By NEAL WAGNER / Managing Editor

ALABASTER – Ryan Robinett, leader of one of the largest information technology companies in Alabama, couldn’t think of a career path offering a better chance for employment than computer science.

“There is literally negative unemployment in that field,” Robinett, managing director for the Birmingham-based CTS company, said during a Jan. 7 teacher training session at the Shelby County School System’s Instructional Services Center in Alabaster. “There are more jobs than there are people to fill them.

“That is the only field I can think of that is like that,” Robinett said. “The demand is higher than the product.”

During the three-day professional development session at the SCISC, teachers from across the state – Many of them from Shelby County – received computer science training to help strengthen their students’ knowledge of everything from the Internet to app development.

“We are excited to have the opportunity to host this training,” Shelby County School Superintendent Randy Fuller said. “We are continuing to grow in that area, and we are hopefully preparing students for jobs in computer science at an early age.

“We want this to permeate all of our schools,” Fuller added.

During the training, the Alabama Department of Education announced a new partnership with the A+ College Ready program and Code.org, which aims to train 50 new Advanced Placement computer science teachers across the state by the start of the 2016-2017 school year. The 50 new AP computer science teachers will double the amount currently in the state, said A+ President Mary Boehm.

“Most of the teachers here today are from Shelby County schools,” Boehm said during a press conference announcing the partnership. “They are really taking the lead in bringing this to the students.”

The state partnership will serve to expand a program several local school systems have been utilizing for years. Schools in the Shelby County, Alabaster, Hoover and Pelham school systems regularly hold coding lessons using games and programs offered on Code.org.

“There are 4,400 computer science jobs in Alabama, but there are 450 computer science students at the university level,” said Code.org Director of District Management Jake Baskin. “This is not just about jobs or the high average salary, it’s about providing students a foundational skill.

“Every student should know how the Internet works and how to build a simple app,” Baskin said.