Connecting Companies to a Diverse Workforce
With the growing national focus on racial equity, companies are increasingly seeking to expand diversity and inclusion programs with dedicated efforts to recruit, train and retain a more diverse workforce.
The statistics speak for themselves. Increasing workforce equity is not only the right thing to do, it is a proven way to boost corporate revenue. Companies who diversify their workforces increase their revenues by 19% on average. Yet the technology industry has a long way to go to achieve racial equity. For example, only 7.4% of tech industry employees are African Americans. The underrepresentation of people of color in IT management roles is also notable, with people of color comprising only 17% of those in tech executive positions.
Creating IT Futures is taking on this workforce equity challenge through research, program development and partnering. For years, we have focused on providing training to communities traditionally underrepresented in the IT workforce, including people of color, women and veterans.
Creating IT Futures is looking to partner with organizations like yours to achieve our goal of increasing workforce equity. Your company can work with Creating IT Futures in a variety of ways that match your corporate objectives, including hiring graduates
of our IT-Ready Technical Support classes at CompTIA Tech Career Academy where:
- Students are vetted, trained and CompTIA certified, eager to fill entry-level tech jobs
- 67% of students are people of color
- 88% of students graduate and 86% are placed in IT jobs
- 85% retain jobs in IT for at least two years
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TechGirlz is a fun and engaging program for middle-school girls that uses hands-on workshops to bring technology into the lives of young people. By supporting TechGirlz, organizations can influence youth and teens toward choosing technology as a career. Not only are you supporting increased gender diversity in IT, but 55% of TechGirlz attendees are African American.
Learn more about TechGirlz and how you can support their mission to reach and inspire middle school girls to explore the possibilities of technology.
Explore the varied ways that your organization can support diversity in IT by partnering with Creating IT Futures:
Program:
How your company can get involved:
TechGirlz: Puts technology directly into the hands of middle-school girls through free, project-based workshops, building excitement for technology and awareness of tech career options.
CompTIA Tech Career Academy: This program assesses, trains, certifies and places adults who are underrepresented in IT into tech careers, through both in-person and online courses.
Women In Tech Summit: A series of five regional conferences that bring women together from a cross-section of industries and career levels for hands-on tech workshops, sessions, career discussions and networking.
Veterans: Creating IT Futures collaborates with powerful partners like Wounded Warrior Project® and Blue Star Families to bring tech career opportunities to military veterans and their families nationwide.
CompTIA Custom Training: Our premiere instructor-led IT certifications training provider can help upskill the tech workforce for any company or group.
Sherlana
and Harold Monestime were our first married couple that graduated from IT-Ready Technical Support and launched their tech careers.
Sherlana was working in customer service when she learned about the program. After she graduated and quickly secured full-time work in the tech industry, Harold applied to the program. He had been working for years as a lab assistant but didn’t feel like there was room for advancement.
“We’re a lot more comfortable. We aren’t worrying about whether we’re going to eat, or whether we’ll have a roof over our heads. And I’m not constantly worried about job security — how many hours am I working this week, what is going to happen next. Work-life balance is a lot easier,” said Sherlana.
Preston Wood wasn’t thinking about an IT career six months ago — he was more interested in basketball and the money the All Star weekend would help him earn as a Lyft driver in Chicago. Then Wood’s successful driving routine — commuters,
diners, cross-town travelers — stopped cold when COVID-19 hit. Since the work wasn’t there, he started looking for other ways to bring in money. Wood learned about CompTIA Tech Career Academy and the program changed his life. “I
probably would have been sitting there for two months, not finding a job and just being bored.” The program seems too good to be true to a lot of people, but Wood saw it for what it is: A chance to change his life.
Now Wood is working on earning his CompTIA A+ certification, and then plans to study for Network+ and Security+, leaning toward cybersecurity as a career specialization. “You never know what’s going to happen six months from now.”