Last year, Intel kicked off a pilot program to empower students with necessary artificial intelligence skills for employability for the digital economy. Intel’s plan was to collaborate with community colleges to provide more than 200 hours of AI skills related instruction to its educators to enable them to turn around and offer courses on AI.
The train-the-trainer type program proved to be successful at Arizona’s Maricopa County Community College district. Since then, Intel has added 18 schools to the program, across 11 states, providing learning opportunities to more than 800,000 students.
Intel is helping to establish everything from supplemental coursework to certificates or associates degrees focusing on this growing area. According to Intel, only 45% of surveyed educators in higher education institutions say AI specific content is offered at their schools, though 69% believe that there is an increasing demand for AI skills.
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The coursework covers statistical data, natural language processing, and computer vision skills. It will also include multiple industry use cases incorporating the latest technology trends and practical application projects.
The three core areas that students gain are technical, social, and career growth skills:
Technical: programming and coding, data science, computer vision, natural language processing, algorithmic and computational thinking with Intel technologies.
Social Skills: AI ethics and bias reduction critical thinking problem solving, system mapping and solution building, social and emotional skills.
Career Growth Skills: career path finding skills, entrepreneurial mindset, design, and systems thinking skills.
Students do no have to have any prior coding knowledge; the only requirement is foundational math skills.
Students from all backgrounds are encouraged to join. The course also provides an ongoing peer support network for college faculty and an AI lab designing technology models in person, virtual, and hybrid delivery. See which colleges are offering this program here.
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