Games developer Valve, which already runs the world's biggest and most successful software download platform, Steam, and is planning its own branded PC line, has announced an intention to enter the education sector.
Launching a service called Pipeline, Valve hopes to offer school-age coders advice and resources to aid them in making decisions about courses of further education study, and getting jobs in the video games industry.
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The Pipeline site itself has been designed, says the introductory video with Steam CEO Gabe Newell, "by teenagers like yourself", and is designed to "create a connection between Valve and the industry," as a student coder goes on to explain.
Valve explains that the company is "frequently asked questions by teenagers" about the industry, including where they should study and what colleges are best for preparing their skills.
As well as providing this information, one of Pipeline's aims is to take "a group of high school students with minimal work experience and train them in the skills and methods necessary to be successful at a company like Valve".
Valve says Pipeline will begin offering skills and education information to young coders "within the next month or so".
Valve's launch comes shortly after the Department for Education announced a new curriculum that will give coding a prominent position within the newly-named "Computing" subject area.
The US, by many accounts, is still experiencing a similar shortfall in IT skills teaching as the UK currently does, with technology companies such as Microsoft and Google taking a keen interest in training young coders themselves.
President Barack Obama, in a Google+ Hangout chat in February 2013, suggested that the government "will start to set programmes" in high schools to educate children who take an interest in games coding or graphic design.
