The U.S. Department of Labor and the White House recently announced $150 million in grants for 39 technology partnerships. The awardees will start training and placement models to develop tech talent aimed at creating and keeping jobs in local economies.
The following is excerpted from the White House press release, and highlights the importance of this funding to technology-related career pathways.
These grants will enable more communities to expand their own local tech sectors.
- Tech jobs are a pathway to the middle class.
- Tech jobs pay one and a half times the average wage of a private-sector job.
- Studies have shown that these opportunities are also accessible to those without college degrees-- men and women with non-degree certificates in computer or information services earned more than 65 percent of men and women, respectively, with more traditional Associate degrees.
- New innovations in training and hiring can help meet the tech job demand.
- Nearly 40 percent of tech jobs do not require a four-year degree. In recent years, there has been a proliferation of fast-track tech training programs like “coding bootcamps” that prepare people with little technical know-how for tech jobs, often in just a few months.
- A recent survey from Course Report found that bootcamp graduates saw salary gains of 38 percent (or about $18,000) after completing their programs.
- At the same time, employers in cities like Albuquerque have been adopting new “skills-based” hiring approaches that enable job seekers to demonstrate their skills to get hired even if they lack traditional qualifications like computer science degrees.