We have some exciting news to share. The ATL TechHire initiative got awarded $4 million federal grant to develop tech talent and create jobs in local economies.
ATL TechHire initiative is a program led by the Atlanta Workforce Development Agency, in partnership with The Iron Yard and TechSquare Labs. “ The TechHire Grant award to The City of Atlanta, Atlanta Workforce Development Agency, in particular, demonstrates the collaborative power of public-private partnerships. TechSquare Labs is excited about the role it is playing in ensuring that Atlanta is the Inclusive Technology Capital of the South. Long-term, by developing an inclusive technical workforce and ultimately, more technical cofounders of high-growth startups, we will solve the right problems that our Fortune 1000 companies are willing to pay for which will result in the creation of more diverse lead firms, new jobs, new wealth, new opportunities and transformed communities. We’re creating tomorrow’s Atlanta today as well as the model for other cities to emulate and follow,” said Rodney Sampson, Partner, TechSquare Labs.
On Monday, Vice President Joe Biden and Department of Labor Secretary Perez released the details of the $150 million in Department of Labor grants for 39 such partnerships across the country.
Earlier this year, the City of Atlanta announced that it was designated as a TechHire City by the White House. Atlanta joins more than 50 communities nationwide that have committed to creating pathways to better, well-paying tech jobs and meeting urgent employer demands.
“Participants in the ATL TechHire initiative will be enrolled in TechSquare Labs’ innovative culture fit, corporate innovation and career readiness Culture Fit and Career Readiness programs, as well as fast-track training with one of The Iron Yard’s coding bootcamps, to train participants for jobs in front- and back-end engineering, mobile engineering, data science, and design; or with the Atlanta Technical College for degrees that lead to jobs as computer programmers, database specialists, or networking specialists in Computer Programming, Database Specialist, or Networking Specialist,” said the White House release.
Last March, President Barack Obama launched the TechHire initiative – a bold multi-sector effort and call to action for cities, states, and rural areas to work with employers to design and implement new approaches like coding boot camps to train workers for well-paying tech jobs often in just a few months.
We could not be more excited to impact and improve communities and individuals from diverse backgrounds including out-of-school and out-of-work young Americans.
Curious and need more details on TechHire grant, read the full announcement here: https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2016/06/27/fact-sheet-expanding-tech-economies-communities-across-country
