World Organization of Webmasters (WOW) California Initiative

October 19, 2010, — Folsom, CA. The not-for-profit professional association Web professionals.org, together with business, industry and education leaders, is launching an Information Technology (IT), New Media, and Career Technology Education (CTE) initiative to investigate why Innovation, IT and New Media matters, eventually promoting careers in IT and New Media.

 The website series will help students and parents understand the benefits of IT and New Media, and will provide a glimpse of what practicing professionals do every day. The website resources provide regularly scheduled interviews of IT and New Media professionals working in the field, hundreds of training videos and how to’s as well as IT and New Media news and information and thousands of job postings, free of charge.

 “Despite the fact that Information Technology and New Media touches every aspect of our lives today and is the major driver of the U.S. economy, awareness of career opportunities remains low for all aspects of IT and New Media topics in schools nationwide,” says Bill Cullifer, Executive Director for WebProfessionals.org and Chair of the WhyITNow.org initiative. “There is a critical gap in the talent pipeline and we know that one of the best ways to engage students, teachers and administrators is to demonstrate to them the benefits of IT and New Media careers and how Career Technical Education (CTE) can connect with their own lives.”

Website Resources include:

IT and New Media Career Exploration Resources

New Media Careers.
Web Professional Careers
WhyITNow.org

Career Technical Education (CTE)

Why Career Technical Education CTE)

IT and New Media Training Resources

School of IT
School of Web

IT and New Media Degree Educational Pathway Resources

New Media Degrees
Web Design Degrees
Web Development Degrees
Web Engineering Degrees

IT and New Media Job Resources

Web Development Jobs
New Media Jobs
Green IT Jobs
Web Professional Jobs

IT and New Media Curriculum Resources

Web Developer Curriculum
Web Design Curriculum

On Innovation and Awards for Students, Teachers, Administrators and Industry

Mobile Innovators
IT Innovators
IT Innovation Summit Series

Industry Standards Resources

Why Web Standards

About WhyITNow.org

WhyITNow.org is supported by a consortia of IT industry professionals, publishers, educators, government agencies and groups coming together for the benefit promoting awareness and jobs within the Information Technology (IT) profession.

The WhyITNow.org initiative aims to support and promote opportunities within IT by:

• convening stakeholders to establish collaboration between business, the IT profession, education and government to develop a clear, concise and consistent communication strategy regarding why innovation and information technology is good for business, commerce, competitiveness and jobs.

• developing an effective advocacy plan and implementation strategies that support IT innovation and Information Technology adoption and best practices.

• promoting general awareness of Career Technical Education (CTE) and information technology (IT) through  websites, workshops, conferences and award ceremonies.

• fostering relationships and linkages between business and industry, education, career technical student organizations and government agencies to ensure a continual pipeline of IT professionals with skills that aligns to industry demand.

• promoting IT literacy into general education curriculum to equip all graduates with these basic skills.

• Identifying and aligning resources that will assist students, teachers, career changers and the incumbent workers to prepare for the IT profession and employment.

• focusing on promoting diversity and under-represented groups, difficult to reach populations and non-traditional learning organizations including women and minorities.

• providing relevant, workable, accessible instructional design strategies for learners in traditional and online methods in partnership with California K-12 schools, community colleges, universities and Regional Occupational Programs statewide