SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., Oct. 05, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- In response to CBS News’ story airing on CBS This Morning, Woz U co-founder Steve Wozniak, has stated the following:
The opinions expressed, and comments made during the story are matters that we do not take lightly. At Woz U, we devise our programs to teach all of our students the skillset to enter the technology industry workforce. We strive to provide a superior student experience, so it’s unfortunate to learn that we did not meet the expectations of some individuals. It’s a concern and disappointment whenever a student doesn’t have a valuable experience in our programs to advance their education. We continue to build upon our education ecosystem so that it will positively impact individuals to start a tech-based career, based on the ongoing dialogue we have with students about their experience. While I am not involved in the day-to-day operations, as co-founder and board member, I meet with our curriculum team to advise them on my education philosophy and vision for the future of tech-based career training. I’ve been discussing the concerns with the curriculum content that were expressed in the story with executives at Woz U, who have assured me that procedures were put in place months ago to address the review and distribution of content before it’s available to students.
Further, Woz U president Chris Coleman, has stated the following:
Student feedback is vital to us as we have developed our programs throughout the first year of Woz U and as we continue to refine the curriculum for our programs to enhance the learning experience for students. We have proceeded to address concerns during the early-stages of the company and have rectified them with improvements to our course offerings. Our feedback to CBS News provided further insights in our operations and practices that were not shared with the audience in their story.
As a startup company, we are continually adjusting and refining the processes by which the curriculum is made available to learners through our system. As part of our process to develop curriculum, the education team at Woz U assembles an advisory board of regional businesses that will hire learners being trained by our content to determine skill gaps needed for positions that are in high-demand. Once these are determined, our experienced curriculum staff members manage the program creation. The education team then sources for Subject Matter Experts (SME) currently working in the industry to create the outlines, objective, syllabi, activities and content of each course. Initially we had the SME’s entering their content directly into the learning management system, which created some errors. Upon our inception, we implemented a quality control process with steps that include SME’s running their content through our curriculum checkers, utilizing junior developer employees to test all material and activities provided by the SMEs, and a final approval from senior staff members. This is all implemented before the program is made available to students in our learning management system.
We conduct a free assessment to all learners to determine their proficiency before enrolling in the course. Also, we have a “Coding from Scratch” course, which offers a reversal period in place for new students, which provides them the opportunity to withdraw from the program and receive a refund for the tuition and fees. We have these measures in place to ensure only qualified students will benefit from the program, and will be enrolled for the duration of the course.
As a company, we are committed to providing a higher standard of tech-based education that enables our students to start a career in the technology industry. We will continue to further develop our resources for students to receive a personalized tech-based education and enhance our services to provide valuable assets to our partners.
For more information about Woz U, visit www.woz-u.com.
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