New Brunswick-based Brilliant Labs getting $400,000 from the provincial government for STEM school programs.
The provincial government Monday announced $400,000 in funding aimed at getting Newfoundland and Labrador students computer coding.
The Department of Tourism, Culture, Industry and Innovation is providing $250,000 for the non-profit Brilliant Labs to provide students with “hands-on participation” in activities focused on science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).
Brilliant Labs is based in New Brunswick, but the work will be done by employees based in Newfoundland.
Meanwhile, the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development is spending $150,000 on school resources, including two mobile teaching positions to support Brilliant Labs’ work teaching coding — essentially, computer programming — to students.
The funding is an important step in equipping students for the jobs of the future, said Kendra MacDonald, chair and acting CEO of the Newfoundland and Labrador Association of Technology Industries, at a press conference at Elizabeth Park Elementary School on Monday morning.
“Technology and certainly coding is a language that’s as important to learn as English in terms of our school system,” she said. “We simply don’t have it right now, accessible to all.”
Source:CBC News