East London Kids To Be Offered Training Loans To Learn Coding. A new digital skills training fund will be piloted in the U.K. in January which will offer loans to non-graduate young people from East London with the dual aim of tackling the ongoing U.K. tech skills shortage while also addressing a socio-economic gap that tech risks exacerbating.
The fund, called the Tech City Fellowship, will offer educational loans of up to £11,600 per student to non-graduate 18 to 25 year olds to pay for a place on a training course that teaches software developer skills. The 12-week coding bootcamp course in question is being run by Makers Academy, one of the collaborating partners for the Fellowship. The loan breaks down into £8,000 to cover course fees and £1,200 per month living costs for the duration of the course. Students completing Makers Academy’s bootcamp will then be guaranteed either junior developer jobs or internships, as part of the Fellowship program. It’s also not clear at this point what the Fellowship’s loan repayment terms will look like. Mattel Pulls Sexist Barbie Book “I Can Be A Computer Engineer” Off Amazon. The makers of Barbie seem to apologize A LOT for underestimating young women.
This time the Internet’s buzzing over a pretty cringe-worthy Barbie book, “I Can Be A Computer Engineer,” published out of Random House. Barbie is featured in the book as a stylishly pink-clad computer engineer that somehow breaks everything and doesn’t know how to code. She does draw puppies though. This lady hacker needs the help of two dudes named Steve and Brian to do the real programming work cuz she’s just, “creating design ideas.” Ha ha ha…what? In another section, a supposedly intelligent engineer Barbie (who should be familiar enough with technology not to do this) puts her flash drive into Skipper’s laptop and accidentally infects it with a virus.
Don’t worry, Steve and Brian are here to save everything. All the outrage over this book caught Mattel’s attention and it appears they’ve since pulled the book off Amazon. Mattel came up with Totally Tattoos Barbie in 2009, complete with tramp stamp. Free Wi-FI is Transforming Life in Africa. Ruckus Wireless is calling 2014 the “watershed year” for Wi-Fi, with the company predicting the number of hotspots across the world will increase to 5.8 million by next year, an increase of 350 per cent from the number in 2011.
In Africa, the trend is towards providing citizens with free Wi-Fi in order to boost economic activity and education, in line with McKinsey’s projection that if internet penetration grows in the same way as that of mobile phones on the continent, it could contribute as much as 10 per cent – $300 billion – of the continent’s total GDP by 2025. The provision of free Wi-Fi is becoming a continent-wide trend. In Kenya, the county of Nakuru is offering residents free access through a partnership between the State House Digital Team and the county government, at the reported cost of US$2 million. Rwanda’s Smart Kigali initiative provides designated free Wi-Fi hotspots around the capital. Better living through Wi-Fi “Without government, it’s impossible. Watergate Editor Ben Bradlee Dies at 93. WASHINGTON — In a charmed life of newspapering, Ben Bradlee seemed always to be in just the right place.
The raspy-voiced, hard-charging editor who invigorated The Washington Post got an early break as a journalist thanks to his friendship with one president, John F. Kennedy, and became famous for his role in toppling another, Richard Nixon, in the Watergate scandal. Bradlee died at home Tuesday of natural causes, the Post reported. He was 93. Ever the newsman and ever one to challenge conventional wisdom, Bradlee imagined his own obituary years earlier and found something within it to quibble over.
"Bet me that when I die," he wrote in his 1995 memoir, "there will be something in my obit about how The Washington Post 'won' 18 Pulitzer prizes while Bradlee was editor. " 5 Ways to Find Jobs at Companies Focused on Social Good. According to a 2014 international survey by Deloitte, 50% of millennials want to work for a business with ethical practices.
The findings suggest that many within the generation believe the success of a business should be measured by more than just profits — including how the company contributes to improving society as a whole. This is no surprise, given the influence of well known companies like TOMS and The Honest Company, which have helped pave the way for corporate social responsibility efforts. Other smaller, lesser known companies like HVAC.com and Campaign Monitor are also doing their part to improve the lives of those less fortunate. These ethically focused companies help foster one of the most admirable priorities of our youth: Not only is it important to find a great job, but also to find and network with companies and people that allow you to make an impact. Below are some ways to identify and network with those companies.
Join relevant conversations online Amit Chauhan. Google Science Fair Winners Take on World Hunger, Other Global Problems.