Contact: Tori McKnight (tori.mcknight@berlinrosen.com | 646.517.1828)

*** MEDIA ADVISORY FOR April 6, 2020 ***

TEKsystems and Per Scholas expand training partnership to Charlotte to build a diverse tech talent pipeline for today’s most in-demand jobs

Job seekers can receive tuition-free training customized to meet local job market demands

(Charlotte, N.C., April 6, 2020) – Today, full-stack technology services provider TEKsystems and national tech training nonprofit Per Scholas announced the expansion of their transformative partnership into Charlotte, North Carolina. With successful training programs already underway in Baltimore, Boston, Detroit and Philadelphia, the expanded partnership will enable TEKsystems and Per Scholas to provide local workers with tuition-free technology training and employers with a stronger, more diverse pipeline of talent. Although this expansion was planned before COVID-19, access to training programs is more important than ever. Applications for the program in Charlotte are now open and training will begin on June 1.

As an emerging tech hub with a growing demand for skilled workers, Charlotte has seen tech jobs grow by 30% in the last five years—nearly double the rate of the national job market–-with nearly 40,000 tech jobs added in 2018 alone. To ensure that regional workers are prepared for this continued shift, TEKsystems and Per Scholas have designed a curriculum that will help students meet these employer and industry demands, particularly for full-stack Java developers.

The training course will provide students with intermediate-level application developer skill sets that include 12 weeks of hands-on experience with HTML, CSS, Java, data structures and algorithms. Participants will also receive long-term career guidance and placement support, including resume and interview coaching from TEKsystems representatives. Students will be connected to TEKsystems recruiters and incorporated into their talent pipeline for job placements at leading businesses around the city. Once they complete the program, students will gain access to a full suite of graduate services from Per Scholas, which provides two years of extensive alumni follow-up and support.

“At TEKsystems, we’re committed to creating significant opportunities for our people—both our internal team members and our consultants—to achieve their goals through career success, which aligns so well with our strong partnership with Per Scholas,” says Faith Johnson, vice president of human resources at TEKsystems. “We’re proud to support training programs in new cities to address the high demand for skilled IT talent from our customers and the communities we serve, giving more people access to life-changing education.”

TEKsystems’ investment will connect motivated and talented individuals with the critical skills employers are demanding across each market. Equity is a primary consideration as regional and national economies develop. Nationally, 87% of Per Scholas students are people of color, and 30% are women. Expanding this partnership will ensure that future career opportunities are accessible by all communities.

“It’s incredible to empower more people in more cities through the support of TEKsystems,” says Plinio Ayala, president and CEO of Per Scholas. “We look forward to building our Per Scholas programs with the people of Charlotte to develop an inclusive, resourceful and job-ready workforce.”

A hiring and training partner since 2015, TEKsystems has hired more than 450 Per Scholas graduates to date, including a significant number in network support positions. Now, with customized training tracks in Baltimore, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Detroit and Philadelphia, Per Scholas will train at least 540 people for cutting-edge tech jobs by 2022.

In response to developments related to COVID-19, the training may take place virtually. Applicants are encouraged to apply and will receive updates regarding an in-person or remote training. To learn more, please visit: https://www.platformbyps.org/charlotte/application-developer.

###

About Per Scholas

Per Scholas is a national nonprofit that drives positive and proven social change in communities across the country. Through rigorous and tuition-free technology training and professional development, we prepare motivated and curious adults who are unemployed or underemployed for successful careers as technology professionals, and we create onramps to businesses in need of their talents. Today we provide our solutions in fourteen cities across the country: Atlanta, GA; Baltimore, MD; Greater Boston, MA; Charlotte, NC; Chicago, IL; Greater Cincinnati, OH; Columbus, OH; Dallas, TX; Denver, CO; Detroit, MI; the National Capital Region; Newark, NJ, New York, NY and Philadelphia, PA. To date, Per Scholas has trained more than 10,000 individuals, helping them build lasting, life-changing skills and careers in technology. To learn more, please visit https://perscholas.org/.

About TEKsystems^®

We’re partners in transformation. We help clients activate ideas and solutions to take advantage of a new world of opportunity. We are a team of 80,000 strong, working with over 6,000 clients, including 80% of the Fortune 500 across North America, Europe and Asia. As an industry leader in Full-Stack Technology Services, Talent Services and real-world application, we work with progressive leaders to drive change. That’s the power of true partnership. TEKsystems is an Allegis Group company.

