The Fourth Industrial Revolutions velocity, scope, and systems-level impact contribute to a shift in business models across all industries. The on-demand economy and changing nature of work, especially amid COVID-19, have led to a significant skills gap[1]. There are 1.7 million unfulfilled tech jobs across industries in the U.S. and Europe[2].

At Microsoft, our goal is to help people throughout the entire education and learning continuumfrom education through ones professional careerto fully participate in the digital economy. Part of this is about preparing the next generation for the jobs of tomorrow. Our unique responsibility and opportunity is to ensure everyone has access to the promise and potential of technology for the digital economy. This contributes to our mission to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. We believe that those who create with technology are those who write history and shape our future; everyone should have access to learning these skills.

Our ambition is to empower all students to confidently create with technology. Our products like Minecraft: Education Edition, MakeCode, and Visual Studio Code bringthis to life by providing a canvas for creating with technology. We offer a range of options for learners of all ages to learn coding.

To prepare the next generation for the jobs of tomorrow while inspiring their creativity, we have partnered with Wonder Woman 1984, Smithsonian Learning Labs, and NASA to create distinct portfolios of project-based lessons that teach programming. We wanted to cultivate learning by connecting content to something interesting, relevant, and most importantly, inspiring for learners of all ageswhether they are 8, 18, or 80.

Included in these collections are:

Five Wonder Woman 1984 and Smithsonian Learning Lab lessons

Three lessons inspired by NASA

These new modules and learning paths created by Sarah Guthals are inspired by NASA scientists. They help prepare learners for a career in space exploration.

1 World Economic Forum. March 2019. The digital skills gap is widening fast. Heres how to bridge it.

2 Wall Street Journal. October 15, 2019. Americas Got Talent, Just Not Enough in IT, citing data from CompTIA.

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Learn to code with Wonder Woman, Smithsonian Learning Labs, and NASA - Microsoft