TechTango bridges gap between tech professionals and education
One northeast Nebraska town held a meeting for tech professionals to help bridge the gap within education.
NORFOLK, Neb. — Behind these doors at the Norfolk Area Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday, IT professionals help bridge the gap scholastically for K through second level educators to help enhance tech within classrooms at TechTango.
Growing Together, in partnership with Nebraska Tech Collaborative at Aksarben, put together the event to help further the message of LB-1112, known as the Computer Science and Technology Education Act. The act promotes computer science and technology educations in school districts.
“It’s extremely important for us to bridge the gap between education and the tech professionals because tech changes so rapidly and so the more connected our business community is to educators who are actually equipping the future workforce, the better off we all are,” said Shonna Dorsey, Executive Director of Nebraska Tech Collaborative.
The event featured about 25 participants that were split between professionals and educators, allowing for 15 minute table discussions.
Software Engineer Ryan Songcuan said that experiences like this with people from the field is an asset to keep teachers updated as tech is always changing.
“When I went through school and then started my first position, this is my first position in the industry, I feel like there was a bit of a gap between what I was learning at the time versus what actually was used by the practice,” Songcuan said.
Founder of XP Marketing Hunter Bergman said he hopes more students get involved in technology as well as pursue internships.
He said that the events give insight to what businesses look for in the workforce out of newcomers.
“It’s important for interns to get access to technology and access to that training and education,” Bergman said. “It’s important for me to be able to vocalize like ‘hey guys if we got an intern who knew like this, this, and this, that’s going to help our small business like be so successful.'”
Dorsey said that they plan to have more TechTangos in the northeast area and hopes that they make an impression.
“If out of tonight we have even one match that says ‘here’s something that we can do together that will help a population of students’ that’s a win to us,” Dorsey said.
