Columbus residents obtain IT job skills through free training provided by Per Scholas. Nationwide and other local employer partners commit to hire.

August 4, 2014 – COLUMBUS, OH — On Friday, July 25, sixteen formerly unemployed or underemployed Columbus residents graduated from the Per Scholas IT-Ready job training and job search assistance program. The 8-week course provides training for the CompTIA A+ certification and prepares students for entry-level positions in the IT field. Employers hiring Per Scholas graduates include JPMorgan Chase, Nationwide Insurance, Time Warner Cable, TEKsystems, Applied Technologies, Collabera, and ViaQuest. The program is free to its participants – the vast majority of whom are formerly unemployed. This is the 7th class to graduate from Per Scholas since its inception into the community in 2012.

Per Scholas IT-Ready provides high quality hands-on technical skills learning and professional soft skills development to unemployed and underemployed individuals. The course teaches to the CompTIA A+ certification, which prepares candidates for entry-level helpdesk and technical support roles. In class, students learn the maintenance of PCs, mobile devices, operating systems, and printers. Mentorship from area technology professionals provides students with support as they transition from classroom to career.

“After speaking with local employers like Nationwide, they are ready for highly qualified, entry-level IT candidates to fill their open positions,” says Andrea Applegate, Managing Director for both Per Scholas Columbus and Cincinnati. “The training offered by Per Scholas satisfies that need by quickly and effectively training job seekers for jobs with our great local businesses.”
Per Scholas Columbus has graduated 150 students since it opened in 2012. More than 4,500 have been trained across Per Scholas sites nationally. Of those students, 85% have graduated and nearly 75% have become employed following training with starting salaries around $30,000.

About Per Scholas – Per Scholas is a national nonprofit organization offering free, high quality technology education, job training, placement and career development opportunities to people in underserved communities. Since 1998, more than 4,500 un- and underemployed adults (18+ years old) have enrolled in its job training programs. Per Scholas is expanding the IT-Ready network in partnership with the Creating IT Futures Foundation to bring free IT training opportunities to several other U.S. cities. IT-Ready sites operate in New York City, Cincinnati and Columbus, OH; Minneapolis, MN and the National Capital region. Recognition from the Social Impact Exchange named Per Scholas one of the top 100 nonprofits creating proven social impact in the U.S. and the White House 2014 report recognized Per Scholas for being particularly impactful serving the long-term unemployed. For more information, visit perscholas.org, review the fact sheet, Twitter @PerScholas and Facebook at facebook.com/PerScholas.

Media contact: Jessicah White, Director of Communications // 718-772-0623 // jwhite@perscholas.org

On Tuesday, July 22, President Obama signed the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act into law – with broad bipartisan support. In conjunction, Vice President Biden released his report on addressing unemployment and the skills gap through effective, employer-driven job training.

Per Scholas was cited by Vice President Joe Biden as an example of a program providing successful advancements in accelerated training for IT skills. In the report, released on July 21, Ready to Work: Job Driven Training and American Opportunity, Biden recognized Per Scholas as having been “successful at providing entry-level skills that put people on the first rung of the career ladder.”

The Vice President’s just-released report recognizes the importance of nonprofit training providers in job-driven workforce development. I am honored that Per Scholas is cited on page 75 of the report as an example of “exciting advances in accelerated training.”

It is deeply encouraging that Per Scholas is gaining recognition from so many diverse leaders and stakeholders. Thank you for your support in helping us grow our training capacity nationally and connect even more job seekers to career path opportunities in IT.

What began as an invitation for a student story quickly turned into more than Tiffany Lewin ever thought possible: being interviewed by Chelsea Clinton in front of 1,000 people, the whole Clinton family included. Queue the goose-bumps–and not just Tiffany’s. Everybody at Per Scholas, too. Her first time flying, Tiffany took off for Denver along with Per Scholas Executive Director of New York, Angie Kamath, and took the stage the second day of the meeting.

Tiffany contributed one-of-a-kind insight to the elite panel where she was joined by a CEO of a global company, a President of a college, a U.S. Secretary, and a founder of a local nonprofit. She was the sole representative on the stage speaking from a lens that always doesn’t get the spotlight: a young adult who was hungry for an opportunity and guidance. Tiffany came to Per Scholas at the age of 19 with no work experience, no income, no pathway to higher-ed and no outside guidance to change her path. She graduated from the Per Scholas IT training and by 20 landed her first job ever as a Hardware and Systems Analyst at New York-Presbyterian. Now, nearly three years later, she’s moved up in her responsibilities and now manages others. Her voice on that stage was all the more important because she also represents a population that makes up only 5% of the tech industry – a minority woman. We have a lot to learn from her.

