Eight of Dunedin's 11 high schools had already signed up for the course by Tuesday.
Forty organisations, including Orion Health, Datacom, Simple, Google and the University of Otago had contributed more than $350,000 to fund the programme over three years.
The institute, recently renamed from the New Zealand Computer Society, would contribute about $30,000 and employ a full-time staff member to run the programme, Mr Matthews said.
Dunedin was selected for the programme launch because of the city's size, the quality of its high schools and because the schools wanted to be involved.
"It's been coming for a while.
We trialled a programme in 2009, which received a great response from schools. This has come out of the work we have done previously."
The institute had been talking to schools about what they needed to help promote IT in their classrooms and it came down to people, he said. There were not enough teachers with the skills needed to teach IT.
Half of pupils surveyed by the institute did not know what IT was, which was a concern, given the shortage of skilled workers.
"The key thing is 40 organisations decided to fund this programme. It's not government funded.
That so many fronted up with cash to make it work shows how much an issue the skills shortage is for industry."
The IT and technology sectors were New Zealand's third-largest export sector, Mr Matthews said, and there was potential to expand export markets.
However, the single most inhibiting factor preventing the industry from reaching its potential was a lack of people, although that was nothing new.
The industry had complained in the past about a lack of skilled workers but any shortage had been addressed with just tinkering, he said.
People were choosing not to enter IT due to the perception of people sitting in dark rooms writing code, using Microsoft Word or a cellphone, Mr Matthews said. The IT Connect programme aimed to change that misleading perception.
Research at schools revealed pupils had no idea of what IT people did day-to-day. The way IT was structured in schools meant it was ranked alongside non-academic subjects, such as home economics and woodwork.
Pupils were reluctant to consider IT as a career option.
Each Dunedin high school in the programme would receive four visits over four weeks. The first visit would tell pupils about the diversification of the industry and the job opportunities available. IT jobs were well paid and offered broad options, including travel, he said.
The second and third visits would be from industry professionals who would talk about their jobs. The last visit would be from University of Otago or Otago Polytechnic staff to outline study options.
"We are focused on local tertiary options. It makes no sense to come here to Dunedin and talk about study in Auckland. We are all fired up about this programme," Mr Matthews said.
