Steve Wozniak’s Startup, the Woz U, or the Woz University is Launched in October 2017. Woz U is based in Arizona, USA, and it is an online learning platform. The Woz U targets MOOC & MOC market. The target audience of Steve Wozniak’s startup is students, software engineers, techies and companies that require IT manpower.

The Woz U is not a new player in MOOC market but the name of Steve Wozniak will be a great push to its brand recognition. As of now, the MOOC market is still in its infancy with projected 8.3 billion USD market by 2020.

A Highly motivated Steve Wozniak said

 “Our goal is to educate and train people in employable digital skills without putting them into years of debt. People often are afraid to choose a technology-based career because they think they can’t do it. I know they can, and I want to show them how. My entire life I have worked to build, develop and create a better world through technology and I have always respected education, Now is the time for Woz U, and we are only getting started.”

The Curriculum of Woz U

The Curriculum of the Woz U includes training computer support specialist and software developers. Steve Wozniak’s startup is career oriented. They want to train students to be job ready. These paths are meant to prepare students for tech careers that in demand by governments and businesses around the globe.

Curriculum includes

• Set of Online classes providing cutting-edge tutoring methods.
• Live interactive video tutorials.
• Live interaction between students and teachers
• Interview preparation by market specialists.
• Resume & portfolio building to showcase projects and skills for employers.
• Job assistance and sponsorship in industry.
• Job ready training, not off the shelf college textbook style training.

Steve Wozniac’s startup, the Woz U will focus only on the Art of Programming required for the IT Industry. The whole charade that a regular university gives a student (student loans, 4-year degree course) inhibits their proper growth. The MOOC and paid MOC (Massive Online Courseware) is eradicating the gap between student and industry. Steve wants to standardize and specialize the important aspects of learning. So, if you know anything about Steve Wozniak, then you know that he is all about learning. He wants to learn and he wants to teach. The education startup is a step in that direction.

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Woz U Curriculum Categories

At present, there are two categories in Woz U curriculum. Viz:

1. Software Developer Curriculum.
2. Support Specialist Curriculum.

1. The Software Developer Curriculum at Woz U

The Software Developer Curriculum ranges from Beginner to Advanced level of programming, there are 9 courses in total. The first course is Coding from Scratch for beginners of HTML, CSS, & JS. Each course target different area of expertise, like the Front end, Back End, Database, Mobile Apps, Project Management etc. There are more courses to be added on for Cybersecurity and Data Science as well.  It’s a 33 weeks course, mainly targets Startups and Technology companies. These companies always require full stake web developers, data scientists, DBMS specialists etc.

2. The Support Specialist Curriculum

The software specialist curriculum will train students and professionals with interests in networking and infrastructure aspects of IT. Training will be provided to students using simulated software and hardware installation, management tasks. The graduation period is 27 weeks, with mandatory 12 Certification tests. These tests include Comptia A+, IC3 Digital Literacy, and Test Out PC Pro. Some course module will include employer-oriented skills training for a particular company. So, it’s safe to assume that Steve is targetting online education platform pretty hard.

Placement & Recruitment Wing and K-12 Training

Woz U Placement Wing will assist tech companies in recruitment, training and workforce retention. The main problem startups and small tech companies face are that trainable workforce is scarce. The Woz U wants to fill this gap.  Steve Wozniak’a startup will provide an online platform for K-12 Students. Starting early, the students will be job ready before leaving the school. Woz U will offer S.T.E.A.M program to schools around the USA to identify the talents for tech careers. STEAM program inclusive education standard, It targets all around development of a child focusing on Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts and Mathematics.

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The MOOC and MOC Market

The online education industry is on a boom. In 2015, the market for online education was 3.1 Billion. The conservative projections for the Year 2020 indicate that the industry will surpass 8.3 Billion mark. Online education platforms, like Coursera, Edx, Udacity, OCW etc have been a massive success. A report from BCG (Boston Consulting Group) stats that 25 biggest economies will suffer a severe talent shortage by the year 2030. The demand and supply gap for talent in engineering will increase drastically. The market leaders are preparing for tapping into a potential multi-billion dollar industry which will be stable enough for decades.

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