Tech jobs are in high demand across all industries, according to a new report from Center for an Urban Future. Wall Street Journal’s Irene Plagianos explored the analysis and connected with Per Scholas graduate Adonis Goris to learn about his journey from pandemic-induced job loss to a thriving career in tech.

In the piece, Per Scholas President and CEO Plinio Ayala underscored our alignment with a variety of companies to tailor curriculum to meet the needs of the businesses, and create a hiring pipeline for a diverse workforce underrepresented in tech jobs, especially Black and Latinx workers. Adonis, who doesn’t have a college degree, reflected that studying at Per Scholas and starting his IT job has been a dream come true. “It’s pretty incredible that somehow in a pandemic I’m now on a career path that is more in line with my passion,” he said.

Read the full story in The Wall Street Journal.

This May, Per Scholas expanded our presence to the West Coast as we successfully launched our first cohorts in Seattle and Phoenix, bringing our campus count to 17!  This is a huge step as we work to advance economic equity through rigorous training for tech careers. With such strong tech markets and demand for talent in both cities, it was only a matter of time before Per Scholas made our mark on the west coast. Full-stack technology service provider TEKsystems is fueling these customized training tracks, with first cohorts focused on Java Development.  

Plus, this month we announced that now, you can find Per Scholas across the nation, from Seattle to New York, with an upcoming expansion to Staten Island.  Not only do we provide courses in high-demand fields, but we also partner with companies for a customized training program tailored to their individual needs to ensure our learners have access to job opportunities once they graduate.  

For over 25 years, we have studied the tech industry, recognized its growth, and responded by providing companies with skilled learners that are diverse and passionate about technology.  Per Scholas helps improve diversity in the tech industry as we expand and build equity in new communities, having already trained 14,000 diverse learners across the nation. With a graduation rate of 85%, and 80% of those graduates finding employment in tech after graduation, we are confident in our mission to diversify America’s tech workforce.

Learn more about all of our locations as we train learners coast to coast on our website.

To commemorate Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, Per Scholas hosted an interactive and informative Inclusion by Intention session. Inclusion by Intention, launched in 2018, is a quarterly organization-wide initiative that aims to provide a safe, inclusive space for staff to discuss ongoing issues around race and social justice. A powerful, open panel discussion led by both national and local team leaders to envision ways the organization can best equip staff with the appropriate education, resources, and training needed to support students, alumni, and one another. 

We heard from our Senior Vice President of Development, Evelyn Chen, who opened our eyes to the Model Minority Myth, while highlighting stereotypes and barriers our AAPI colleagues face. 

Our President and CEO, Plinio Ayala, featured the story of Jimmy Nguyen, a Per Scholas Dallas graduate, in an organization-wide email.  Jimmy was able to gain knowledge and skills in technology through Per Scholas and gained the confidence to start a new career in tech.  You can learn more about Jimmy’s experience and path to his Client Service Help Desk role for Charles Schwab in his feature video.

To further honor the community this month, we encourage you to learn more about the Model Minority Myth and other cultural history to carry more understanding and knowledge beyond Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month.  

April 2021 marks the 2nd anniversary of Per Scholas Newark, and we are excited to celebrate this milestone by sharing some of our Newark team’s successes since we first opened our doors at 12 Lombardy Street in 2019.

While COVID-19 required a critical reimagining of what training at Per Scholas looks like, hands-on learning has continued in a remote environment. Even despite many disruptions to business as usual, we exceeded our enrollment goals in 2020, and are on track to do it again this year. We have already surpassed our initial goal of 180 learners in 2021, and we anticipate 219+ enrollees by the end of the year.

We have expanded course opportunities in Newark to include IT Support, Software Engineering, AWS re/Start, and Cybersecurity. We are strengthening and growing business relationships and building the Newark team as a result of our exponential growth. In addition to growing our team, we have established a Newark Advisory Board, which now includes four members.

We are proud of all we have accomplished in only two years, and we look forward to deepening our ties in the Newark community in the years to come. We are grateful to our partners, supporters, learners, and staff as we chart our course into the future. Certifications, jobs, and development are happening here!

Abe Mendez, Managing Director, Per Scholas New York, was featured in Crain’s New York Business “Notable in Nonprofits and Philanthropy” list. See what they had to say about Abe below, and head to Crain’s New York Business to see the entire list.

