Tata Consultancy Services, a leading global IT services, consulting and business solutions organization, and Discovery Education, the leading provider of digital education content and professional development for K-12 classrooms, announce the South Georgia launch of their Ignite My Future in School initiative, in collaboration with Georgia Public Broadcasting. Teachers from multiple school districts will receive professional development, educational resources and year-round support to integrate computational thinking into core subjects such as math, sciences, arts, and social studies. In turn, students will learn foundational skills for 21^st century careers – across industries – through this transdisciplinary approach.

Congressman Sanford Bishop stated, "A strong well-prepared workforce will power our economy and spur innovation in critical sectors. We owe it to our students to help them stay ahead of the curve and prepare them as early as possible for their future careers. I believe that by providing our teachers with additional tools and resources to educate and empower our students we are setting them up for success." He continued, "I'm excited that teachers from Chattahoochee-Flint Regional Education Service Agency (RESA) and Sumter County are taking advantage of this exciting initiative. I'd like to thank Tata Consultancy Services, Discovery Education and Georgia Public Broadcasting for their contributions for making this possible."

Congressman Austin Scott added, "As a father of three, I value a strong education system that is prepared to meet the diverse needs of its students and address the changing dynamics of our nation's economy. Now, more than ever, we should be empowering our teachers to teach and our students to learn the skills and methods of thinking that they will need in their future careers. I thank all the educators participating in this 'Ignite My Future in School' event, and I look forward to seeing the positive role it will play in shaping our students' futures."

In addition to the aforementioned districts, educators from Marietta City Schools, Berrien, Madison County, Wilcox, and Thomas County will have the opportunity to apply computational thinking through hands on training modules during the Day of Discovery at South Georgia Technical College in Cordele, GA.  

Ignite My Future in School aspires to bridge the talent gap by developing relevant skills for 21^st century job opportunities in the new digital economy. "Educators play the pivotal role of preparing young people for their future, and for careers that have not yet been invented. Through Ignite My Future in School they can provide foundational skills that help build relevance and resilience in a Business 4.0 era," said Balaji Ganapathy, Head of Workforce Effectiveness, TCS.

Schools within these districts have the unique opportunity of learning and applying computational thinking through an annual free day of professional development for educators. Also, TCS and Discovery Education have launched the digital platform, IgniteMyFutureInSchool.org to provide teachers nationwide with an exclusive, cost-free, virtual professional development experience that includes lesson plans, curriculum resources, eLearning courses, and webinars. These resources are aligned to national standards, as well as the recently launched K-12 Computer Science Framework.

On a National level, Ignite My Future in School has a goal of engaging 20,000 teachers and one million U.S. students by 2021. As a first step towards this objective, TCS and Discovery Education partnered with U.S. school systems in Metropolitan Washington D.C, Georgia, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Wisconsin as early adopters of this transdisciplinary approach. Since September 2017, the program has engaged over 3,300 educators from every state and impacted more than 185,000 students.