Activate and Per Scholas Launch Innovative IT Training Program to Help Solve Denver’s Tech Worker Shortage
ActivateIT Powered by Per Scholas will prepare overlooked communities for the Denver IT job market and provide local employers with the tech talent they need.
Activate, a Denver-based professional placement and coaching firm, has announced an innovative new partnership with national tech training nonprofit Per Scholas to give local businesses access to the tech talent they need. The companies have co-launched ActivateIT Powered by Per Scholas, offering tuition-free technology training and professional development to individuals from diverse Denver communities.
Since 2016, Activate has been helping employers in the financial services, business services, healthcare, and trade sectors hire and develop talent from underrepresented populations. Activate will leverage Per Scholas’ proven IT training platform to expand its services into the IT sector, which is experiencing a profound workforce shortage of almost one million unfilled jobs in 2019.
Combining two proven training models, ActivateIT Powered by Per Scholas will offer students the ability to earn industry-recognized credentials for in-demand roles such as network and security administration, IT security, data engineering, Salesforce administration, and quality assurance. Participants will also receive professional and life skills coaching to ensure they thrive in their new careers.
“Simply, ActivateIT Powered by Per Scholas is a business-led economic development solution. By partnering with Per Scholas, we’re able to supply businesses with the highly-skilled talent they need, while providing the opportunity for low-wage earners to move into middle-income jobs with growth potential,” said Activate CEO and Founder Helen Young Hayes. “We’re thrilled to be able to provide Per Scholas’ time-tested IT and career training alongside our individualized professional development curriculum.”
“After meeting with Activate, we quickly realized that we have significant alignment in our values, mission, and operations – especially when it comes to building stronger and healthier workforce programs, families, and communities more broadly,” said Plinio Ayala, CEO of Per Scholas. “With the launch of ActivateIT Powered by Per Scholas, we’ll be able to extend these opportunities in Denver and provide more workers with the skills they need to be successful in today’s evolving workforce.”
Per Scholas has trained more than 10,000 IT professionals in 11 cities over the last 25 years, providing comprehensive market-led talent solutions for over 500 businesses including Cognizant, TEKsystems, and Capital One. Per Scholas’ nationally replicated model has produced skilled, committed employees who thrive in their careers. Eighty-five percent of Per Scholas students graduate, 80% of graduates gain IT employment, and 70% of placements stay retained in the job after one year. Per Scholas graduates earn, on average four times more in annual income, with average annual incomes increasing from $9,000 pre-training to $37,000 post-placement. By 2023, Per Scholas aims to reach an additional 4,000 students each year by training more people in current markets and expanding new training operations to cities across the country
Through its proprietary screening and coaching model, Activate has developed an employer-driven placement and retention program, with over 80% of the firm’s placements thriving in the same company twelve months after being hired. Activate’s placements are retained at 3x the rate of incumbents, saving employers an average of $12,000 per placement, while the firm’s placements increase their annual earnings by an average of nearly $20,000.
ActivateIT Powered by Per Scholas will enroll 48 individuals this year. In its first five years, ActivateIT will provide technology training to 500 individuals, with 400 placed into IT careers, creating a business-led solution for economic development.
Alexander Mandala | Profile of a Per Scholas IT Support Graduate
Alexander was born in Malawi, one of Africa’s poorest nations. After moving to the United States to advance his education, he encountered various personal and financial troubles. Alexander needed to consider a career alternative, not just for his future, but that of his family.
Title: Senior Coordinator for Help Support
Employer: Capital One
Location: Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas
Program/Course Name: IT Support
A Dream an Ocean Over
The seventh of nine children, Alexander grew up in Africa where he and his siblings all shared responsibilities around the house. He enjoyed learning and was the first in his family to go to college. He studied education at the University of Malawi and taught geography as a high school teacher for several years. However, what he made as a teacher was not enough even though he continued to provide for his family.
As the only educated member in his family, Alexander needed to support his family the best he could. To meet the financial needs he hoped, Alexander decided to look elsewhere, beyond Malawi, beyond Africa. Education was both a career and a personal interest of his so he decided to study abroad and get his master’s degree.