Following her stage time with Chelsea, Tiffany has been on the ride of her life.

IT job training nonprofit Per Scholas attends Clinton Global Initiative America with commitment to reshore up to 500 software testing jobs with corporate partner Doran Jones.

Media Contact: Jessicah White, (785) 691-6987 / jwhite@perscholas.org

WHAT: Per Scholas, a New York-based national nonprofit that provides free IT job training and job placement to unemployed adults, makes a CGI Commitment to Action in partnership with New York-based IT consulting firm Doran Jones to immediately reshore 150 software testing jobs to the South Bronx and replicate model to additional cities across U.S. resulting in up to 200 jobs reshored in each city.

Per Scholas Executive Director Angie Kamath will attend CGI America June 23-25 with other national leaders to discuss its solution and others toward economic recovery in the United States. CGI Commitments to Action are new, specific, and measurable initiatives undertaken by CGI America commitment makers, leaders from the business, foundation, NGO, and government sectors, to make a positive impact.

At CGI America on June 24, Per Scholas graduate Tiffany Lewin, 22, will speak on a panel moderated by Chelsea Clinton to share her experience as a young adult who bridged the opportunity gap through the job training provided by Per Scholas. Ms. Lewin will be joined on the panel by PTECH Founding Principal Rashid Davis, Siemens Corporation President and CEO Eric Spiegel, and Miami Dade College President Eduardo Padron to discuss youth employment solutions in America.

WHO: Angie Kamath, Per Scholas Executive Director; Keith Klain, Doran Jones CEO of Testing; Tiffany Lewin, Per Scholas graduate and New York-Presbyterian Systems and Hardware Analyst.

WHEN: Monday, June 23 through Wednesday, June 25, 2014

About Per Scholas

Per Scholas is a national nonprofit organization offering free, high quality technology education, job training, placement and career development opportunities to people in underserved communities. Since 1998, more than 4,500 un- and underemployed adults (18+ years old) have enrolled in its job training programs and more than 3,500 graduates have found jobs. Per Scholas is expanding the IT-Ready Network in partnership with the Creating IT Futures Foundation to bring free IT training opportunities to several other U.S. cities. IT-Ready sites operate in New York City, Cincinnati and Columbus, OH; Minneapolis, MN and the National Capital region. The Social Impact Exchange named Per Scholas one of the top 100 nonprofits creating proven social impact in the U.S. The White House in its 2014 report recognized Per Scholas for being particularly impactful serving the long-term unemployed. For more information, visit perscholas.org, review the fact sheet, Twitter @PerScholas and Facebook at facebook.com/PerScholas?_rdr.

About Doran Jones

Founded in 2010 and based in New York, Doran Jones is a technology services firm that specializes in software engineering and testing consulting and outsourcing. Its clients include Fortune 100 banking and financial services firms across the continental United States. Managed by a world class executive team with extensive experience in all aspects of software development and testing, they are backed by a board with a strong track record in financial services and community investment.

Website: www.doranjones.com Twitter: www.twitter.com/DoranJonesInc

About the Clinton Global Initiative America The Clinton Global Initiative America (CGI America), a program of the Clinton Global Initiative, addresses economic recovery in the United States. Established in June 2011 by President Bill Clinton, CGI America brings together leaders in business, government, and civil society to generate and implement commitments to create jobs, stimulate economic growth, foster innovation, and support workforce development in the United States. Since its first meeting, CGI America participants have made over 300 commitments valued at more than $15 billion when fully funded and implemented. To learn more, visit cgiamerica.org.

Established in 2005 by President Bill Clinton, the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI), an initiative of the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation, convenes global leaders year-round and at its Annual Meeting to create and implement solutions to the world’s most pressing challenges. CGI also convenes CGI University, which brings together undergraduate and graduate students to address pressing challenges in their communities and around the world. To date, members of the CGI community have made more than 2,800 Commitments to Action, which are already improving the lives of more than 430 million people in over 180 countries. When fully funded and implemented, these commitments will be valued at $103 billion. For more information, visit clintonglobalinitiative.org and follow us on Twitter @ClintonGlobal and Facebook at facebook.com/clintonglobalinitiative.

