Columbus: Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), a leading IT services, consulting, and business solutions organisation, today announced the completion of its inaugural goIT summer camp in Columbus, Ohio – an expansion of the company’s annual goIT programme for students in the greater Cincinnati region. The Columbus camp, run out of The Ohio Union at The Ohio State University, is designed to foster high school students’ interest in pursuing a career in the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) fields. Since its inception, the goIT programme has reached over 2,000 students across 20 school districts in Ohio through in-school workshops.

The TCS goIT programme, which is free for all students, provides in-school IT career and awareness workshops and hands-on technology education. Throughout the school year, over 40 TCS volunteers conducted workshops and other training targeted toward introducing students to new technologies and providing IT career awareness. The technology workshop topics have included basic programming lessons and technology hot-topics such as Web 2.0, social media and mobile technology.

“At TCS, we owe much of our success to our best-in-class talent, so we have a vested interest in inspiring today’s students to discover their potential to be innovators and leaders in science and technology,” said Surya Kant, president, TCS North America, UK and Europe. “We are expanding the goIT programme into new regions in order to extend the benefits of the programme to as many students as we can.”

“We are delighted to host the TCS goIT programme on Ohio State’s campus because it echoes our mandate to teach students the technological, professional and interpersonal skills they need to thrive in a STEM-related career,” said Dr David Tomasko, associate dean, College of Engineering Undergrad Education and Student Services, Ohio State University. “The goIT programme helps foster an early interest in the science and technology fields, which is essential to motivating students to consider an IT degree and occupation down the road.”

During the summer camp, the students participated in a series of analytical and interactive challenges surrounding the IT industry and specific computer science problems. The highlight of the camp was a robotics competition, which took place on June 26, in which student teams programme robots under the guidance of TCS mentors and then compete in a series of challenges, such as obstacle courses and automation activities. At the end of the summer camp, students were recognised for their achievements at a parent-student award ceremony.

Recent statistics show that over the past decade, university enrollment in STEM-related fields has decreased by over 60 percent in the US, while in 2012 alone over 150,000 tech jobs are projected to be available leading to roughly 2.5 jobs available for every IT graduate in the United States. The goIT programme began in the Cincinnati area four years ago to help combat this negative trend and has expanded to include two additional cities reaching over 25 individual schools. In addition to the Cincinnati and Columbus, OH areas, the goIT summer camp will also take place in Midland, MI. In the coming years, TCS plans to expand the goIT programme’s reach to more high school students throughout the US.