“I had hoped to leverage my education to better provide for my family. To do this, I dreamed of moving to the United States and excelling in my career there.”
Educational Background before IT Training
Alexander was off to start his new life in Boston, Massachusetts where he enrolled at Brandeis University. His family had pooled all of their funds together to finance his travel to America. However, his transition to the Northeast was not easy. Even with a partial scholarship, between paying for his tuition and living expenses, he could no longer afford school and had to drop out.
Hoping to still complete his degree, he moved to Texas to live with a distant relative and enrolled at Dallas Baptist University. After one semester, he could no longer support himself nor send funds back home to his family. Once again, Alexander withdrew from college and immediately began looking for a full-time job.
A Tech Genesis
For a time, Alexander worked at a local nursing home that paid $10/hour. It was barely enough to afford his basic living expenses. Although he stayed with his relative, he still needed to pay his share of rent. While attending a local church he came across a flyer for Per Scholas Dallas and their free IT certification training. Alexander always had an interest in technology. Back home in Malawi, he and his brother dabbled with operating a small computer repair business providing computer technical support to locals. The business still operates to this day!
He was skeptical about the absolutely free training offered by Per Scholas as per the flyer. “I have been paying a lot of money for education and you’re telling me that someone is going to give me IT training for free?” Fortunately, the person who placed the flyer was both a member of the church and an alum of Per Scholas. They encouraged him to attend an upcoming information session for IT Support training.
Alexander held off applying in order to build up his savings to finance himself throughout the ten weeks of training. “If I was going to do this, I wanted to make sure that I had all the support I needed. That meant quitting my job and focus only on my training. I was still paying back a loan for the semester I attended in Boston.”
At times it was challenging, especially when taking public transportation. To get to class, Alexander needed to take a 15-minute bus ride which took him to a train station where he had to travel 45 minutes to the Dallas metro area. “Students were expected to adhere to the strict attendance policy, so I had to wake up very early to make sure I was on time.” Sometimes Alexander stayed late to work with his peers to finish assignments, but for him, it was worth it!
After passing his CompTIA A+ certification exam, he was ready to find a job. He uploaded his resume whenever he could, attending networking events to get his name out in the job market. Still, there were no offers forthcoming. “It tested the best of me. I was interviewing and getting calls, but no job.”
Capital Gain
A month after graduating, Alexander was called in to interview at Capital One. He was selected among 20 other applicants for a contract position. Six months into the role, he was brought on board as a full-time associate working as Senior Coordinator for Help Desk Support where he currently trains and helps to onboard new hires.
“I am grateful for my experience at Per Scholas Dallas. I am able to envision a professional future for myself. I’m proud to be an alum because I also get to see other students come out of the training and find career success. Even here at Capital One, on a different team, there is another Per Scholas graduate who started out as a team leader and was soon promoted to principal coordinator. That only speaks to the caliber of the training we received from Per Scholas. We do our best, but Per Scholas is what helped us to realize and maximize our potential.”
Alex currently works at Capital One as a Senior Coordinator for Help Desk Support and continues to learn more about the field and progress his skill sets. To learn more about our IT Support course and other course offerings, visit our apply page.
Tech job access for all: New Yorkers of all backgrounds deserve a shot at upward mobility
Check Back Soon
Info on our upcoming program in Denver is coming soon! Be sure to check back in the new year.
Network Support Graduates in Philadelphia and Detroit Find Tech Career Success through Per Scholas / TEKsystems partnership
“It’s not where you start, it’s where you finish,” began Per Scholas Philadelphia valedictorian, Joshua Keesee. “What’s important though is to find where you get that start.”
Per Scholas celebrated the Philadelphia and Detroit inaugural graduations on October 30 and November 1, respectively, and graduates from each site are well on their way to leading promising careers in tech. Both locations were established in partnership with Per Scholas Champion Partner TEKsystems, a hiring and training partner since 2013 who has hired more than 400 Per Scholas graduates. Following successful launches in Baltimore and Boston, this partnership continues to aspire towards transforming the Philadelphia and Detroit regional markets by building an inclusive, job-ready tech workforce.
