Microsoft is working with the National Society of Black Engineers and hiring and promoting African American programmers and engineers. BETF-Blog Reader hope that the incoming BDPA leaders will work with BDPA Education & Technology Foundation to get Bill Gates and Microsoft to work at a much deeper level with BDPA in 2008.
"The United States is not turning out from any group as many of the great engineers as there will be jobs for," said Gates, who added that Blacks are particularly underrepresented in the tech industry because high school dropout rates in the Black community exceed 50%.
"That is a stunning number … the trends are very much working against somebody in that situation," said Gates, speaking at a conference hosted by the National Society of Black Engineers at Microsoft’s Redmond, Wash., headquarters.
"There will be a huge number of computer science jobs created over the next 10 years, and the number of people majoring in those subjects is falling short of that,"said Gates.
According to a study by the National Science Foundation, fewer than 6,000 of the 52,500 computer science graduates in the U.S. in 2004 were Black. "The shallow pool of skills is due, in part, to the lack of minorities being drawn into technology," said NSBE executive director Carl Mack, in a statement.
Microsoft, named by the NSBE as the top employer for Black engineers, said it’s trying to change that by partnering with NSBE and hiring and promoting African American programmers and engineers. Do BDPA and NSBE work together on local or national level? If not, this might be a good reason to do so in the coming weeks and months.
The company also announced a software developer grant to the NSBE that gives its members a three-year membership in the Microsoft Developer Network Academic Alliance. The memberships give NSBE faculty and students access to a range of Microsoft products and technologies, including Windows Vista, SQL Server, and Visual Studio.
Gates said that Microsoft will continue its efforts to build a diverse workforce. "We want to get Black engineers, Hispanic engineers … everyone that we can," he said. Someone needs to let Mr. Gates know that BDPA is a viable source of Black IT professionals.
"The United States is not turning out from any group as many of the great engineers as there will be jobs for," said Gates, who added that Blacks are particularly underrepresented in the tech industry because high school dropout rates in the Black community exceed 50%.
"That is a stunning number … the trends are very much working against somebody in that situation," said Gates, speaking at a conference hosted by the National Society of Black Engineers at Microsoft’s Redmond, Wash., headquarters.
"There will be a huge number of computer science jobs created over the next 10 years, and the number of people majoring in those subjects is falling short of that,"said Gates.
According to a study by the National Science Foundation, fewer than 6,000 of the 52,500 computer science graduates in the U.S. in 2004 were Black. "The shallow pool of skills is due, in part, to the lack of minorities being drawn into technology," said NSBE executive director Carl Mack, in a statement.
Microsoft, named by the NSBE as the top employer for Black engineers, said it’s trying to change that by partnering with NSBE and hiring and promoting African American programmers and engineers. Do BDPA and NSBE work together on local or national level? If not, this might be a good reason to do so in the coming weeks and months.
The company also announced a software developer grant to the NSBE that gives its members a three-year membership in the Microsoft Developer Network Academic Alliance. The memberships give NSBE faculty and students access to a range of Microsoft products and technologies, including Windows Vista, SQL Server, and Visual Studio.
Gates said that Microsoft will continue its efforts to build a diverse workforce. "We want to get Black engineers, Hispanic engineers … everyone that we can," he said. Someone needs to let Mr. Gates know that BDPA is a viable source of Black IT professionals.
