Preparing a Computationally Literate Workforce

There is a saying, “Everything changes, but nothing changes.” We are realizing a rapid technological revolution in the development, deployment, and application of computing technologies within every discipline and every sector of society. Yet, our ability to respond to the well-documented need for a large, diverse, computationally literate workforce remains a challenge. We summarize our 35 years of lessons learned for preparing the workforce that can inform efforts to address this challenge. We have pursued a multiprong approach to reach instructors, researchers, professionals, and students on a national scale. Our efforts in scaling up and sustaining activities range from teaching computational thinking through imparting HPC skills. We have been able to scale up these activities through community efforts to share, cooperate, and collaborate. The potential for providing life-long learning to everyone wishing to expand their computational knowledge and skills is greater than any organization can achieve on its own.