A new tech skill program, facilitated by Marymount University, corporate partners and Virginia state funding, will launch in spring 2022 to bridge the gap between tech company job openings and candidates from low-income backgrounds.
The Virginia Growth and Opportunity Board on Monday announced its intention to invest $425,000 into the Tech Set program, designed as a two-month tech skills and career preparation workshop for junior and senior college students based in Northern Virginia.
Jonathan Aberman, the dean of Marymount’s College of Business, Innovation, Leadership and Technology, developed the concept behind Tech Set and then worked with GO Virginia Region 7 to land the funding for the new program.
After conducting research with Terry Clower, the director of George Mason University’s Center for Regional Analysis, Aberman found that many entry-level tech workers lacked key skills to fill open jobs and meet the needs of the local tech companies that have ramped up hiring, he said in an interview with the Washington Business Journal.
“I was told by a lot of CEOs as part of this research project and HR people that they had to spend two or three months getting people up to speed just to be able to work in an office,” Aberman said. “Why don’t we focus first on a group of students who really need the help as a way to demonstrate that this could be a regional solution that could be much broader?”
The two-month program will support 200 Pell Grant-eligible students, many of whom are expected to be enrolled at Marymount, though the class will be open to other schools. The course will offer technology training, job tools like use of email, Slack and Excel, mentorship and career preparation, said Nicholas Munson, the university’s spokesman. The program will create 100 internship opportunities and 100 full-time job placements.
The Computing Technology Industry Association, a nonprofit trade association for the IT industry headquartered in Illinois, found that companies in the D.C. metro area had 17,215 tech job openings as of the end of August. That's a jump of 847 openings from July, according to the company's report, which is based on the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' monthly labor market release. It does not account for the more than 2,800 Amazon job postings, mostly for HQ2 and many of which require tech skills, added in September.
“With Covid, we’ve gotten very concerned about frankly the mismatch between, right now, a lot of students, particularly economically, socially and disadvantaged students around the region, and the industry,” Aberman said. “There’s a massive disconnect, and it’s just getting worse.”
Six tech partners have committed to interview the program’s graduates for internships and entry-level jobs: Reston-based software company Clarabridge, Arlington-based recruiting software company Brazen, Alexandria-based management consulting company CALIBRE Systems, D.C.-based private equity firm Ruxton Ventures, Baltimore-based private equity firm ABS Capital Partners and Vienna-based venture capital firm Aldrich Capital Partners.
Aberman said the companies have also committed funding, which will turn into a $500 stipend for each student once they complete the Tech Set program for work-related expenses, such as business clothing or a new computer, as well as a digital badge to mark the course’s completion.
The program is looking to add four more financial partners by the time it launches.
“For $10,000 they can be part of something really meaningful and also get a first look at talent. I’m hoping some of the larger companies in town will also join,” he said. “I see this as the beginnings of a larger regional effort, if we prove this works.”
