OREANDA-NEWS. June 18, 2012. Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), a leading IT services, consulting and business solutions organisation, today announced the completion of its 4th annual goIT summer camp in the greater Cincinnati, Ohio region. The camp is a culmination of the company’s goIT programme to engage students with technology in an effort to garner interest in pursuing Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) related careers. The camp, run out of TCS’s flagship North American software delivery center in Milford, Ohio, is focused on technology education, teamwork and global citizenship. Since its inception, the goIT programme has reached out to over 1,700 students across 20 Ohio school districts through in-school workshops.

The TCS goIT programme, which is free for all students, provides in-school IT career and awareness workshops and hands-on technology education. Throughout the school year, over 40 TCS volunteers conducted workshops and other training targeted toward introducing students to new technologies and providing IT career awareness. The technology workshop topics have included basic programming lessons and technology hot-topics such as web 2.0, social media and mobile technology.

“TCS believes that an essential ingredient for vibrant, sustainable communities is a strong commitment to improving education, specifically the quality of and access to technology-related educational resources for students,” said Surya Kant, president, TCS North America, UK and Europe. “Today, fewer students are enrolling into technology-related degrees than ever before, at a time when these skills are most in demand. To help curb this trend, TCS’s goIT programme seeks to engage and inspire high school students to pursue careers in science and technology.”

“I proudly support this technology programme because it teaches students about the career prospects available in this growing field. In addition, I hope that this programme as well as TCS will help turn Ohio into a leader in technology throughout the United States,” said state representative Joe Uecker.

“Universities across the country have seen an alarming decline in students seeking degrees in STEM-related fields over the last decade, and these are precisely the career fields that will offer the greatest opportunities for our next generation of workers,” said Santa Jeremy Ono, senior vice president for academic affairs and provost at the University of Cincinnati. “Getting today’s generation of learners excited about science and technology is critical to our nation’s future competitiveness on the world stage and programmes like TCS’s goIT are an extremely valuable contribution to this goal.”

During the summer camp, students participate in a series of analytical and interactive challenges surrounding the IT industry and specific computer science problems. The highlight of the camp is a robotics competition which took place on June 13, in which student teams programme robots under the guidance of TCS mentors and then compete in a series of challenges, such as obstacle courses and automation activities. At the end of the summer camp, students are recognised for their achievements at a parent-student award ceremony.

Recent statistics show that over the past decade, university enrollment in STEM-related fields has decreased by over 60 percent in the US, while in 2012 alone over 150,000 tech jobs are projected to be available leading to roughly 2.5 jobs available for every IT graduate in the United States. The goIT programme began in the Cincinnati area four years ago to help combat this negative trend and has expanded to include two additional cities, reaching over 25 individual schools. In addition to the Cincinnati area, goIT summer camps will also take place this year in Columbus, Ohio and Midland, Michigan. In the coming years, TCS plans to expand the goIT programme’s reach to more high school students throughout the US.