【Z-kai Group and Make School】
Jointly opening a programming school this summer in Japan
- Z-kai Group and Make School have entered into business alliance -

April 21, 2016
Zoshinkai Publishers Inc.

Zoshinkai Publishers Inc., a holding company of the Z-kai group headquartered in Shizuoka and Make School, a software engineering and product development school headquartered in San Francisco are partnering to bring Make School’s Summer Academy to Tokyo.

Background of this alliance

Programming and product development skills will play a critical role in the future of education and employment for modern societies. In the United States, a great focus in being placed on STEM education across secondary and post-secondary education. In Japan, IT literacy is an increasingly high priority for Japanese and recognized across industry and government as a major 21st century skill. These trends occur globally and the importance of programming education is growing.

Z-kai’s mission is to cultivate people who will lead society, and we are excited to provide global-standard programming courses in partnership with Make School.

Strengths of the companies

◆Z-kai provides a wide range of services including correspondence courses, publishing, assessment, BtoB school services and instruction services using IT technologies. Through its group companies, Z-kai Educe and Eikoh provide afterschool services, and Z-kai CA has services for college students and adults.

◆Make School is a software engineering and product development school headquartered in San Francisco, CA. Make School runs summer iOS development courses in 7 cities worldwide and a two-year university alternative program in San Francisco. Alumni have gone on to internships and full-time positions at Silicon Valley heavy hitters like Apple, Tesla, Facebook, and Google, as well as up-and-comers like Snapchat, Edmodo, and Pandora. Make School's curriculum was used for the first ever iOS courses at MIT and Carnegie Mellon University.

◆Make School's educational philosophy is to guide students towards making impact as they study. US President Barack Obama recently unveiled the national service initiative ConnectALL, which aims to provide low-income Americans with greater access to broadband — along with the training and tools required to utilize this access and become digitally literate. The White House has asked Make School to support their push towards digital literacy. As part of ConnectALL, Make School students will be building a tool to show underserved, low-income individuals how to leverage the Internet to gain skills, find jobs, and connect with loved ones and more. This Make School's philosophy of learning by building products makes an impact.
(Message about ConnectALL)

As long-term partners, Z-kai Group and Make School will leverage our strengths to offer academic programing services that develop students' abilities to build products that solve real problems using technology.

Plans

Z-kai and Make School will jointly offer Make School’s Summer Academy Introductory Programming Course, currently offered in the US, starting from this summer.

＜Overview of the Summer Academy for Japan＞

• Mainly for junior high and high school students.
• The courses will be operated at Z-kai schools in Tokyo.
• The course will be 2-3 weeks.
• Make School will send instructors from the Silicon Valley.
• Students will learn to program by building iPhone apps.

Comments by Takaaki Fujii (CEO, Zoshinkai Publishers Inc.)

I am pleased to announce today that Z-kai have formed a collaboration alliance with Make School. In order to create future leaders, STEM education, especially to acquire programming skills is more and more focused in the Japanese education. Educational institutions such as MIT and Stanford University use the programming teaching and learning of Make School. The company attracts a large number of ambitious students of all over the world and produces great leaders who will change the world. I am sure this collaboration with Make School, the world’s leading educational company will realize our vision. We will combine our strengths to meet our customers' expectations.

Comments by Jeremy Rossmann (Founder, Make School)

“We are honored and excited to partner with Japan's leading education company to bring a piece of Silicon Valley to Tokyo. Combining Z-kai's incredible presence and reach in Japan with our programming education expertise, we look forward to educating a generation of engineers and entrepreneurs in Japan together.”

Make School
press@makeschool.com
Make School web page

Contact:

◆Zoshinkai Publishers Inc.
Tel: 055-976-5568 (hours: 9am-5:30pm)

◆Z-kai Inc.
Tel: 055-976-8947 (hours: 9am-5:30pm)
E-mail: press@zkai.co.jp