Per Scholas St. Louis was featured in St. Louis Public Radio for our partnership with Cortex Innovation Community. With this partnership, we will offer a free, 15-week cybersecurity training for people of color and women interested in tech careers.

Dr. Charlie Mackey Jr. is the Managing Director of Per Scholas and hopes to bring more underrepresented individuals to the tech industry through this partnership and training. “Historically, underrepresented people aren’t working in the tech fields, because they’re like, ‘Well, I have to go to the West Coast, or it’s not available here,’” Mackey said. “By coming here, we can not only help bridge that gap, but also reframe it to where you can get that technology training right here, and then find a job here.”

With our expansion to St. Louis, we are able to offer our tuition-free, rigorous technical training as the latest addition to Cortex. Per Scholas has advanced economic equity for more than 25 years by offering evidence-based, tuition-free technology training and connecting Per Scholas graduates to high-growth careers in technology. Aligned with its commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging, 85 percent of Per Scholas learners are people of color, and more than a third identify as women. Graduates are hired into tech roles by more than 650 employer partners nationwide, ranging from Fortune 500 to innovative startups.

Check out the full feature on the St. Louis NPR site here.

The Columbus Dispatch featured Per Scholas in an article featuring our Tech Women of Color workforce initiative.  This initiative is supported by a $4.5 million grant that was unanimously approved by the Franklin County Board of Commissioners on International Women’s Day. The free, 15-week course will kick off in July and aims to train 200 women of color in cohorts over the next two years.

“We are grateful to the Franklin County Board of Commissioners for providing us the opportunity to be of service to our community, and to our local partners who will come alongside us as we seek to make a transformative impact in this county,” stated Jenn Fowler Howard, Senior Director of the Tech Women of Color Alliance. “We recognize that this project will not only change the lives of the women who participate but will also build stronger families, communities, and businesses for years to come.”

This workforce initiative is part of Per Scholas’s ongoing goal to promote the presence of women in tech.

Read the full article from The Columbus Dispatch here!

Per Scholas St. Louis has officially launched, expanding our tech training offering to our 18th city as part of Cortex Innovation Community. Our partnership is part of a strategic plan to bring more tech companies and jobs to the St. Louis community. We will begin by offering Cybersecurity training, scheduled to start in June 2022.

Read more in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch here!

As it has been reported that there are more than 48,000 vacant tech jobs in North Carolina, Per Scholas North Carolina has partnered with NC Tech Paths and Wilkes Community College for one of the largest rural tech training initiatives in the country. This initiative is geared towards bringing tech training to the state’s rural communities in order to both increase the state’s tech talent pool and bring new tech jobs to rural areas.

With training first in Software Engineering and eventually IT Support, Per Scholas is set to train more than 2,500 learners over the next three years. The inaugural training in partnership with Wilkes Community College and NC Tech Paths will graduate in mid-May.

Read the full article on Per Scholas North Carolina’s partnership here. 

Per Scholas was identified as a workforce training program that delivers in New York by Arnold Ventures, a philanthropy dedicated to tackling some of the most pressing problems in the United States.  Following research done by MDRC over seven years, Arnold Ventures noted that Per Scholas continues to show that those who were participating substantially out-earned their peers who were not – by 14 to 20% over the course of the study.

Amanda Moderson-Kox, Director of Evidence-Based Policy at Arnold Ventures, said, “Americans in every state deserve access to a proven-effective program like Per Scholas, which delivers results and enables workers to access jobs with a path to the middle class.”

Per Scholas New York Managing Director Abe Mendez noted that such success can be scaled throughout the country as well, saying, “We have the model here in place. It works. We know it can scale.” It is with such results as shown in MDRC’s research that Per Scholas has been able to expand to 17 locations through 2021, with plans to add three more in 2022.

As a workforce training program that delivers results and connects our learners to thriving careers in the tech industry, Per Scholas is able to prepare our graduates for great opportunities.

Read the full article featuring Per Scholas here.

In a recent interview with Hired, Per Scholas Executive Vice President of Social Ventures Damien Howard discussed Per Scholas and our partnership with Hired.  In the Q&A-styled conversation, Damien discussed how this partnership allows our graduates to set up a profile with Hired and help in their career search. “Once a class of Per Scholas graduates is ready to become job seekers, they are referred to Hired to set up a free profile and display their new, marketable, in-demand skills through Hired assessments or connecting social accounts to shine a light on their new skills.”

Such a partnership with Hired, the largest AI-driven marketplace matching ambitious tech and sales talent with the world’s most innovative companies, will connect many of our graduates with companies that could lead to a tech job to launch their IT careers.

Read the full interview and feature here.

Following Black History Month in February, we are thrilled to spotlight Per Scholas Executive Vice President of Social Ventures, Damien Howard, and his feature as a Workforce Trailblazer with New York Association of Training and Employment Professionals (NYATEP).

Among the collection of trailblazers, Damien’s experience of over 20 years at Per Scholas and being a champion for diversity and economic equity among the tech community is commended. To read his full profile with NYATEP and to learn more about Damien Howard, click here.

CBS News featured Per Scholas learner, Richard Escotto on their Sunday Morning program.  The feature focused on how many industries and labor markets are looking for employees following the pandemic and where those employees are working now.  Richard Escotto mentioned that after he lost his restaurant job at the beginning of the pandemic, he decided to change career paths into technology. “[The pandemic] did give me an opportunity that was rare and probably was never going to happen, and sometimes you just have to seize that,” Richard reflected.

Richard Escotto is set to graduate from Per Scholas New York in October 2021 from our Cybersecurity course.

Watch the full video here.

As people are hanging up on low-wage careers and answering the call for growth in a new career path, many companies are ready to accept a new demand from skilled workers.  This New York Times article discusses how individuals are now searching for new career opportunities and training courses in order to switch gears for good.  Per Scholas is named as reporting growth and expansion due to many people wanting to train and expand their knowledge.

Click here to read the full article!