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As educators with a mission to democratize education, we are concerned with issues of affordability. As providers of technical content designed to equip students with specialized skills, we are concerned with issues of accessibility. As a career-focused organization committed to seeing every student we teach emerge from our courses informed, inspired, and in demand, we are concerned with issues of equality. As a Silicon Valley company founded in the tech space, we are concerned with issues of inclusion. As a global company, we are concerned with issues of opportunity.
Introducing Our Diversity Series
The word diversity invokes so much, it’s almost impossible to imagine accomplishing a comprehensive understanding of the subject. What we can pursue, however, is an understanding of diversity issues as they inform — and are informed by — areas of critical importance to our mission, and to our organization.
With that in mind, we are launching a series on our blog that will chronicle some of these investigations, so that we can share the concepts we’re wrestling with, the challenges we’re facing, the discoveries we’re making and — hopefully — the changes we’re instigating. This post is our introduction to this series.
Global Diversity
We will follow our introduction with a look at what diversity means on a global level, as opposed to here in the United States. How do the issues differ, and in what ways? Most critically, how can we as education providers build our services in ways that will help solve for known barriers to diversity? As we continue to expand our global reach we’ll seek to analyze what it means to support and promote diversity in education on the global stage.
Diversity at Udacity
Next, we will turn our lens inwards to take a look at diversity within our own walls. We recently commissioned workforce diversity specialists Paradigm to do a study of Udacity, to determine how we stack up when it comes to diversity matters. We’ll share with you the results of this study, discuss our reactions to it, and share the ways in which we’re implementing what we learned.
Diversity and our Students
Building on the above, we’ll then widen the scope to look at diversity matters as they relate to our student base. We’ll touch on topics regarding the demographics of our student base and the ways in which we are — or are not — fulfilling our goal of reaching, supporting, and educating students from any background or walk of life.
Diversity and Employment
Finally, we’ll look at diversity and its relationship to employment and the hiring landscape. As an educational organization with a uniquely outcome-based model, we are committed to graduating in-demand students equipped with valuable skills, job-ready portfolios that highlight and showcase talents and experience, and the confidence to represent themselves effectively to potential employers.
Achieving this goal means identifying and understanding existing barriers to employment for students worldwide and supporting students and graduates as they overcome them. Educating employers is a critical component of this process as well, and a growing focus of our work.
We are excited and energized by what lies ahead, and hope you’ll join us as we continue to investigate matters of diversity and education here, there, and everywhere.
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Udacity is an organization committed to seeing every student we teach emerge from our courses informed, inspired, and in demand. For anyone starting a career or changing one, upskilling or reskilling to pursue advancement, or simply seeking personal betterment, we offer unrivalled learning opportunities and an innovative online approach. Our model is outcome-based, and expressly tailored to support your individual journey. We offer two signature paths: certification through our Nanodegree programs, and a rich library of free courses.