Contact: Tori McKnight (tori.mcknight@berlinrosen.com | 646.517.1828)

*** MEDIA ADVISORY FOR April 6, 2020 ***

TEKsystems and Per Scholas expand training partnership to Chicago to build a diverse tech talent pipeline for today’s most in-demand jobs

Job seekers can receive tuition-free training customized to meet local job market demands

(CHICAGO, April 6, 2020) – Today, full-stack technology services provider TEKsystems and national tech training nonprofit Per Scholas announced the expansion of their transformative partnership to Chicago. With successful training programs already underway in Baltimore, Boston, Detroit and Philadelphia, the expanded partnership will enable TEKsystems and Per Scholas to provide local workers with tuition-free technology training and employers with a stronger, more diverse pipeline of talent. Although this expansion was planned before COVID-19, access to training programs is more important than ever. The application window for the program in Chicago has opened, and training will begin on June 22.

An emerging tech hub with a growing demand for skilled workers, the local technology sector in Chicago contributed over $50 billion to the city’s economy in 2018, with median tech job wages that are over 80% higher than that of other jobs in the state. To ensure that the wealth of tech jobs is distributed fairly, TEKsystems and Per Scholas have designed a curriculum that will help students meet these employer and industry demands, particularly for entry-level IT support jobs.

The program will provide students with CompTIA A+ and Network+ certifications as well as 15 weeks of hands-on training in troubleshooting and maintaining desktop and mobile devices, company software and network infrastructure. In addition to practical, hands-on training, participants will also receive long-term career guidance and placement support, including resume and interview coaching from TEKsystems representatives. Students will be connected to TEKsystems recruiters and incorporated into their talent pipeline for job placements at leading businesses around the city. Once they complete the program, students will gain access to a full suite of graduate services from Per Scholas, which provides two years of extensive alumni follow-up and support.

“At TEKsystems, we’re committed to creating significant opportunities for our people—both our internal team members and our consultants—to achieve their goals through career success, which aligns so well with our strong partnership with Per Scholas,” says Faith Johnson, vice president of human resources at TEKsystems. “We’re proud to support training programs in new cities to address the high demand for skilled IT talent from our customers and the communities we serve, giving more people access to life-changing education.”

TEKsystems’ investment will connect motivated and talented individuals with the critical skills employers are demanding across each market. Equity is a primary consideration as regional and national economies develop. Nationally, 87% of Per Scholas students are people of color, and 30% are women. Expanding this partnership will ensure that future career opportunities are accessible by all communities.

“It’s incredible to empower more people in more cities through the support of TEKsystems,” says Plinio Ayala, president and CEO of Per Scholas. “We look forward to building our Per Scholas programs with the people of Chicago to develop an inclusive, resourceful and job-ready workforce.”

A hiring and training partner since 2015, TEKsystems has hired more than 450 Per Scholas graduates to date, including a significant number in network support positions. Now, with customized training tracks in Baltimore, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Detroit and Philadelphia, Per Scholas will train at least 540 people for cutting-edge tech jobs by 2022.

In response to developments related to COVID-19, the training may be taught virtually. Applicants are encouraged to apply and will receive updates regarding in-person or remote training. To learn more, please visit https://www.platformbyps.org/chicago/network-support.

###

About Per Scholas

Per Scholas is a national nonprofit that drives positive and proven social change in communities across the country. Through rigorous and tuition-free technology training and professional development, we prepare motivated and curious adults who are unemployed or underemployed for successful careers as technology professionals, and we create onramps to businesses in need of their talents. Today we provide our solutions in fourteen cities across the country: Atlanta, GA; Baltimore, MD; Greater Boston, MA; Charlotte, NC; Chicago, IL; Greater Cincinnati, OH; Columbus, OH; Dallas, TX; Denver, CO; Detroit, MI; the National Capital Region; Newark, NJ, New York, NY and Philadelphia, PA. To date, Per Scholas has trained more than 10,000 individuals, helping them build lasting, life-changing skills and careers in technology. To learn more, please visit https://perscholas.org/.