Last night, June 12, Per Scholas honored three outstanding partners whose contributions of time and talent, employment opportunities, funding, vision and leadership have played a key role in creating bright futures for our graduates.

More than 250 of our closest industry leaders and supporters mingled with many of Per Scholas’ accomplished alumni–namely featured speakers of the night Greg Lee, Tristan Delgado and keynote speaker Shannon Branch–at the Grand Hyatt Hotel for the third annual ROI dinner. It was a night of fun, food, inspiration, and Mariachi music provided by the all-female group Flor de Toloache.

We were honored to celebrate the contributions of Barclays and Keith Klain, whose ingenuity and generosity built the Per Scholas Software Testing Education Program (STEP) last year. As a direct result, close to 100 students have completed STEP training, with graduates earning average salaries o $36,000. The final honoree of the night, IT consulting firm Doran Jones, saw promise in Mr. Klain’s vision of a software testing center in the Bronx. Now, Doran Jones is Per Scholas’ private-sector partner on our software testing job creation initiative. Doran Jones will operate the new Urban Development Center (UDC), co-located at Per Scholas’ headquarters in the South Bronx, and provide software testing to its clients. We look forward to seeing 150 Per Scholas STEP graduates employed at the UDC over the next 18 months. An incredible commitment.

The message was repeated many times in the night. We could not do any of this without the support of those who support and inspire us, our corporate partners. Special thanks to our sponsors, including Barclays, Bloomberg, the Creating IT Futures Foundation, Dell, Doran Jones, JPMorgan Chase, High Point Solutions, NYSE-Euronext, Prudential, and generous donors Con Edison, Control Group, EMC, and Vicom.

Thanks to the generosity of our attendees, the ROI Corporate Dinner was just as much about looking forward as it was about celebrating our past successes. A quarter of a million dollars was raised through the generosity of our sponsors and individual guests, to go towards our students like Shannon, Greg and Tristan, who have ended cycles of poverty and unemployment through access to Per Scholas’ technology education and job services.

In giving the final award of the night, the Innovator of the Year award to Doran Jones, Per Scholas Executive Director Angie Kamath expressed: “Leadership takes vision, a bit of risk-taking, and an ability to dream beyond what is directly in front of you.” We are so lucky to have partners that step up to that tall order to allow us to continue growing and provide life-changing opportunities for our incredible, deserving students.

Pencil in ROI 2015 and continue to support the important work of Per Scholas and spread the word to others. There are many ways to help us rebuild communities. Volunteer your time to a student, be part of expanding the UDC, help us enter new cities across the country, make a personal gift, hire a graduate, or join an advisory or board role. With your contributions, Per Scholas will continue to grow.

“It is a real joy to be around Per Scholas staff and alumni – we seem to be a real happy group.” That was a parting comment from a Per Scholas Cincinnati alumna who attended the Per Scholas National Capital Region grand opening on April 22. She was one of many (happy) special guests.

Per Scholas could not be more excited for its fourth and newest site in Silver Spring, Maryland, serving the surrounding National Capital Region with IT-Ready training. The grand opening event took place April 22 with the presence of Acting Assistant Secretary Eric Seleznow, Employment and Training Administration, U.S. Department of Labor; President and CEO Msgr. Rev. John Enzler of Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Washington; Leonard Howie, Secretary of Labor, Licensing and Regulation for the State of Maryland; Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett; Ed Glabus of ManTech International Corporation, representation from Congressman Chris Van Hollen’s office — and many others.

The event began with a roundtable discussion with Assistant Secretary Seleznow and five IT-Ready graduates – one from each IT-Ready operation, New York, Columbus, Cincinnati, Minneapolis, and a current student from Silver Spring. They were joined by President and CEO of Per Scholas, Plinio Ayala, CEO of Creating IT Futures Foundation, Charles Eaton, and Father John of Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Washington.

“I worked for 18 years as a computer programmer. I was laid off and unemployed for nearly three years. I used up my pension, my savings, my unemployment. My family and I were surviving on credit cards when I found Per Scholas,” shared one graduate who is a mother of three. She is now working full-time as an IT consultant with ComResource at Nationwide.

“I was laid off after working for a company for many years. I couldn’t even get a job at the local hardware store. After Per Scholas, I now work for HealthPartners and make enough to not have to worry anymore for my kids. Simple things like going to the grocery store stress free about paying the bill is such a huge relief,” another graduate shared with the guests and peers.

