Steve Wozniak launches online university aimed at making tech ed more affordable

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak believes it’s currently too expensive to earn a degree in tech, and so he recently announced the opening of Woz U, an online university that aims to make tech education more affordable.

You’ll currently only find the Arizona-based Woz U online, but Wozniak hopes he’ll eventually see physical campuses in over 30 cities in the US and throughout the world.

Woz U’s current programs only include software development and training to be computer support specialists, but additional programs for data science, mobile applications, and cybersecurity programs are reportedly “coming soon.”

"Our goal is to educate and train people in employable digital skills without putting them into years of debt," Wozniak said in a prepared statement. "People often are afraid to choose a technology-based career because they think they can't do it. I know they can, and I want to show them how."

Woz U also provides K-12 schools with STEAM programs that help ease kids into a career in tech. Businesses can benefit from his “Woz U Enterprise” program, which helps companies train their employees to handle new technology.

In 2019, Wozniak aims to launch Woz U Accelerator, a program that’s meant to “identify and develop elite tech talent.”

You can currently find the Woz U app on the Apple App Store, and it chiefly acts as a 10-question aptitude test of sorts. When I tried it myself, it claimed my strengths were deductive reasoning and logic, and that I should study to become a software developer with a focus on Java. Apparently a representative from Woz U will be calling me soon to speak more about my options.

We’ll see how that goes. Right now, there’s no word on pricing, so hopefully this call will reveal more about that.