Crypto firms need young developers, university students need jobs, and a new alliance of blockchain educators wants to give both a hand.
The Blockchain Education Alliance will address crypto recruiters’ perennial high-demand-and-low-supply quandary with a raft of tools, resources, mentorships and industry contacts that it hopes will create a new generation of students in the field.
“It’s better for everyone in the ecosystem if we have more talent and better projects being built,” said coordinator Ashlie Meredith, the program director for Mousebelt University.
“It’s a long term investment in the space that benefits everyone.”
Launched by Bay Area incubator Mousebelt, the Blockchain Education Alliance includes: Stellar, Hedera, ICON, Ontology, Wanchain, Harmony One, Nervos, Orbs, LTO Network, Emurgo, NEM, TRON and ETC Labs. Mousbelt hopes that more will join.
They will work directly with students and the blockchain clubs Meredith said have been at the forefront of university-level engagement in blockchain topics.
Part of the help will come through funding. In the past, Mousebelt has supported student events, hackathons, and given directly to engineering schools – its donation to the University of California, Los Angeles, led to the creation of UCLA’s first accredited blockchain engineering course.
Over time, alliance members hope to further build out academic curricula, increasing blockchain education presence via accredited courses. That could be a big help, according to students.
“I think universities are a little bit lost in the space, and having industry help them find out what they need” can be valuable for them, Zach Nelson, a Mousebelt campus ambassador and founder of the University of Washington’s 800-member blockchain club, told CoinDesk.
Nelson said that the space is full of “fragmented knowledge” and that a wide network of partnerships could go far in bringing up a stronger crypto community.
Gili Ovadia, head of global business development for the Israeli blockchain platform Orbs, an alliance member, told CoinDesk that his firm could give students hands-on support and research funding.
He said the firm joined the alliance because of its sprawling network: nearly 70 universities and industry players are a part at the start.
Ovadia said:
“We can’t think of a better way to reach mass adoption than sharing our knowledge base directly with the next generation of students and universities around the world.”
Graduation image via CoinDesk archives
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