TCS holds camp in US for science, maths students

India's leading IT services, Tata Consultancy Services, held its goIT summer camp programme in the Cincinnati area exposing students to Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) related career paths.

The fifth annual three-day camp providing hands on activities and projects that increase exposure to industry specific technologies, culminated with a competition at TCS' largest North American software delivery centre in Milford, Ohio.

Free for all students, the TCS goIT programme provides in-school IT career awareness workshops and hands-on technology education, according to a media release.

Since its inception, the programme has reached more than 7,000 students across 35 school districts in Ohio and Michigan.

"We believe that TCS is uniquely positioned to use its core IT competencies and technology leadership to address the STEM education issue," said Amar Naga, director of operations, TCS.

"The innovative goIT programme is an outstanding investment by TCS in young Ohioans," said Mark Patton, JobsOhio Managing Director for Information Technology.

By 2018, research shows that STEM occupations are projected to grow by 17 percent, with 71 percent of STEM jobs focused on computing including cloud, data, app and security.

This contrasts sharply with the mere 17 percent of high school graduates who are proficient and interested in pursuing STEM careers. The goIT programme, which began in Cincinnati five years ago, is designed to address and correct the mere 17 percent, TCS said

In addition to existing goIT markets of Cincinnati, Columbus, Ohio and Midland, Michigan; this year, TCS is expanding the camp to reach students in Bentonville, Arizona, Edison, New Jersey, Minneapolis, Minnesotta, San Antonio, Texas, Santa Clara, California, Atlanta, Georgia, Chicago, Illinois and Toronto, Canada.

With these additions, goIT will be a nationwide programme covering 10 US locations as well as the greater Toronto region in Canada, TCS said.