Assistant Secretary Seleznow listened with his undivided attention. “I hear stories all across the country like yours – hard working people with great skills and attitudes that just need a little bit of assistance and an opportunity to succeed. You have done that! I am happy to say we have a President and Vice President in the White House right now that are listening to these concerns and have made it a priority to respond to need and support innovative job driven solutions like Per Scholas. Thank you for sharing with me today.”

After additional guests arrived, the roundtable was followed by a program with remarks from Per Scholas and partner leadership, local government officials and employers. The message was clear: the need for Per Scholas is abundant, both in the communities we serve and among employers.

“We consistently have 100-200 open jobs in IT and Cyber.” Ed Glabus of ManTech International Corporation shared in his speech to the audience at the inaugural event. “These jobs will not stop growing, the workforce will never catch up to the demand. That’s why programs like Per Scholas are a great solution and that is why I’m here today.”

Catholic Charities Per Scholas

The first class is now in session with 15 students at its permanent location at 700 Roeder Road. The class will graduate May 23. The celebration was held to introduce and highlight Per Scholas and the IT-Ready program – a free 8-week job training course providing high quality hands-on technical skills learning and professional soft skills development to unemployed and underemployed individuals. The course teaches to the CompTIA A+ certification, which prepares candidates for entry-level help-desk and technical support roles. The Per Scholas model has been proven successful through independent studies, triggering its growth into new markets. In its first year, 80 students drawn from the National Capital Region will be trained in Silver Spring. Historically, 85 percent of Per Scholas participants graduate and obtain industry certification and 75 percent of graduates land jobs.

Even among these prestigious guests, the stars of the event were obvious among everyone — the 15 Per Scholas students. Each individually gave personal guided tours through the space to each guest, provided photography services of the event, presented in front of the crowd at the podium, and, most proudly, networked, networked, networked. They looked sharp, were incredibly kind and personable, and Per Scholas could not be more proud of these newest members to our growing family.

Bridgette Gray

Per Scholas extends its deepest thanks to the guest speakers, its supporters Creating IT Futures Foundation, Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Washington, and the Community Foundation of Montgomery County, and the Silver Spring community for a very warm welcome.

We look forward to engaging with local partners and employers. The takeaway message from Managing Director Bridgette Gray of Per Scholas Silver Spring is clear: “Hire our graduates. And if you can’t, then introduce Per Scholas to a person who can.”

Bronx-based IT job training nonprofit, Per Scholas, Attends White House Event Focused on Serving the Long-Term Unemployed

Plinio Ayala, Per Scholas President & CEO, meets with Vice President Joe Biden to discuss strategy, scale and implementation

Bronx, N.Y. January 31, 2014 — Per Scholas, a national non-profit providing free IT job training and career support to individuals in underserved communities, will attend a White House event on Friday, January 31 convened by President Obama to discuss strategies for helping our nation’s nearly 4 million long-term unemployed get back into the labor market. President and CEO Plinio Ayala is attending to share the Per Scholas approach to serving the long-term unemployed and will sit with Vice President Biden to discuss how to strengthen skills training across the country.

Sector partnerships will be one of the strategies featured at the event as a tool to help the long-term unemployed re-train for new well-paying, family-supporting careers. These business-led partnerships bring together multiple firms within the same industry along with local colleges, training providers, community-based organizations and workforce investment boards. These employers work together to define common skill standards for hard-to-fill positions, and then partner organizations align publicly funded training and support services to prepare people for those jobs.

Mr. Ayala has been called to the White House to share the successes of Per Scholas in building such partnerships to re-employ local residents in the Information Technology industry. One of the hallmarks of the approach is that it is employer-driven with a growing list of employer partners who play an integral role in the program and graduates’ success. They include ASI System Integration, Barclays, Bloomberg, Cablevision, JPMorgan Chase, Neuberger Berman, NYSE Euronext, Pomeroy, Time Warner and many others.

A number of organizations promoting the national expansion of sector partnerships will also be in attendance, including National Skills Coalition and Business Leaders United for Workforce Partnerships. Other event participants will include CEOs from national corporations, small- and medium-sized employers, foundations, and other local organizations working to help the long-term unemployed in a variety of ways.