Origin Stories: Passions for Technology
Joshua grew up in the DC area where his father worked for the government. From time to time his father would return home with old tech equipment which his office would throw out. Fascinated by it, Joshua would take apart the equipment and reassemble it. As he grew older, his interest in hardware and software lessened but remained an interest of his as the right opportunity to jump-start his career wasn’t available until he discovered Per Scholas. “Per Scholas and TEKsystems have provided me with an opportunity to jump into an industry I am passionate about…that will give me the opportunity and benefit to be home with my children and to feel fulfilled in my career.”
For Cortez Christian, the prospect for a career in tech was cut short due to personal circumstances that resulted in him withdrawing from the University of Michigan where he enrolled as a computer science major.
“I knew tech was my goal – I’ve known it since forever,” states the Per Scholas Detroit valedictorian. Researching alternative training opportunities were “out of the question” due to their steep financial costs. But upon finding Per Scholas, Cortez was again energized to continue with pursuing his tech career aspirations.
“The opportunity to be at Per Scholas and work with the partners at TEKsystems is the most valuable educational experience I have ever had. I was not just learning tech skills – I was learning life skills, how to interview, what employers are looking for, building my customer service skills and my professional skills at the same time.”
Providing Transformative Opportunities
Nationally, 80% of Per Scholas graduates begin working in jobs that pay an average of $21/hour to start. That’s 4x times their average pre-training incomes. Commitment to creating opportunity is what drives the Per Scholas / TEKsystems partnership. Two weeks following graduation, 17 out of 20 Detroit graduates were successfully placed in tech roles by TEKsystems, and 9 out of 20 in Philadelphia, in turn strengthening the local IT talent pool and achieving greater diversity within the regions’ technology markets.
“We are looking to really provide a contribution to [these businesses and communities] by offering these types of programs and providing opportunity to people who normally would not be able to take advantage of other opportunities,” states Theresa Chin, Senior VP, Per Scholas. By expanding pathways for tech employment on the local level, benefits such as achieving a work/life balance are provided to residents like Joshua, who is a single father with a toddler son diagnosed with autism. “I needed to find a career that would support a work-life balance that would let me connect with him.”
Joshua and Cortez are just two of the hundreds of graduates Per Scholas and TEKsystems will train and prepare for cutting-edge technology jobs over the next three years. Each graduating class brings to fruition a future where overlooked individuals can access well-paying tech careers, where talent is recognized and recruited from many diverse sources, and opportunities lead to transformative lives for graduates, their families, and their communities.
“These past fifteen weeks I’ve learned alongside this awesome group of individuals,” shares Cortez. “I felt a little intimidated when I first got here — my colleagues are so awesome and smart. The best thing we had throughout all of this was each other.”
Per Scholas Greater Boston: Creating a Tech Talent Solution through Powerful Partnerships
Greater Boston’s dominance in the tech world is ever-growing. It’s on a roll. Boston continues to cement its reputation as one of the country’s top tech hubs, consistently ranking among the top 10. In fact, Boston is the ninth likeliest city globally to become the “leading technology innovation hub outside of Silicon Valley over the next four years”, according to a recent KPMG annual survey of the tech industry. With a steady flow of venture capital funds, a robust talent pipeline, a vibrant start-up scene and a who’s who of major corporations and institutions with large technology departments, Greater Boston will continue to make a big impact across the tech world. Per Scholas could not be prouder to be a part of this tech hub.
We opened our doors here in Kendall Square, Cambridge this past spring, and our inaugural class recently graduated in June, with students ready to take their places in the professional world. Just three weeks post-graduation, certified students are employed at companies including Deloitte, Mass General Hospital, R.G. Vanderweil Engineers, and even our own organization Per Scholas Greater Boston (yes, we even hired one of our own grads!) earning an average of over $21/hour. Per Scholas is a 25-year-old nonprofit that started in the South Bronx. We offer tuition-free technology training to students, age 18+, who are unemployed and underemployed. We also collaborate with businesses to design industry and job-specific courses based on employers’ IT needs, evolving and reshaping courses as required. Our first customized training partner in Greater Boston is TEKsystems, a leader in Full-Stack Technology Services, Talent Services and real-world application. Led by Managing Director, Alanna Hughes, the program graduated over 20 Full-Stack Java trained developers in August. Our next class with TEKsystems launches in October. The class will focus on building Network Support skill sets, culminating in achieving Net+ and A+ certifications.
