Today, Per Scholas’ Executive Vice President of People, Montreece Smith, was featured in an article on the website of Take the Lead, a nonprofit organization that “prepares, develops, inspires, and propels women to take their fair and equal share of leadership positions across all sectors by 2025.”

In the article, Montreece, who began at Per Scholas as a volunteer in 2015, discusses the importance of Per Scholas’ mission to open doors to tech careers for persons of color. Despite a widespread, recent focus on DEIB in the workplace, people of color are still widely underrepresented in many STEM industries, including tech.

“According to a new report from McKinsey,” the article states, “‘Black people make up 12 percent of the U.S. workforce but only 8 percent of employees in tech jobs. That percentage is even smaller further up the corporate ladder; just 3 percent of technology executives in the C-suite are Black, according to a McKinsey analysis of Fortune 500 executives.’” This gap is expected to widen over the next decade, as is the wage gap for Black individuals in tech roles.

Per Scholas is actively working to alleviate this discrepancy by building a pipeline of diverse and talented workers, as well as fostering cultures of fairness and inclusion in workplaces. It is important, Montreece noted, for workplaces to address issues of diversity, not only in their recruitment practices, but also in the culture and climate of their workplaces. 

“There are many techniques employers need to think about to engage, retain and promote employees,” Montreece explained. “Corporations fail because they put forth effort in recruitment but do nothing about development. WOC and BIPOC are watching…[To POC]: Know your worth. Diversity does not mean less than. You are capable, you are worthy and you deserve an opportunity. ”

Read the full article here!

Per Scholas Columbus was featured on NBC4! The article discussed how our organization is bringing racial and gender diversity to Columbus’s rapidly growing tech scene, and highlighted our creation of the Tech Women of Color Alliance, which offers training and job placement assistance in the tech industry for women of color.

“We need to make sure that our city represents our citizens, which means that women of color need to be in that space,” Jenn Fowler Howard, our Managing Director for Per Scholas Columbus,  was quoted as saying.

Click here to read the full feature.

Per Scholas Phoenix was featured in the Phoenix Business Journal, discussing Per Scholas’s expansion to Phoenix and how we are preparing our graduates for high-growth careers in tech. Per Scholas Phoenix Managing Director Jaclyn Boyes was interviewed for the article, stating, “this year we are seeing a 100% certification rate and a 95% job attainment rate. Our learners are getting certified and they are getting hired.”

Click here to read the full feature.

Per Scholas Columbus launched their innovative Tech Women of Color training in July with an IT Fundamentals cohort. The workforce initiative will train 200 women over the next two years to have in-demand tech skills to launch their tech careers, and was featured on local ABC Television affiliate ABC 6. The training includes a tuition-free, 15-week course and will prepare women with professional development and technical skills.

Per Scholas Columbus Managing Director Jennifer Fowler Howard was interviewed for the feature and discussed how the Tech Women of Color initiative will diversify the tech industry to include more women of color. “Representation matters and I think that because you don’t often see women of color in that space often you don’t think you belong in that space,” Jennifer mentioned.

The first Tech Women of Color cohort graduates on November 4, 2022.

Read the full feature and watch the news piece here. 

This week, Per Scholas North Carolina was highlighted in the Charlotte Business Journal! Our North Carolina Managing Director, Mike Terrell, was interviewed for the piece.

In the article, Mike discussed the ways in which Per Scholas focuses on diversifying the tech workforce by opening pathways for people previously excluded from the tech industry. Mike also noted how our professional development training sets us apart from other organizations and lends to the ultimate success of our learners.

The article provided a brief history of Per Scholas, our North Carolina campus, which is located in Charlotte, and some information about our North Carolina courses.

Read the full news article here!

Earlier this month, ActivateWork Powered by Per Scholas was featured in Colorado’s CPR News. The article discussed the increasing number of people opting to enter the tech world via bootcamps and courses, rather than the traditional four-year degree.

Currently, Colorado has one of the highest tech gaps in the nation, with the amount of available tech job postings greatly surpassing the number of people applying for them. It is not that people aren’t interested in pursuing tech — this gap is due to the prohibitively expensive cost of higher education and many existing tech training programs.

“The demand for talent is off the chart, yet the supply is constricting as higher education gets more expensive,” said ActivateWork’s chief operating officer Kathryn Harris. “There are huge untapped pools of workers stuck in jobs that don’t have career paths…They’ve always had an aptitude or an interest or passion in technology, but they haven’t had the resources or the time to skill themselves up,” she said.

This is where programs like ActivateWork Powered by Per Scholas come in, offering diverse individuals the opportunity to earn certifications and start high-growth careers in tech for no personal cost to them.

The article also featured interviews with several learners, including our very own Isaac Horton and Randy Cordova, both of whom graduated from our Per Scholas Denver campus!

Read the full news article here.

Per Scholas Pittsburgh is excited to announce our partnership with Boys & Girls Clubs of Western Pennsylvania! The partnership will launch a program for individuals in the region to launch high-growth tech careers.

Boys & Girls Clubs of Western Pennsylvania (BGCWPA), a provider of education, recreation, and healthy lifestyles programs for individuals ages 3-24, and Per Scholas announced this new collaboration to connect underrepresented individuals to information technology (IT) careers, eliminate barriers to employment in this growing field, and enable learners from diverse backgrounds to pursue living wage careers in the Pittsburgh region. This workforce development initiative is generously funded by the Henry L. Hillman Foundation.

“There is an incredible amount of opportunity in Pittsburgh right now for individuals aspiring to join the tech workforce,” said Todd Derby, Managing Director of Per Scholas Pittsburgh. “At Per Scholas, we provide the necessary training to ensure that diverse and resilient Pittsburgh area residents can get access to digital careers and take advantage of thriving wage opportunities.”

Read the full press release here!

Per Scholas is thrilled to announce that we are part of the inaugural cohort of organizations to receive a grant from the Clayton Dubilier & Rice Foundation! We have been identified as one of Clayton Dubilier & Rice‘s Talent Solution Partners (“TSP”), aligning with the Foundation’s goal of supporting “Equity through Opportunity” by offering traditionally underrepresented talent in CD&R’s local communities access to job training, high-quality jobs, and ongoing professional development opportunities throughout their career journey.

This grant is awarded specifically to strengthen the equity, growth, skills, and workforce development systems in New York City. “Over the past 44 years, CD&R has built a reputation for driving positive impact and innovation throughout our portfolio and in our local communities,” said Don Gogel, Chairman of both CD&R and the CD&R Foundation. “The CD&R Foundation meaningfully expands these efforts, and we look forward to working with our TSPs to move the needle on inclusive employment and advancement practices.”

Click here to learn more about this inaugural partnership!

Per Scholas was featured in an article with Boardroom media network about the NFL’s Inspire Change grant renewals for 2022. Caitlyn Brazill, Per Scholas’s Chief Development Officer, commented on the impact the grant has on our organization, sharing, “We don’t want to be a best-kept secret, and our partnership with the NFL really helps to elevate the message of the works that we do to both potential learners and employers who are seeking diverse tech talent and are looking for partners to help them with hiring needs that they are increasingly desperate for.”

Per Scholas is one of 21 recipients of the grant funding from the NFL’s Inspire Change social justice initiative. To read the full article from Boardroom, click here!