Secretary of Labor Tom Perez and Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker will be joining President Obama at the event to discuss a number of new efforts by the Obama Administration to bring new attention to the long-term unemployed. Among those efforts, it is anticipated that President Obama will be announcing new support for sector partnerships and other workforce intermediaries working with the long-term unemployed, building on the successful models developed by such organizations as Per Scholas.

Per Scholas provides free IT training, career development services, and job placement support for unemployed adults who have the drive but lack the skills to succeed in the IT industry. The Creating IT Futures Foundation, the philanthropic arm of CompTIA, partnered with Per Scholas to form the IT-Ready training network and spurred the national expansion of the program. IT-Ready has served 5,000 people to date in New York, Cincinnati and Columbus, OH, Minneapolis/St. Paul, and the National Capital Region. The network will grow to eight cities by 2016 and will train more than 1,000 individuals annually. Learn more at www.perscholas.org.

Anthony DeSantis, Senior VP of Information Technology & Services at Neuberger Berman, attended the 2013 ROI Corporate Dinner with Servon Lewis, this year’s student keynote speaker. Anthony wrote the following post in response:

“For the first Celebration with Service in 2010, we hosted a group of Per Scholas students, who toured our datacenter and technology, and participated in mock interviews. We’ve done this event successfully every year since.

Per Scholas, a Neuberger Berman Foundation grantee since 2010, is a national nonprofit organization that breaks the cycle of poverty by providing technology education, access, training and job placement services for people in low-income communities.

That first event was such an overwhelming success and I was so impressed with the group that I wanted to engage them further. The result was a desktop support intern program. To date, we’ve had nine interns rotate through our program, giving the students hands-on training related to their coursework, while also helping them develop their customer service and life skills.

Last year, one of the interns stood out. Servon Lewis showed such excellent communication skills and technical support abilities that we extended his internship. When a position then became available, Servon transitioned to a permanent role on our helpdesk. Having turned his internship into a job, Servon is a Per Scholas success story.

He is currently featured as their student of the month and was recently the keynote student speaker at the Per Scholas 2013 ROI Corporate Dinner, in which he spoke in front of 300 corporate IT leaders.

I encourage you to read Servon’s speech, a touching account of how the Per Scholas program changed his life.

Next time you call the helpdesk, you may speak with Servon directly and now you’ll have some insight into the voice on the other end of the line.”

____

To add, Servon was recently interviewed along with President & CEO of Per Scholas, Plinio Ayala, on Bloomberg TV’s Deirdre Bolton show. After it aired, and in addition to Mr. DeSantis’ expressive piece, the praise and supportive compliments have been nonstop from our committed corporate partner Neuberger Berman and its employees (and beyond, thanks to Twitter). Per Scholas — and Servon — are touched. Thank you.

Last week was a huge week for corporate volunteering.

Per Scholas held THREE separate volunteering events at our main site in the Bronx and also in Manhattan. Tuesday June 18th, Barclays hosted an event at their site in mid-town Manhattan, Wednesday June, 19th Moody’s came by our office to help with mock interviews, and Thursday June 20th Interbrand also came by to assist our students with their online presence.

Read more about the Barclays visit below:

Tuesday, June 18th marked the launch of the brand new series of bi-weekly mock interview sessions hosted by our corporate partner, Barclays, during which Per Scholas students are provided with vital interviewing, self-marketing and networking experience. This week, eight students were invited to Barclays’ mid-town location where they were able to experience exactly what a corporate job interview would be like: arriving at an unfamiliar office location, signing into the office building with security and interviewing with multiple individuals for actual IT jobs in the field, such as Desktop Support and Help Desk Support positions. Students were given actual job specifics ahead of time to prepare themselves and were expected to do their research, just as any good interviewee would. Contrary to a traditional job interview, however, Per Scholas students get the added benefit of immediate feedback by the professional mentors volunteering their time to help. Interviewers filled out evaluation forms providing helpful tips for improving the students’ skills in the future — which will aide them in landing the job when the real world opportunity roles around.

Student Laura Harris said of the afternoon: “It was a great experience and I picked up some great tips in terms of how to handle myself during an interview.”

Frank Montes added, “I was a little nervous, similar to what happens in real interviews, and I know I made several mistakes. However, this experience will help me to be better prepared for the future interviews I have to come.”

Fatou Diop also felt similar: “I am very thankful for the experience at Barclays… I learned a lot from it.”

