Pluralsight One Fund Providing $1.5 Million Grant to Code.org to Advance Access to Computer Science Education
Press Release – SILICON SLOPES, Utah – August 30, 2018 — Pluralsight, Inc. (NASDAQ: PS), the enterprise technology learning platform, today announced that the company’s social enterprise Pluralsight One has formed new partnerships with Code.org and the Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA). These partnerships support Pluralsight One’s mission to democratize technology skills in education with an initial focus on strengthening the technology skills of students and computer science teachers.
In addition to the new partnerships, the Pluralsight One Fund is providing a $1.5 million grant to Code.org over three years to deepen opportunities for girls and students of color to access computer science education and continue their technology skills development beyond the classroom. The grant and Pluralsight One partnership will help enable Code.org to grow their resources for teachers and students, continue to develop curricula across K-12, expand their efforts to retrain America’s K-12 teachers to teach computer science, scale impact through their network of regional partners, debunk misconceptions about computer science through their annual Hour of Code campaign, and support Code.org’s international expansion.
“My father taught me to code when I was eight years old, and I believe every child, no matter the circumstances, should have the same opportunity,” said Aaron Skonnard, Co-founder and CEO of Pluralsight. “Educating our youth is one of the most important actions we can take as a society. With Pluralsight One, we are supporting teachers with access to continued learning and empowering students to be lifelong learners, problem-solvers and creators, while giving them a direct path into the professional world that so desperately needs their technology skills.”
The Code.org and CSTA partnerships will help provide access to Pluralsight One’s new education products. Students taking Code.org’s Computer Science Principles course may work with their AP Computer Science teacher to gain free access to Pluralsight’s curated intermediate and advanced courses in software development, IT/Ops and more to continue their learning journey. Curated by expert technologists, the library features over 150 courses to talling over 500 hours of content across four major areas: IT/OPs, software development, design/creative, and product management.
“Code.org is dedicated to giving all students a foundation in computer science to open up the best future opportunities regardless of what they ultimately pursue,” said Code.org Founder and CEO Hadi Partovi. “We’re excited that this partnership will allow Code.org students who uncover a passion for computer science to delve even deeper into subjects that our courses introduce.”
Teachers who are CSTA+ members can now access free curated courses on Pluralsight’s platform to hone their skills to pass computer science certification exams as well as gain deeper knowledge of computer science concepts and programming to train the next generation of innovators. Curated by expert technologists and mapped to the Praxis exam and national computer science standards, the course library contains 33 courses with over 100 hours of content covering everything from how to jumpstart a career in IT to UX design and front end development to Java and Python.
“Computer science teachers across the nation are at the forefront of a dramatic change in U.S. education, and through this partnership we’re thrilled to provide our members with even more resources to deepen their computer science knowledge and skills,” said Jake Baskin, Executive Director of the CSTA. “Together we’ll ensure more teachers have the support they need to teach all students this foundational skill.”
For information about Pluralsight One and the Code.org and CSTA partnerships visit https://www.pluralsightone.org/
About Pluralsight
Pluralsight is an enterprise technology learning platform that delivers a unified, end-to-end learning experience for businesses across the globe. Through a subscription service, companies are empowered to move at the speed of technology, increasing proficiency, innovation and efficiency. Founded in 2004 and trusted by Fortune 500 companies, Pluralsight provides members with on-demand access to a digital ecosystem of learning tools, including Pluralsight IQ, directed learning paths, expert-authored courses, interactive labs and live mentoring. For more information, visit pluralsight.com.