Mission

A comprehensive approach

Per Scholas was founded more than 20 years ago with a mission to open doors to transformative technology careers for individuals from often overlooked communities. We accomplish this mission today by:

Creating opportunity

For people who work hard, we create real opportunities to build better lives for themselves and their families.

Closing the skills divide

We prepare smart, dedicated people to work in key technical roles, always designing our courses in response to what employers tell us they need.

Achieving diversity

We are building a more diverse technical workforce by creating on-ramps for women and people of color, groups staggeringly underrepresented in IT employment today. 90% of our students are people of color, a third are women and a third are disconnected young adults.

Learn more and be part of the mission. Apply, Hire, Partner, and Donate.

Impact

Real people. Real change. Real return.

Payment Increases

400%

Increase in post-training income

Typical Per Scholas grads have a pre-training income of $9,000 and post-training income of $36,000 or often much more.

Improved Graduation Rates

20%

of community college students graduate within three years.*

85%

of Per Scholas students graduate in fourteen weeks or less. And, 80% of those graduates land jobs.

*National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education, 2013

No college loan debt

$30K

is the average amount of student loan debt for a college graduate in 2013.*

$0

is the amount of money it costs a person to get trained, certified and placed in a tech career at Per Scholas.

*Institute for College Access and Success

History

We never stop innovating.

1995

Our original mission is to close the digital divide in the South Bronx by reconditioning used computers and giving them away to schools and families.

1998

First IT job training course begins. It’s designed to help neighborhood residents gain jobs at Per Scholas reconditioning used computers.

2000

We open our own industrial-scale computer recycling center in the South Bronx. IT job training services expand rapidly to staff the new center and begins placing graduates with other employers.

2008

Market changes lead us to phase out direct computer recycling, but our IT job training grows to serve hundreds of students each year. Employers who partner with us help develop the course to meet their specific IT staffing needs.

2010

Independent, multiyear research shows that our graduates earn significantly more than a control group of their peers. We receive a White House Social Innovation Fund award to advance our model.

2011

We launch targeted initiatives to train more women for careers in tech. We commit to achieve gender parity in all our classrooms nationwide.

2012

We open our first permanent location outside New York in Columbus, OH and marks the start of national expansion in partnership with the Creating IT Futures Foundation. In New York, we launch a Network Engineer course, the first effort to train students for mid-career technology roles.

2013

Per Scholas opens a third location in Cincinnati, OH. In New York, we partner with Barclays and other industry leaders to design and launch the Software Testing program (formerly STEP). Annual enrollment tops 500 students.

2014

We open our fourth national location in Silver Spring, MD, serving the National Capital Region.

The White House’s National Council of Economic Advisors and Vice President Joe Biden tout our model as one of the most promising solutions nationally to help unemployed individuals rejoin the workforce.

2014

We introduce the Urban Development Center, a co-located facility occupied by employer partners that’s meant to bring overseas software testing jobs to the South Bronx.

2015

We open our fifth national location in Dallas, TX. We win the Community Partners Leadership Award, a program of the Harvard Business School Club of New York, for demonstration of best practices in non-profits.

2016

We open our sixth national location in Atlanta, GA. WorkAdvance, a two-year study of workforce development programs is released and shows that we are producing positive and lasting impacts related to the income, reliance on public benefits, and overall well-being of our students.

2016

Per Scholas New York opens its second location in Brooklyn with the support of its Signature Partner, Barclays. The expansion to 630 Flushing Avenue will enable Per Scholas to serve an additional 140 New Yorkers annually, resulting in more than 550 New Yorkers being trained every year. The Brooklyn location will offer a newly developed cybersecurity training track, developed in partnership with Barclays, aimed at training and preparing graduates for cybersecurity jobs and opportunities.

2018

Per Scholas opens an eighth training location in the historic New Jersey Bell Building in Downtown Newark. The space includes three state-of-the-art technical classrooms, with twenty workstations each. The space accommodates approximately 100 students per year and the training will be free. Courses will run 3-4 months and will include a comprehensive admissions process, technical instruction, career coaching and two years of alumni follow-up and placement support.

People

Meet our team.

Meet the board leaders who guide and support us, student ambassadors who embody our impact, and staff members who create and deliver the highest quality training and services every day.

Student Ambassadors

Board

Staff

Supporters

We couldn’t do it without them

While corporate partners have the largest number of touchpoints with our work, we are profoundly grateful to receive leadership support from many other stakeholders, including foundations, public agencies and generous individuals.