A Computer Academy in France Defies Conventional Wisdom

A French school is bucking national traditions in higher education, with group projects and organizers rather than lectures and teachers. The tuition-free technology academy will serve all, regardless of education background, and offers no formal degree. Instead, the three-year program aims to produce highly skilled and employable computer programmers. Telecommunications executive Xavier Niel has invested €70 million for the project’s first decade – 20,000 applied for the first year and more than one third were accepted. “Despite a national jobless rate of nearly 11 percent, as many as 60,000 computer coding jobs are thought to be vacant in France, the government says, for lack of qualified candidates,” reports Scott Sayare for the New York Times. Critics suggest that the program may be too narrow, producing skilled workers for a niche technology market that could suddenly transform, while supporters hope that such education experiments spur innovation that lifts the French economy. – YaleGlobal