60 much-in-demand IT, Business and Project Management certifications. With programs successfully operating in Pennsylvania, Texas, California, Washington and Virginia, the Foundation has decided to offer $1 million in grants for any interest school or district.
The program affords businesses save on annual training costs, and receive enormous CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) and PR credits, effect social change in America’s classrooms. Schools get world-class STEM+ academies, and the students receive world-class individualized STEM + education, capable of advancing a student in a subject like math in 20-30 learning hours.
In recent years many school districts have had to significantly scale back the programs and opportunities offered to their students. One such program is access to STEM pipelines for student to explore science and mathematics as well as teacher STEM training. STEM skills are at the forefront of the discussion in America’s halls of education. NEF Cyberlearning announces its Adopt-a-School grant initiative that provides STEM grants for local schools and districts.
The need for STEM skills is elevated in today’s global economy. Innovations in technology has heightened the demand for a STEM capable workforce; despite this high demand the US is following short in producing an ample supply of workers to meet demand. "According to the U.S. Labor Department, US alone has 13 million people looking for jobs. At the same time, US has 3 million jobs looking for qualified skilled people,” states Dr. Kuttan.
The National Education Foundation in its efforts to provide STEM Academies has found that many school districts’ budget does not afford the opportunity to implement adequate STEM educational resources. NEF has created an innovative program, CyberLearning platform that addresses the financial concerns of school districts. The Adopt-a-school program is a great way to bridge the gap between businesses and non-profits. This private-public partnership creates a working relationship that can bring about a social change, specifically provide STEM education resources to disadvantaged schools. The vision of the program is to train a million employees in job skills below the market fee, and use the funds to provide world-class STEM education to a million students of schools adopted or chosen by the businesses/employers.
Businesses save on annual training costs, and receive enormous CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) and PR credits, effect social change in America’s classrooms. Schools get world-class STEM+ academies, and the students receive world-class individualized STEM + education, capable of advancing a student in a subject like math in 20-30 learning hours.
NEF Chairman, Dr. Appu Kuttan states, “America is ranked 25th out of 35 countries in math and science. To compete in the global economy, our students need better STEM skills. Our initiative is aimed at preparing our students better for college and STEM-related jobs, while helping to improve worker productivity in our businesses.”
This national initiative is a win-win-win program for businesses, schools and students throughout the US. This public-private partnership provides schools world-class Academies at no cost to the schools! The program has been lauded by the US Congress and the US Department of Education as an innovative approach to bridging the 21st century academic and job skills divides.
About NEF
The National Education Foundation (NEF) is the national non-profit leader in bridging the academic and job skills divides by providing world-class education in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math), English, test prep, digital literacy, IT, business and management to millions of disadvantaged students and adults. See: http://www.cyberlearning.org.
Appu Kuttan, Cyber Learning, http://www.cyberlearning.org, +1 (703) 823-9999, [email protected]
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