Animated by the belief that a prosperous workforce begins with equitable education access, Per Scholas gives free tech training to individuals from communities underrepresented in the technology sector. Abe Mendez, managing director of the New York chapter, is the man behind its regional strategy, fundraising and learner recruitment. Mendez’s dedication to his team truly came to light during the pandemic, when he worked to ensure staff members had the necessary equipment to work remotely and developed safety protocols to protect those who wanted to work on-site. Mendez has served as a driving force behind Per Scholas’ efforts to connect communities hit hard by Covid-19 with economic opportunities in the tech space.

In this Diverse by Design virtual event, Tracy Palmer, Managing Director of Per Scholas Atlanta, interviewed Joey Womack, CEO/Founder of Goodie Nation, on April 22, 2021. As a self-named super-connector that is eager to impact one billion people by 2039, Joey was a standout choice to conduct a conversation about diversity and professional networking in the workplace. In a time when many jobs are filled through who you know, he made it part of his mission to change that narrative and connect more people to the right networks that have access to careers.

One way to counteract this is through relationship building and creating a professional network, which Joey stated is like having superpowers. How would our Learners and others in these communities build their professional networks?

• Be intentional about constructing a network and attend events that relate to fields you’re interested in and where you could thrive. It’s about quality, not quantity.
• Set up informational interviews to learn from senior leaders. These leaders believe in life-long learning and often like to help others. Don’t see them as a threat, as these can often lead to a strong mentor/mentee relationship.
• Join groups such as Black, Latin, and Women tech organizations so that you can make quality connections beyond your existing network. The more groups you join and connect with, the stronger your network will grow.
• Enter pathways to enter fields such as technology, like here at Per Scholas, and break down traditional barriers such as the need to attend 4-year colleges at prestigious universities for a chance at a strong professional network.
• Joey Womack’s insight will provide more access to opportunities with a positive trajectory. We are excited for the impact these tips will have on our professional networking and growth as we directly help in Joey’s goal of impacting and connecting one billion people by 2039.

As we mark one year since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic put tens of millions of Americans out of work, we’re starting to see signs of hope. But while vaccinations and reopenings suggest a return of normalcy, many of our most vulnerable community members risk being left behind. 

Through a generous partnership, Per Scholas and Google.org are working together to bring free immersive tech skills training and Google Career Certificate programming to 3,000+ BIPOC adults. This is a major contribution to Per Scholas’ goal of to propel 13,000+ diverse adults to a thriving wage by 2023.

Currently, for Black and Hispanic workers, the reported jobless rates remain significantly higher than the general population numbers, as they have been throughout the Covid-19 pandemic. And for many who were working low-wage jobs across leisure, retail and hospitality sectors, these jobs are not expected to come back. Meanwhile, demand for tech talent continues to rise, and employers across industries are paying a  renewed focus on filling open roles with diverse talent, including individuals from nontraditional educational backgrounds. 

Per Scholas and Google.org are providing individuals traditionally underrepresented in technology with the skills they need to meet these current labor demands, while working to ensure all alumni achieve a true thriving wage – enough to save money for retirement, invest in children’s education, or own a home – within two years of graduation. Through this grant, Google.org is providing free access for learners to its array of Google Career Certificates to 2,000+ Per Scholas alums [ register for IT Automation with Python today].

This work also encompasses support for Per Scholas’ Diverse by Design – which provides corporate leaders with the training and resources they need to recruit, retain, and cultivate diverse talent. Through solutions-driven conversations about diversity, equity, and inclusion within tech, DxD produces meaningful content that empowers C-suite leaders to make valuable and socially impactful business decisions, and provides access to sophisticated customized training and talent sourcing solutions.

Google’s own Stephanie LeBlanc-Godfrey, Global Head of Inclusion for Women of Color, recently participated in a Diverse by Design panel discussion, hosted by Per Scholas, titled the 140K: Women and the Pandemic in which we explored the unique challenges that COVID-19 has presented for women and the solutions tech companies are employing to address them.  Stephanie emphasized that, “It is our responsibility to make tech careers more accessible to women, and one clear solution to significantly accelerate that opportunity for women is through organizations like Per Scholas, which provide tuition-free tech-training, reducing the barriers of time and financial cost women traditionally face when they are trying to enter the tech industry.  This levels the playing field and makes access to tech career opportunities more equitable.”

