Giving Compass' Take:

• According to Education Dive, Apple Co-founder Steve Wozniak's Woz U has helped close the skills gap by expanding the tech talent pipeline and connecting talented individuals with a workforce that needs them. 

• How is this program bringing underrepresented groups into the tech field? What can we do to encourage more STEM programs across the board in the K-12 space?

• Learn how increased diversity can also help fill the tech talent gap.

What happens when 10, 15 years into a career, someone suddenly realizes they are on the wrong track? They can trudge through it for another 40-plus years until retirement or they can take a risk and find opportunity elsewhere.

Every year, thousands of people take part in technology education programs, such as coding bootcamps, to carve a spot in the digital economy. Re-education and retraining aren't easy, but many workers who go through such programs are reaping higher salaries and new career opportunities.

Some companies are forging partnerships with higher education, such as Amazon, which recently expanded a fellowship program for research in voice technology. Others are adding an in-house bootcamp, such as WeWork, which acquired the coding academy Flatiron School last year.

Apple Co-founder Steve Wozniak entered the technology education space last year with Woz U, an institute to close the skills gap and expand the technology talent pipeline.

The program offers online education, K-12 and educator programs, enterprise training, face-to-face campus-based academies and an accelerator for elite talent. Nearing its one-year anniversary, the company is working to expand to new areas of training, bring more underrepresented populations into the technology workforce and connect new talent to employers.

Read the full article about Woz U and workplace development by Alex Hickey at Education Dive.