Shaping Arizona’s workforce through STEM education for kids

GenTech provides tech support but is also helping shape Arizona’s workforce with its award-winning KidsTech program.

Michael Wilson, COO at GenTech, and Mike Simonett, GenTech’s Training Director, joined “Arizona Horizon,” to discuss more about the program.

GenTech created roughly eight years ago, is a tech hub that provides cutting-edge technology to teach robotics, coding, cybersecurity, 3-D modeling, and more.

“Really preparing them for the future jobs,” Wilson said, “…really getting that technology in their hands, so they can start to learn it.”

KidsTech provides STEM education to K – 12 students in more than 350 classrooms. It also supports college students in preparing for their future careers in STEM industries.

“In many schools across the valley, just like kids rotate in to music, and art,” Wilson said, “…they come in to GenTech and learn STEM.”

Each semester, GenTech employs up to 50 instructors, or GenTechs, to teach industry-standard curriculum on robotics, AI, coding, and more, providing valuable experience enhancing their education and better-preparing students for the workforce.

GenTech works directly with the instructors, hiring techs and turning them into teachers instead of taking teachers and turning them into techs. They provide classroom management training, behavior management training, technical training on the curriculum they are teaching, and support them inside the classroom.

“So now in school, if they want to start a STEM program, they can bring us in as a sustainable solution to indefinitely have STEM in their classroom, without the massive investment,” Wilson said.

GenTechs have gone on to work at SpaceX, Apple, Microsoft, Intel, Honeywell, Infusionsoft, Boeing and more.