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What is Sift? SIFT is a win-win proposition.
Summer Industrial Fellowships for Teachers (SIFT) is a program designed to provide K-12 school teachers with a summer working and learning experience in conjunction with "high tech" industries. The SIFT program helps educators adapt to the ever changing technological society that their students will face, by offering non-traditional learning and working opportunities within the high-tech industries. These experiences enhance the teachers' skills and their understanding of evolving workplace requirements. Since its incorporation in 1990, SIFT has provided summer work experiences to more than five hundred teachers, from over forty schools, thereby influencing tens of thousands of students who will be the productive members of the future workforce. What SIFT Is Not:SIFT is not a "career shadowing experience". Neither is it an "industry training program". SIFT is highly qualified professionals (our teachers) performing real jobs for industry bringing with them skill, talent, and fantastic productivity! As teachers are exposed to new experiences in the workplace, their skills expand as they learn new applications, procedures and practices. Why SIFT?"America has entered a new era. The economy is shifting and work is being redefined. New technologies are creating this new climate. The expectations of business and industry about what skills and knowledge the graduates of tomorrow must have also is changing. Students, teachers, and policy makers jeopardize their effectiveness by clinging to old assumptions and expectations about what it means to be 'educated'." (Gary Allen, Triangle Coalition for Science and Technology) How does SIFT work?SIFT Inc. serves as a liaison between industry and teachers by:
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