Technology is fundamentally changing the way we communicate, work, play and learn.  It has impacted how teachers manage their classrooms, how students digest information inside and outside of school, and how parents and administrators communicate. To continue to fuel education innovation, today, we are launching the AT&T Aspire Accelerator which will help companies and non-profits focused on creating game-changing solutions to solve real world education problems.

At the same time, the global economy is expected to have a shortfall of 85 million skilled jobs  by 2020, much of it in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM).  Our technology-driven business requires a workforce pool with the skills needed to advance the network of the future. We need employees with comprehensive software skills to help us lead this transition to a software based network. In addition, we need to reeducate interested employees so they have the skills needed in an IP environment.

Over the past year, we have made significant investments in education to help bring this new skill sets to our workforce.  Last year, we teamed up with Georgia Tech and Udacity to offer the country’s first Online Master of Science degree in computer science. In July, we announced a new collaboration with Udacity, called the nanodegree, delivered through the Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) platform for software development skills.

There’s been a lot of discussion on the potential of technology to transform both education and employment opportunities --- but it’s time to make it real. We can’t wait to share updates with you soon on where these initiatives take us!

John Donovan
John Donovan CEO – AT&T Communications