9 Aug 2019

American Samoans lining up for computer training

10:15 am on 9 August 2019

A Silicon Valley company promising to train American Samoans for technology jobs says it's on target to start the first course in September.

generic office with computer screen

Photo: 123RF

In June, Stratus Silver Lining announced the year-long course for 500 students, building up to 2000.

KHJ News reported the company's chief executive, Alok Sharma, saying technical staff will arrive in the territory next week.

Online registration opened in June and Dr Sharma said a critical mass of students had already signed up.

He said the company will eventually offer two courses in American Samoa, one on computer programming in Java are the other on designing computer games.

Dr Sharma said the courses will be taught by professors from Wisconsin, who'll be based in the territory .

He said the training is geared to the needs of industry and that he's confident graduates will have no problem finding work.

Companies like Google, Intel, Facebook and others are always looking to hire young people with the skills that the courses teach, Dr Sharma said.

American Samoa could appeal to these companies thanks to the efforts of the government's Retirement Fund to attract customers for the Hawaiki Cable which provides 200 gigabytes of bandwidth to the territory.