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Minnesota High Tech Association (MHTA) is leading a coalition of technology-based employers to find solutions aimed at closing Minnesota's IT skills gap. There are an estimated 2,700 IT jobs in the Twin Cities alone, that remain unfilled - the IT Action Alliance is working to address this gap. The alliance is divided into workgroups to address 4 key objectives: ■ Launch a ten-year marketing campaign to deliver high-quality candidates for every open IT position ■ Increase re-employment of displaced IT workers through training opportunities ■ Utilize internships as a tool to place two and four-year college graduates ■ Promote IT careers in grades 6-12 to increase the number of high school students entering post-secondary programs.

It's becoming increasingly clear that computer science education grapples with a stubborn image problem. And it's one that we simply cannot afford to ignore any longer.

Less than 1% of women going to college plan to major in computer science, according to the American Association of University Women. Those are bleak numbers. What will prompt more women to get into coding? The first step: paying teachers to recruit girls to take coding classes.