Technology doesn’t stand still, so neither do we.
10,000 Graduates and Counting
We have Per Scholas sites in 11 cities nationwide and just enrolled our 10,000th student! And we plan to go even bigger. Earlier this year, Per Scholas received funding so that by 2023, we’ll be able to serve 4,000 technology career students a year.
Opportunities for Individuals, Communities & Companies
Per Scholas is committed to creating meaningful advantages for individuals. Our students are either unemployed or underemployed, meaning they may have been able to find work but have had a difficult time establishing a career. Our objective is to train our students and enable them to move into a career pathway.
Nationwide, Per Scholas has an 85% graduation rate and an 80% placement rate for graduates, with students increasing their wages by 400%, on average, in their first tech role.
We are also about building a more diverse technical workforce at companies and throughout the technology ecosystem. Women and people of color are staggeringly underrepresented in IT employment today. In a recent EEOC study of 75 Silicon Valley companies, just 2.2% of professional-level workers were African American, and 4.4% were Hispanic, while estimates of the percentage of technical roles filled by women are as low as 15%. Meanwhile, 86% of Per Scholas students nationally are people of color and a third are women. We create onramps for underrepresented groups so that a technology career is not only in reach but attainable.
Tackling the Tech Gap & the Power of Partnership
The U.S. DOL projects the creation of nearly 500,000 new IT jobs between 2014 and 2024, making the tech sector one of the largest and fastest growing employment sectors nationally. In the Greater Boston area, between job creation and turnover, there are more than 10,000 annual tech job openings that Per Scholas graduates are qualified for. Although we’re talking about only a few hundred Per Scholas graduates per year, every little bit helps. We won’t singlehandedly close the tech gap, but we can make a dent. Which brings me to my next topic: optimizing workforce and talent development.
Our expansion into Greater Boston was made possible with generous support provided by BlackRock, The Boston Foundation, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Workforce Skills Cabinet, The Demond and Kia Martin Foundation, Salesforce.org, SkillWorks, TEKsystems and generous individual donors.
Most recently, Per Scholas Greater Boston was the latest organization selected by the GreenLight Fund Boston for a four-year $600,000 investment to expand our employment training to Boston residents and further contribute to the growing tech sector that has been witnessed within the region. This level of support from one of Boston’s most innovative social impact leaders, to invest in our mission to closing to the local tech talent gap, is critical to our expansion and inclusion in the broader Boston tech network. We are thrilled to be their 12th portfolio organization and look forward to their partnership as a thought leader and network builder. (Listen here for the radio feature including Per Scholas Greater Boston alum, Hector Miranda Vaquer).
Workforce and talent development – and more specifically, preparing employees for a future constantly redefined by technology – is best accomplished with coordination, cooperation and collaboration among the public and private sectors, along with nonprofits. No one entity or group of entities can go it alone when it comes to truly making an impact. Tapping into our combined resources, knowledge, networks and expertise, we are far better equipped to make strides in reducing the tech gap and bring about true transformation in Greater Boston which also includes changing policy, practice and perception. As we do this as part of a system, we are far better positioned to match the right people, resources, training and available opportunities. In short, we are stronger together.
While Per Scholas is new to the Greater Boston area, our stellar team brings considerable experience to this work and a desire to innovate, collaborate and create meaningful change. We bring our expertise to work for employers and businesses by providing talent development and DEI solution. And we simultaneously partner with our students to assist them in achieving their goal to enter or advance in the ever-growing tech field in our region.
Robin Nadeau, Managing Director, Per Scholas Greater Boston
You can reach Robin Nadeau at [email protected].
