RICHMOND, Va. — Governor Ralph Northam on Thursday announced that Virginia will invest in the Commonwealth’s tech talent pipeline to create 31,000 new computer science graduates over 20 years, under agreements he signed with 11 universities.
The Tech Talent Investment Program will benefit students and tech employers in every corner of the Commonwealth. It grew out of Virginia’s proposal to Amazon, which will locate its second headquarters in Northern Virginia.
The program is a performance-based initiative to create at least 25,000 new bachelor’s and master’s degrees in computer science and related fields over the next 20 years.
The agreements with the 11 universities will create 31,000 new degrees in these fields, exceeding the legislative goal. Funding for the Tech Talent Investment Program was provided in the Virginia budget approved earlier this year.
The 11 colleges that received funds in this round are:
- Virginia Tech: 5,911 bachelor’s degrees, 10,324 master’s degrees
- George Mason University: 2,277 bachelor’s degrees, 5,328 master’s degrees
- The University of Virginia: 3,416 bachelor’s degrees
- College of William & Mary: 930 bachelor’s degrees
- Old Dominion University: 765 bachelor’s degrees
- Virginia Commonwealth University: 722 bachelor’s degrees
- James Madison University: 467 bachelor’s degrees
- Radford University: 394 bachelor’s degrees
- Christopher Newport University: 392 bachelor’s degrees
- Virginia State University: 186 bachelor’s degrees
- Norfolk State University: 126 bachelor’s degrees
“This initiative is an investment in Virginians,” said Governor Northam. “Virginia’s tech sector will continue booming only if we can train the workforce those jobs require. With today’s announcement, we are educating a workforce that will fill jobs at hundreds of tech companies around the Commonwealth, including at Amazon, helping boost our economy and quality of life in every corner of Virginia.”