This announcement builds on a five-year history with Google.org, which has supported local markets in New York  and Atlanta, and has already awarded Google Career Certificates to more than 1,000 Per Scholas learners who have completed in Google IT Support Professional and Google IT Automation. 

The powerful impact of the Google and Per Scholas tech training partnership comes to life through the experience of our graduates. Curtis Kirksey had been interested in getting into the tech industry for a while, but it wasn’t until he lost his sales job due to the COVID-19 pandemic that he realized it was time to pursue his dream career.  In his words, “the life-altering event” taught him that “mindset is crucial to one’s well-being,” and once he realized that, he began working on himself.  

Curtis enrolled in Per Scholas’ Network Support training program and, although attending a full-time remote class was extremely challenging, he managed to earn his CompTIA A+, CompTIA Net+, and Google IT Support certifications AND graduated as class Valedictorian. 

Curtis was in such high demand that he had several job offers when he graduated. He is currently employed full-time in the tech industry, earning significantly more than he did in his previous role in sales.

“Your opportunities are endless when it comes to this type of industry,” Curtis told WSB-TV Atlanta in a recent interview about his experience. He hopes to one day be chosen to work at the new Google site in Atlanta. “That would be a dream job to work for Google, and to know they are right here in my backyard,” Curtis said. “It gives me hope.”

Google.org’s support is helping propel students like Curtis to successful careers with thriving wages, while also helping Per Scholas advance racial and economic equity in the tech workforce, and create high-quality career pathways opportunities for thousands of diverse individuals who might otherwise never have been able to access them. 

An instructor with one of our learners, exploring the internal workings of a computer (pre-Covid).

March 2021

Dear Per Scholas community,

We are continuing to closely monitor development of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic and its impact on our training and operations.

Five Key Steps We’ve Taken in Response to the Pandemic

What have we done: 

• In 2020, Per Scholas safely transitioned all of our learners to a virtual instruction and learning environment, with all of our staff members also working remotely. You can read about our transition to virtual instruction here.
• We created new virtual volunteering opportunities for our corporate partners, a staff mentoring program to ensure learners feel supported by the full organization, and whole new processes for remote admissions, student support and connecting our graduates with job opportunities. 
• In addition, when needed, we have provided laptops, tech training kits, and WIFI access to our learners who did not have this equipment in place. Our rule is that no learners will be excluded from our training courses due to lack of equipment or internet connectivity.
• Thus far, we have received overwhelmingly positive feedback from learners about their experience, and 90% have been retained despite serious economic, familial and health related barriers.
• The resilience, creativity, and leadership we have seen demonstrated by staff, learners and our partners has been truly remarkable and a testament to the nimbleness we have cultivated for more than twenty-five years. 

Looking Ahead: 

• In 2021, as local situations allow, we aim to transition some courses back on-site for in-person learning, following strict social distancing, class size limits and other safety protocols such as temperature screenings with every entry, mandatory mask policies, air purification system enhancements and professional cleaning.
• Per Scholas has a critical role to play, providing new skill sets to displaced workers and critical technical talent to businesses seeking to expand their technology workforce. 
• Now, more than ever, we have seen our ability to pivot, and are confident in our ability to produce ready-to-work, entry-level and mid-level talent with the technical skills needed to meet the demands of today’s evolving technology job market.
• Moreover, we are learning from this crisis and will embrace new approaches as the economy reopens – expanding training courses in cloud and cybersecurity, developing and launched new blended models of remote and in-person instruction, enabling us to reach more learners, and supplementing in-person corporate site visits with video mock interviews to prepare learners for phone and video screening interviews. 
• Per Scholas will be advocating in this recovery for federal, state and local investments to prioritize creating career pathways for diverse individuals to advance into thriving-wage careers.

This is not a time to sit still. Per Scholas’ efforts are more important now than they ever have been. Sustaining our future as an organization will ensure that many more opportunities are available for the diverse tech talent who are graduating from Per Scholas. As we build new processes and solutions to overcome each challenge ahead, our staff, learners and partnerships will take priority in every decision that we make. If there’s one thing that has become clear in this crisis, it is that our entrepreneurial spirit and ability to adapt will ensure the continued success of our graduates.

If you have any questions, please reach out to questions@perscholas.org and we will respond as quickly as possible.

Sincerely,