West Virginia schools are partnering with Microsoft on technology education. The plan will see faculty and students at two and four-year higher education institutions get the opportunity to pick up technology certifications from Microsoft as part of their education.
The partnership was announced earlier this week at the West Virginia Higher Education Technology Conference in Morgantown.The partnership will be with Microsoft’s IT Academy which works with education providers to further technology education and skills training.
WVNET, which provides telecommunications and computing services within West Virginia, will fund the program’s first year. The program is expected to cost $20,000.
A similar program is also available for elementary school children. West Virginia is the first state to offer IT Academy to both elementary and secondary students. Depending on how far students go with the program, they can learn basic skills such as working with spreadsheets through to more advanced skills like learning computer languages.