Boulder tech academies swamped as they race to retrain workers

Daily Camera (Boulder, CO)

May 13--Job prospects were slim for Gavin Ray. He was 18, a convicted felon, and a high school dropout (he'd earned his GED in juvenile prison). Sitting in Boulder County jail on a drug-related charge, he knew his options were slim.

"Construction, food service, that's what I thought I'd be doing," Ray said. "You get that label on you" -- felon -- "and you can't get a good job anymore."

It was in jail that Ray came across an article about Boulder's Techtonic Academy, an apprenticeship program to train non-tech workers for lucrative careers in the tech industry. He clipped the piece out and, once out on work release, stopped by and asked for an interview.

He got it, and went through the four-week course and then began a paid apprenticeship with a senior Techtonic workers. Today, at 20, he is on the opposite side of the program: A mentor, gainfully employed by the company that gave him a chance.

Techtonic's program is part of a growing local push to re-train American workers for lucrative jobs in the tech space. The efforts are taking root in the shadow of a White House that has touted an "America first" agenda -- along with threatened cuts to a major source of talent for the tech world: visa programs for foreign workers.

"It's the perfect storm" for change, said Jim Deters, CEO and co-founder of Galvanize. "There are not enough highly skilled people for the jobs available" which will only worsen as non-tech companies create more technical roles in an increasingly connected world.

Add to that an unfriendly-to-immigrants presidential administration, and businesses may soon have no choice to but to create the workforce they need domestically through apprenticeships and training programs.

"It won't be a feel-good thing anymore," Deters said. "Companies will have to if they want to survive."

Galvanize is helping lead the way. Its code academies across the country have 2,200 alumni, and Deters said they will graduate that many or more in the coming year. Boulder's campus has trained 200 students in web development, HTML/CSS, Javascript and cloud technologies since launching in May 2014.

The program has a 95 percent placement rate. Upon completion of the six-month, $21,000 courses, grads are able to fill entry-level positions that are now, at least partially, taken by recent college grads.

Galvanize and Techtonic's trainees can also help alleviate diversity concerns that have plagued the majority-white-and-male tech industry. Techtonic accepts only at-risk youth, minorities, women and military veterans. Galvanize, too, attracts a more diverse set: two recent classes in Boulder were 60 percent and 46 percent women, respectively.

Demand for the education is high: Techtonic has 300 applicants for its most recent class of 15 apprentices. Expansion plans are in order after the company received a $500,000 grant from the Colorado Department of Labor. Locations in Denver and Colorado Springs are imminent, said Techtonic CEO and co-founder Heather Terenzio.

Given the appeal of such programs to solve many of the tech world's woes, many have asked: What took so long for these efforts to gain momentum? Terenzio has an answer.

The H-1B program "has made us complacent," she said. "We thought foreign workers would always be there, and no one wanted to disrupt the hiring process -- it's scary, it's new, it's different."

She and Deters said support within the local tech community is growing; although Terenzio said enthusiasm is more mild than wild. The academy has been self-funded by the business itself.

Techtonic's supporters have been, on the whole, in the government. Along with the state grant, the academy was recognized by the U.S. Department of Labor as the first tech apprenticeship in Colorado and added to its official network.

Galvanize is gaining more traction in the private sector. Employees have gone on to work for companies such as Airbnb, Uber, Twitter and, locally, IBM and Zayo Group.

"They're successful retraining people for higher paying jobs, and we support that mission," said Zayo CEO Dan Caruso, who is an investor in Galvanize. "When people can take care of themselves (with good jobs), that's good for all of us."

Galvanize has also been contracted to retrain the workforce of insurance giant Allstate. The company has hired two dozen Galvanize academy alumni and educated 20 percent of its employees globally to perform more high-tech functions. Deters takes that as a good sign that the tide is beginning to turn.

"Great companies will go to great lengths to find human capital, no matter where it is," he said. "Why not make it here?"

Techtonic's Ray, for one, is glad that more people are starting to look in his neck of the woods, at kids with a troubled past but with a strong work ethic and a desire to do more.

"For Techtonic to give me a chance... every morning I wake up and come to work, I'm grateful."

Shay Castle: 303-473-1626, [email protected] or twitter.com/shayshinecastle

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