Per Scholas Celebrates 25 Years with Newly Renovated HQ Opening
On October 16th, Per Scholas revealed its newly renovated headquarters in the Bronx, NY and celebrated its 25-year history with the renaming of the site as the “John Hoyt Stookey Tech Training Center” in honor of its Founder and Board Chair Emeritus, John Hoyt Stookey. Per Scholas has grown to become one of the nation’s leading workforce development organizations providing cost-free technology training to thousands of underemployed and underserved individuals. The growth of the organization was presented during the ceremony’s reveal of the Per Scholas museum which charts the organization’s history from “bridging the digital divide” as an asset recovery center that repurposed used computers for local South Bronx schools to “bridging the talent gap” within the tech industry across its eleven markets.
The ceremony gathered together Per Scholas staff and students, as well as some of the organization’s key supporters and funding partners who toured the facility and participated in various tech demos. Per Scholas President and CEO, Plinio Ayala, also acknowledged the support of the Bronx Borough President’s Office and their support within the Bronx. “With their help, we’ve grown from enrolling 50 students a year to close to 1,000 students per year.”
Two days after the ceremony, the John Hoyt Stookey Tech Training Center celebrated the graduation of its first cybersecurity cohort. For Abe Mendez, Per Scholas New York Managing Director, this will be the first of many cohorts to join the ranks of the classes that came before them at other sites, as well as alumni who have successfully established themselves within the cybersecurity field.
“We’ve had hundreds of graduates in cybersecurity working and are now thriving at companies across the United States, helping to protect companies from threats from across the cybersecurity landscape.”
Cybersecurity graduate Kristina Arnold explored a number of career options and similar education opportunities cost way too much. Because of Per Scholas, she has been able to identify a career path that is both personally ad financially rewarding. The renaming of the site recognizes the leadership and legacy that has shepherded the organization to where it is today, but its impact on those who it helped to bring out the best in will remain long-lasting.
“It is not just the training, Per Scholas provides a holistic approach, they help you as a full person. On behalf of myself and the twenty-two classmates from the Bronx’s inaugural Cybersecurity class, I want to say thank you to the funders and supporters here with us today. Because of you, we are taking the next step in our technology careers and we are able to do that because of you and because of Per Scholas.”
Per Scholas would like to thank all of the contributors who made this renovation possible:
Barclays
Bronx Borough President Rubén Díaz Jr.
Richard and Jacqueline Emmet
The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation
The Hyde and Watson Foundation
JPMorgan Chase & Co.
New York City Council, Bronx Delegation
The New York Community Trust
Pratt Institute
2nd Annual Toss for Techs Columbus
This past weekend was the second annual Per Scholas Columbus corn hole fundraising tournament. Close to 20 teams participated for winning this year’s trophy, including last year’s winning team and Per Scholas Champion Partner TEKsystems who came out in full force this year with three teams. Unfortunately, it was not enough to claim the throne this year as newly crowned champion State Auto took home the gold with Vernovis coming in second place.
Event keynote Speakers included Tina Lyden, a local advisory board member (pictured below) and current Per Scholas Columbus students Chays Davis-White and David Nieh. Managing Director, Toni Cunningham, led a live auction for participants to bid on incredible swag and items.
We’d like to thank our event sponsors for helping to support this year’s tournament:
- American Cornhole Organization
- Columbus Partnership
- Elysian Fiber
- HMB
- Lbrands Foundation
- TEKsystems
- Vernovis
Over $20,000 was raised from the event and will go towards furthering the mission to delivering tuition-free tech training to Columbus residents.
Per Scholas names Abe Mendez Managing Director of New York
Leadership transition comes as current MD Kelly Richardson ends tenure at Per Scholas
New York, NY – September 5, 2019 – National tech training nonprofit Per Scholas today announces the appointment of Abe Mendez, current Deputy Managing Director for Newark & New York, as Managing Director of New York. The leadership change comes as longtime Managing Director Kelly Richardson concludes her time at Per Scholas, following a successful six-year tenure that included the launches of the Per Scholas Brooklyn and Newark training centers, as well as the launch of new cybersecurity, cloud, and web development training tracks.