And it’s true. On average, it takes a Per Scholas student three interviews before they land a job (80% of all graduates become employed post training). The more practice our corporate volunteers can offer our students, the greater the chances our students can move that number from a 3 average — to one.

Overall, our first mock interview session was a great first time success! We would like to thank the interviewers, Wayne, Nick, Doug and Golam for taking time out of their work day to assist our students and for their continued support to Per Scholas and its’ mission. With their help, these students were able to sharpen their interviewing skills and left feeling more confident in themselves and their abilities.

If you or your company is interested in volunteering with Per Scholas, please contact Sarah Conte, Corporate Relations & Volunteer Manager, at sconte@perscholas.org.

We are excited to announce the launch of the Software Testing Education Program (STEP) in partnership with Barclays, a five-week pilot course currently in development that will be offered to a select group of 20 Per Scholas alumni (graduates of our 15-week A+/Net+ course) later this summer. The project is in collaboration with several committed partners: Association for Software Testing, DevelopSense, QASymphony, QualiTest, Satisfice, SmartBear, uTest, Virtusa, and Workroom Productions.

The global software testing market is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 21.15 percent over the period 2012 – 2016. In layman’s terms that is… a lot of jobs. The STEP curriculum, written by Barclays, is tailored to prepare students to compete for these entry-level software testing roles that are in high demand. The intensive course will be lab-based, instructor-led training supported by exercises, field studies, industry experts, and exposure to leading edge software testing tools. Students will be selected for the program after successful completion of the core Per Scholas 15-week curriculum and successful achievement of Comp TIA A+ certification.

By the end, Per Scholas participants will have acquired industry leading testing skills and techniques, be given access to real life projects, and participate in field studies to learn alongside working professionals and be given the opportunity to interview for apprenticeships for openings with our corporate partners, like Barclays.

Get Involved. If your company wishes to participate, there are many ways. Companies can provide facilities for Field Studies which will require 4 hours for students to visit a live project and observe software testing being conducted on a real world project. Organizations or individuals may participate in the STEP Mentoring program which pairs graduates with senior test professionals for career guidance and development. Lastly, the goal is to have 20 apprenticeships ready for students to be considered at partner firms with software testing openings. If you have an opportunity to open up to the Per Scholas scholars, there could be no greater contribution. To get involved contact info@perscholas.org to learn more and sign-up.

Click here for the complete program and curriculum.

Barclays and the supporting partners are pioneers. Their work with STEP is empowering Per Scholas to innovate with technology and as a result provide its students enormous opportunities in their life-changing careers. Learn more about the committed partners who helped make this possible:

Barclays is a major global financial services provider engaged in personal banking, credit cards, corporate and investment banking and wealth and investment management. They are contributing training materials, access to testing experts as well as delivering training to STEP. http://group.barclays.com/

Association for Software Testing (AST) is a professional non-profit association that is dedicated to advancing software testing and strives to build a testing community. They are providing graduates of STeP one year free memberships to the AST. http://www.associationforsoftwaretesting.org/

QASymphony creates simple, yet innovative products that manage the testing, tracking and replication of bugs in the software development process. They are providing free software and licenses for the STeP students to learn and practice test management, execution and defect tracking. http://www.qasymphony.com/

Satisfice is owned by James Marcus Bach who is a software tester, author, trainer and consultant. He is a proponent of exploratory testing and the context-driven school of software testing and is credited with developing session-based testing. Satisfice is providing discounted training in James “Rapid Software Testing” methodology. http://www.satisfice.com/

SmartBear offers powerful, affordable and easy to use software development, testing, performance and post deployment monitoring tools. They are providing free software and licenses for the STeP students to learn and practice test automation. http://smartbear.com/

uTest provides “in-the-wild” software testing to companies of all shapes and sizes through a global community of 80,000 professional testers in 190 countries. They are inviting STeP graduates to attend their uTest “Sandbox” program – a real-world testing exercise – where they can earn money for submitting valuable bugs and receive professional feedback on ways to improve their skills. http://www.utest.com/

Workroom Productions is owned by James Lyndsay who has been testing since 1986 and has worked independently since setting up Workroom Productions in 1994. James is contributing his Black Box Testing Machines so students can practice techniques that can be generalized and transferred. http://www.workroom-productions.com/

A special thanks to Keith Klain of Barclays for making this pilot possible. Read what he had to add straight from his blog and another post by QASymphony.