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SAS’ Jim Goodnight wants to ‘sink’ the IT ‘hook’ into more students

Jim Goodnight

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CARY, N.C. – Jim Goodnight, co-founder and chief executive officer of SAS, wants more students in the U.S. to become excited about information technology careers. Otherwise, he believes U.S. leadership in IT is threatened.

"We have to find a way to sink that hook into them at an early age to get them interested," Goodnight said at the global InformationWeek 500 Conference in Dana Point, Calif. on Monday night.

Goodnight participated in a panel discussion about the challenges the U.S. faces in information technology. He not only called for tech education but also reform in H1B visa regulations concerning the hiring of foreign IT workers.

"It's very embarrassing that the United States only graduates about two-thirds of its kids out of high school," Goodnight said, according to InformationWeek. "We haven't got a chance of creating more skills and capabilities if a third of our kids are dropping out. You have to have extremely knowledgeable workers just to be in the service industry of the future."

Goodnight also said Americans are complacent about their future whereas people in other countries are not.

"In India, a mother only has to point out the windows and say, 'do you want to live out here?'" Goodnight said. "Education is the only way out there."

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