About TEKsystems^®

We’re partners in transformation. We help clients activate ideas and solutions to take advantage of a new world of opportunity. We are a team of 80,000 strong, working with over 6,000 clients, including 80% of the Fortune 500 across North America, Europe and Asia. As an industry leader in Full-Stack Technology Services, Talent Services and real-world application, we work with progressive leaders to drive change. That’s the power of true partnership. TEKsystems is an Allegis Group company.

Overnight the world moved in-person operations to online and virtual interfacing. For many organizations and companies, the COVID-19 pandemic became a daunting task to shift day-to-day operations to virtual environments, determining which conference platform to use, and delivering the same quality of service to a target audience.

Per Scholas’ success, transitioning over 500 students and 200 staff members to a remote work structure in less than two weeks, took leadership, staff-creativity, and a twenty-five-year model built on the belief that agility and innovation are critical elements to succeed.

Leveraging Technology in Crisis

In December of 2019, Per Scholas began testing its latest blended learning training model. In this environment, two in-person classrooms are connected remotely and taught by an instructor who is physically present in one class and instructs another using remote learning technology.

As COVID-19 began spreading across the United States, Per Scholas leveraged this technology to quickly transition all in-person classes across 12 national sites to remote learning environments. Spearheaded by Senior Director of Program Development and Design, Eduardo Hernandez, the effort took the collaborative work of more than one-hundred instructors, technologists, curriculum designers, coaches, and staff. At the end of the first full-week of remote training, Per Scholas CEO and President, Plinio Ayala, commented, “we are quickly building new processes and systems to support all of our activities, virtual admissions, remote learning and support for our employer partners and community network. If there’s one thing that is at the core of the Per Scholas model it is human connection, and we are prioritizing that in this transition. Technology won’t work without it, and we don’t either.”

Prioritizing the student experience during this transition was important. Resources such as a student user guide and custom videos were created to help students and instructors leverage the learning management system and adjust to the new remote environment. “We have been doing remote learning for a while, at least a form of it, and we’ve been able to leverage this technology to support all of our students and their learning during this time,” said Magnardo Tavarez, Director of Program Innovation at Per Scholas, one of the senior staff overseeing the transition. Communications to Per Scholas partners, current students, and alumni were sent out via email and an ongoing web page providing updates to prospective applicants and currently enrolled students were created concerning operations during this time.

Overcoming Barriers to Remote Learning

Students who enroll in Per Scholas commit to learning every day, Monday-Friday, for seven hours of instruction, including breaks throughout the day. Students have designated workstations throughout their training and engage in hands-on activities as part of their curriculum. With the shift to remote learning, students and staff members needed to quickly adapt to new norms such as working and learning from home, which for some, current living circumstances or home environments might not be as accommodating. Other matters such as lack of access to a personal computer and internet also presented themselves as challenges.

To address the latter concern, a Loaner Program was established to provide technical hardware and equipment to all Per Scholas students and staff. Participants signed off to receive a laptop and/or MiFi device, which was on loan for the duration of their course. Video conferencing for instruction is a daily concern due to the large amounts of traffic to Zoom or Google Hangout servers. In the event of delays or connectivity issues, instructors prepared reading materials and hands-on assignments in advance so that student learning was not interrupted.

Corporate volunteerism was able to carry one with employer partners, such as TEKsystems, who conducted their sessions via video conferencing. One technical recruiter noted how appreciated and attentive the students were. “They made it feel like a normal class which was awesome. It felt rewarding and exciting to be in a position of guidance for those who could really use it. I [also] learned that I am able to be just as effective remotely.”

Students have adapted to the remote learning rather quickly and have continued building community during this transition. “We’ve reached a new level of friendship where we are not just classmates anymore,” states Diliana, a Per Scholas New York student in Network Support. “We’ve seen each other’s houses, helped each other with Zoom and WebEx, and talk to one another every day on Slack.”

The Future of Remote at Per Scholas

“Transitioning to a full-on remote operation for our training was already on my to-do list. I was already planning out a nice roll-out plan to support this process. However, the Coronavirus decided to speed up our timeline,” Magnardo chuckles.

The ability to pivot during tough times such as the one we find ourselves in now, including identifying best practices in a climate that has yet to settle itself, screams dystopian in the making. But it’s during these times, however, that Magnardo and his team are able to consider various projections, scenarios, and outcomes and identify familiarity within the uncertainty.

“[During this time], we saw our challenges, and what we needed to create to do this correctly. We can capitalize on this time to assess or update our existing operations so that we are ready for moments such as this.”