“Per Scholas has seen tremendous regional growth under Kelly’s leadership and is well-positioned for continued success in Newark and New York, due largely to the substantial fundraising, strong corporate relationships, and new training tracks that she contributed to during her tenure,” said Bridgette Gray, EVP of National Program at Per Scholas. “As we continue to evolve and grow as an organization, Abe’s leadership experience and regional vision for Per Scholas make him the perfect successor for the managing director role. We’re excited to see how Per Scholas New York will grow with Abe at the helm and we look forward to hiring a managing director to lead our Newark team.”
In Kelly’s six years at Per Scholas, she oversaw a team enrolling nearly 3,000 individuals across Per Scholas’s New York area training program and built new support services for students while fostering strong community and corporate partnerships, such as serving as Co-Chair of NYC’s Employment and Training Coalition.
As Managing Director overseeing Per Scholas’s campuses in Brooklyn and the Bronx, Abe will focus on driving additional site expansion efforts, meeting ambitious programmatic and fundraising goals within the New York region, while building existing and new corporate partnerships to support Per Scholas graduates.
“I am incredibly excited to lead the Per Scholas New York team as we continue to deliver fantastic outcomes for students and employers alike,” said Abe Mendez. “Over the next few years, we are well-positioned to expand our training programs across New York, particularly with the upcoming launch of the Civic Hall @ Union Square Digital Learning Center, as well as our employer partnerships, which will enable us to strengthen our curriculum offerings and further cultivate a strong talent pipeline into their organizations. I’d like to thank Kelly for her leadership and for setting Per Scholas up for even greater success in New York.”
Prior to joining Per Scholas, Abe served as an Assistant Vice President at Barclays in New York and London where he helped manage the bank’s citizenship partnerships and efforts to engage colleagues in skills-based volunteering programs and campaigns. During his time at Barclays, Abe was a driving force in the company’s partnership with Per Scholas to support the launch of Per Scholas Brooklyn and was a partner in its development of a new cybersecurity training track. He also worked at JPMorgan Chase & Co. in a variety of operations and program management roles.
Due to immense initial programmatic demand, the Newark campus will now operate independent of the New York region umbrella, with Bridgette Gray serving as Interim Managing Director of Newark until the company completes its hiring search for a permanent Managing Director for the Newark campus.
TEKsystems and Per Scholas Greater Boston graduates its inaugural Customized Training cohort
On August 9th, Per Scholas Greater Boston celebrated the graduation of its inaugural customized training cohort in Java Development. Powered by Champion partner, TEKsystems, twenty-two students completed their training and will enter into the workforce as newly minted Full-Stack Java Developers. Over ¼ of the class resides in the Boston or Cambridge areas, with others having commuted from locations as close as Brighton and as far as Nashua.
“Per Scholas Greater Boston is on track to train more than 80 individuals this year – with plans to grow over the next several. We will do this with the support of everyone here in this room – and our goal is to deepen our networks so that classes will be diverse representations of the many people, neighborhoods, and backgrounds represented across Greater Boston,” states Alanna Hughes, Managing Director, Customized Training for Per Scholas Greater Boston in her opening remarks.
Keynote speeches were delivered by industry leaders Faith Johnson, VP of Human Resources and Talent Acquisitions at TEKsystems, and Paul English, CTO and Co-Founder of Lola.com.
Per Scholas Greater Boston is the first of three Per Scholas sites this year to launch customized training tracks powered by TEKsystems. Philadelphia and Detroit launched in late July. The partnership aims to provide tuition-free training for more than 540 job-seekers for cutting-edge jobs in technology over the next three years.
“This partnership is truly a testament to what is possible when committed individuals – with varying expertise and a common goal – come together to prepare a diverse and competent technical workforce for the future,” continues Alanna. “Beyond the business opportunity that this presents, we are building pathways of opportunity and economic mobility within the Greater Boston community, and given Per Scholas’s reach, nationally.”
Keynote speakers Faith Johnson, VP of Human Resources and Talent Acquisitions, TEKsystems; Paul English, CTO and Co-Founder, Lola.com