WASHINGTON - The National Telecommunications and Information Administration will have available $17 million in grants this year under one of the new initiatives announced by Commerce Secretary William Daley.
These grants are to be part of an effort to address the increasing demand for information tech- nology workers.
The effort, known as the Telecommunications and Information Infrastructure Assistance Program, is a merit-based grant program that provides seed money for demonstration projects in commercial applications.
The venture is necessary to accommodate the one million new computer scientists, engineers, programmers, and systems analysts that government experts say the U.S. will need by the year 2006 - plus an additional quarter million to replace professionals retiring or leaving the field during that time.
