The pandemic has heightened the need for relevant workplace skills. Arguably, community colleges have an opportunity to provide these skills and training at scale – and many are partnering with employers and workforce training organizations. Per Scholas is piloting a model with a CUNY college – Guttman Community College. Through this partnership students enrolled in a two year Associate degree who are majoring in IT take a credit-bearing Networking course at Per Scholas, earning industry-recognized certifications.

This summer, the program has been extended to include a credit-bearing internship at Per Scholas. Students are performing simulated network solutions for a client guided by a Per Scholas instructor. They each have a mentor from Salesforce and participated in mock interviews with volunteers from PIMCO. Students will graduate with an AA degree, certifications, and career navigation experiences that will bridge them to entry-level networking positions while continuing their studies to earn a four-year degree.

Per Scholas stands ready to be part of reimagining postsecondary pathways as vehicles to scale job-focused IT training in this new economic reality. Per Scholas appreciates the support of Carnegie Corporation of NY for this pilot. For more context, see this recent report on Reimagining Community College from Opportunity America.