A Greater Cincinnati-based nonprofit and a Seattle-founded tech apprenticeship program are joining forces as part of a joint effort to increase Black representation in the tech industry.
The Blacks in Technology Foundation, headquartered in Cleves, said its newly announced partnership with Apprenti will help bridge a talent gap in the tech industry by recruiting, developing and retaining diverse talent. Apprenti, the nation's first registered tech apprenticeship program that places diverse talent into top tech roles, will collaborate with Blacks in Technology Foundation specifically to expose more Blacks to the tech sector, increase access to tech training opportunities and, ultimately, help Black people secure tech careers.
Dennis Schultz, executive director of the Blacks in Technology Foundation, said the organization wanted to partner with Apprenti because it offered a “practical solution to the challenge of filling key IT roles."
“Both job seekers and companies need to expand their thinking when it comes to job placement and hiring,” Schultz said in a release. “We're already seeing a shift in IT job requirements away from four-year and advanced college degrees toward practitioner level skills. The only real question is, can the candidate do the work required?”
Currently, there are three million available tech jobs in the U.S., but the nation's colleges produce only 80,000 computer science graduates each year. On top of that, too many employers only recruit from certain schools, over-relying on college graduates, and generally don't seek to recruit from the broadest pool of available talent. This practice has led to Blacks and other groups being “woefully underrepresented in technology roles,” the release said.
Apprenti, first launched by the Washington Technology Industry Association in 2016, has worked to build a reliable pipeline for underrepresented groups, giving diverse talent with nontraditional backgrounds the opportunity to apprentice at tech and consumer companies like Amazon and Microsoft. Black people make up 15% of all apprentices, and more than 80% of these apprentices have been hired on full time, Apprenti said.
"While the lack of representation in the tech workforce is well documented, there's still plenty of work," Jennifer Carlson, co-founder and executive director of Apprenti, said in the release. "Blacks in Technology Foundation is making real progress when it comes to diversifying tech talent, and we're proud to offer a proven program that will strengthen these efforts."
Blacks in Technology Foundation is the largest global community of Black technologists with a combined membership and social media reach of over 50,000. Blacks in Technology was founded in Cincinnati in 2008-2009, while the Foundation was launched in 2017, founder Greg Greenlee told me. BIT provides training, education, networking and mentorship with the support of allies, partners, sponsors and members. Membership is free.
