Per Scholas is proud to announce that we have been awarded funding from WorkRise, as part of a $2.8 million grant to support innovative pilot studies that test solutions to boost workers’ economic mobility.

This grant will enable Per Scholas and MDRC to understand whether adding alumni advancement coaching services— such as 1:1 coaching, group coaching, employment technical assistance (career plans and résumé reviews), and upskilling referrals—will measurably impact an individual’s trajectory toward a thriving wage, and how these interventions impact different demographic groups.

To read the press release about this tremendous announcement, click here. 

This week, Per Scholas North Carolina was highlighted in the Charlotte Business Journal! Our North Carolina Managing Director, Mike Terrell, was interviewed for the piece.

In the article, Mike discussed the ways in which Per Scholas focuses on diversifying the tech workforce by opening pathways for people previously excluded from the tech industry. Mike also noted how our professional development training sets us apart from other organizations and lends to the ultimate success of our learners.

The article provided a brief history of Per Scholas, our North Carolina campus, which is located in Charlotte, and some information about our North Carolina courses.

Read the full news article here!

Earlier this month, ActivateWork Powered by Per Scholas was featured in Colorado’s CPR News. The article discussed the increasing number of people opting to enter the tech world via bootcamps and courses, rather than the traditional four-year degree.

Currently, Colorado has one of the highest tech gaps in the nation, with the amount of available tech job postings greatly surpassing the number of people applying for them. It is not that people aren’t interested in pursuing tech — this gap is due to the prohibitively expensive cost of higher education and many existing tech training programs.

“The demand for talent is off the chart, yet the supply is constricting as higher education gets more expensive,” said ActivateWork’s chief operating officer Kathryn Harris. “There are huge untapped pools of workers stuck in jobs that don’t have career paths…They’ve always had an aptitude or an interest or passion in technology, but they haven’t had the resources or the time to skill themselves up,” she said.

This is where programs like ActivateWork Powered by Per Scholas come in, offering diverse individuals the opportunity to earn certifications and start high-growth careers in tech for no personal cost to them.

The article also featured interviews with several learners, including our very own Isaac Horton and Randy Cordova, both of whom graduated from our Per Scholas Denver campus!

Read the full news article here.

On September 19, 2022, Diverse by Design hosted our annual golf tournament, powered by Per Scholas and ITSMF, with our esteemed corporate partners, sponsors, business leaders, and Per Scholas graduates in attendance. Golfers and colleagues alike headed out on the course at Brae Burn Country Club for a day of friendly competition, fundraising, and skills contests. 

We also presented our second annual Diverse by Design North Star Award to Michael Buckham-White, Global Managing Director, Deloitte Technology; Stephen DeStefani, SVP, Technology Diverse Segments, Representation & Inclusion, Wells Fargo; Janet Pope, Vice President, Corporate Social Responsibility, Capgemini Global Consulting Group, and Mike Tomlin, Pittsburgh Steelers Head Coach and the only black active head coach in the NFL. Coach Tomlin was unable to attend; however, you can watch his acceptance video here. 

Our evening program highlighted DEIB leaders, where we heard from Per Scholas President and CEO Plinio Ayala, TEKsystems Executive Director of Global Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity, Franklin Reed, and ITSMF President and CEO Johanna Jones. All of their remarks encouraged business leaders to challenge their companies to engage in diversifying their workforce and hiring skilled, diverse individuals and the impact doing so has on business. 

We appreciate our tournament sponsors for helping us host such an impactful event full of rich conversation and meaningful connections and our Diverse by Design sponsors’ support. We especially wanted to extend a special thank you to Akhil Kumar for his guidance throughout our planning and execution of the tournament and the staff at Brae Burn Country Club for their hospitality. We hope the tournament was a launching pad to continue conversations around diversifying the tech landscape and other industries across the country. 

We’ll see you next year on the course!

Per Scholas Philadelphia is thrilled to announce that we are a proud awardee of The Lenfest Foundation final grants! We are grateful to receive a $450k grant over the next three years from this highly respected foundation rooted in Philly. Since 2000, the foundation has sought to positively influence the education, youth development, and workforce development fields and communities by embedding new practices and strengthening organizations that provide these services, before sunsetting this summer.

The Lenfest Foundation grant will support our efforts over the next three years to successfully prepare participants for thriving wage careers and family-sustaining income over the course of their working lifetimes by fueling Per Scholas Philadelphia’s tuition-free tech training. 

“The Lenfest Foundation leaves a legacy of unwavering commitment to economic equity.  We are proud to be included as one of its final grantees and committed to increasing access to thriving wage careers in tech for all Philadelphians,” reflected Per Scholas Managing Director Nikki Pumphrey.

Per Scholas Philadelphia is honored to be one of the final grant awardees as the Foundation distributes all its assets. This grant opens the door for more funding organizations to recognize the work Per Scholas has done in the community. Since opening its doors in 2019, Per Scholas Philly has graduated more than 200 learners with an impressive 91% graduation rate, where over two-thirds of learners have launched full-time tech careers within twelve months of graduation. Additionally, these graduates earn an average salary four times their pre-training wage at about $55k per year, or more than $25 per hour. We are proud of our footprint in the Philadelphia community, where we can continue to advance workforce equity through supporters like The Lenfest Foundation.

Per Scholas North Carolina has prepared our learners for successful IT careers through our cost-free tech training. Recently, our Charlotte-based campus has been featured in the news for our partnerships with NC Tech Paths and Wilkes Community College (WCC), as well as a television feature on WBTV – the Charlotte CBS Affiliate.

We were mentioned in the Wilkes Journal-Patriot about our successful training in the entire state of North Carolina, where our learners graduate with in-demand tech skills for a high-growth tech career. Additionally, Per Scholas and NC Tech Paths work with Wilkes Community College, so all learners receive college credits and are eligible to return for additional certifications, diplomas, or degrees.

Read the full article here.

Managing Director Mike Terrell was a guest on WBTV’s QC@3, a segment of QCLIFE, a daytime television program, discussing the development of our training in Charlotte for the state. “The needs of our employers that we work with drive our curriculum. We work closely with our employers to ensure our curriculum is relevant and that we deliver the folks they need in those positions,” Mike mentioned.

Watch the full interview with Mike Terrell here.

To date, Per Scholas North Carolina has graduated twenty diverse individuals in partnership with WCC and NC Tech Paths. Ten of those graduates were in the Software Engineering training, while the other ten were in IT Support. Next, there are thirty confirmed learners for the upcoming IT Support cohort.