The Boston Area Technological Education Connections (BATEC) is a well developed regionally coordinated system of high schools, community colleges, the University of Massachusetts at Boston and industry. Talented students from diverse backgrounds are attracted to information technology (IT) careers particularly in - programming, databases, analytics, and business intelligence. BATEC developed a sequence of industry driven and validated IT courses that articulate from high school through community college to a Bachelor of Science in Information Technology. The National Center extends and strengthens computing discipline pathways and industry connections to produce 21st century IT professionals. The work that the Regional Center is doing in defining the knowledge, skills and attitudes that IT technicians need to be technically and professionally successful in their employment is continued. Because IT is pervasive in every industry, this goal is extended to learn about and implement innovations that increase technicians' ability to work at the intersection of IT and other fields - such as manufacturing, energy management, law enforcement, and health. The National Center uses partnerships with urban districts in Las Vegas, San Francisco, and Chicago as learning laboratories to learn how to scale up the work done in Boston. The Center focuses on longer-term interventions that are collaborative with existing centers and new partners and conducts research that contributes to the continuous improvement of IT, CS and IS programs to keep up with regional and national needs.
