The download: What's up in the Department of Information Systems

Three things you should know: ASU and Amazon Web Services will be offering for-credit cloud education to 10K high schoolers. Thanks to the demand for the MS-BA, W. P. Carey has launched the program in Los Angeles, with classes starting in August 2022. The One Workforce grant will prepare students to capitalize on the demand for high-paying jobs in the advanced manufacturing, cybersecurity, data analytics, and information technology fields.

Three things you should know: ASU and Amazon Web Services will be offering for-credit cloud education to 10K high schoolers. Thanks to the demand for the MS-BA, W. P. Carey has launched the program in Los Angeles, with classes starting in August 2022. The One Workforce grant will prepare students to capitalize on the demand for high-paying jobs in the advanced manufacturing, cybersecurity, data analytics, and information technology fields.

ASU and Amazon Web Services to offer for-credit cloud education to 10K high schoolers

Amazon Web Services is working with the nonprofit National Education Equity Lab to offer cloud computing classes to high school students in low-income districts.

The Ed Equity Lab partners with higher education institutions to deliver credit-bearing courses at no cost to high school students. The cloud computing classes, which will start this fall, will be asynchronous and taught by Arizona State University faculty members trained by AWS.

Students will receive college credit from Arizona State for completing the classes and will be able to earn an AWS certification. The effort aims to reach more than 10,000 high school students.

Top-ranked W. P. Carey master’s degree in business analytics expands to downtown Los Angeles

Created in 2013, the W. P. Carey Master of Science in Business Analytics (MS-BA) has attracted thousands of students from across the country and around the world due to its market-driven curriculum and excellent reputation.

Because of the success of the demand for the MS-BA, W. P. Carey has launched the program in Los Angeles, with classes starting in August 2022. The program’s new home is in ASU’s California Center in the historic Los Angeles Herald Examiner Building. The building was commissioned by William Randolph Hearst and completed in 1914, and will house a number of ASU schools, as well as collaboration and event space. Next fall, the school will also launch the master’s degree in accountancy and data analytics in Los Angeles; more details will be coming soon.

“As we expand the program to offer a solution for students in Southern California that is not only closer to home but also designed to accommodate the busy schedules of working professionals, we’re extremely proud of what the MS-BA has achieved so far and excited about its future in downtown L.A.,” says Amy Ostrom, interim dean of the W. P. Carey School of Business and the PetSmart Chair in Services Leadership.

The 12-month MS-BA in L.A. is delivered on a flexible weekly schedule. Students take classes on Wednesdays from 6 to 10 p.m. (Pacific time) via ASU Sync, a fully interactive remote learning modality that includes live lectures via Zoom.

Every quarter, classes will also meet in person at the ASU California Center on two consecutive Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. (in August, October, January, March, and June). Students will have the freedom to complete coursework independently, while also building essential collaboration and communication skills, through a combination of virtual and in-person learning.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, demand for data scientists is expected to grow 15% by the end of the decade, much faster than the average for all occupations. MS-BA students in Los Angeles can capitalize on this demand and, with additional support from W. P. Carey Career Management and Employer Engagement, connect with hiring firms in California and nationwide to elevate their careers. Visit wpcarey.asu.edu/msba-la to learn more.

Upskill or reskill to get ahead through a DOL grant

An $8 million grant from the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) can help provide the skills necessary to fill the 6.4 million job openings reported in the United States.

At W. P. Carey, the One Workforce grant will prepare students to capitalize on demand for high-paying jobs in the advanced manufacturing, cybersecurity, data analytics, and information technology fields. Also known as AZNext, the Arizona Workforce Training Accelerator Partnership for Next Generation Jobs program, aims to train at least 2,000 participants for permanent job placement during the next four years.

W. P. Carey collaborated with the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering, the New College of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences, and several external partners for the grant, including the Arizona Commerce Authority, the Arizona Technology Council, Arizona@Work, and Pipeline AZ.

“The grant program enables ASU to help the unemployed and underemployed find meaningful careers in fast-paced industries,” says Raghu Santanam, professor of information systems who leads the AZNext program. “It will also create career opportunities for underrepresented populations in technology-focused industries.”

AZNext is designed to use a combination of multidisciplinary and industry-relevant training, with multiple insertion points for degree-seeking or non-degree-seeking learners. AZNext will leverage programming from many colleges at ASU, and the external partners will be able to design innovative programs, including paid internships, train-to-hire camps, boot camps, and simulated work experiences. AZNext will also build on another grant-funded program through W. P. Carey: The Digital Workforce Apprenticeship Partnership was established through the business school’s first DOL grant to help close the skills gap in America’s IT workforce.

The Polytechnic campus in Mesa will host advanced manufacturing education, while the West campus will train students in the fields of biological data science and cybersecurity.

AZNext will also help W. P. Carey build on partnerships that already exist — like the train-to-hire program model with Fortune 500 company Cognizant, which began in 2019 and allows participants to complete a digital business analyst certificate program through W. P. Carey in 10 weeks, while potentially landing an opportunity to interview with Cognizant after completion.

Arizona ranks second in the U.S. when it comes to creating jobs in advanced manufacturing, cybersecurity, and information technology, and has filled more than 350,000 related positions since 2015. One of the many goals of AZNext is to build a workforce development model that not only works in Arizona but across the United States.

To upskill or reskill through AZNext, visit wpcarey.asu.edu/aznext. To become an industry partner on the workforce development initiative, email Raghu.Santanam@asu.edu.