TechHire Job Creation Initiative Expands to 20 Additional Communities

This week, Carrier Corp. announced that it would keep an Indiana manufacturing facility open, much to the fanfare of President-elect Trump supporters and surrogates. Trump himself has promoted this announcement as a victory for working class Americans and an example of his prowess as a deal maker.

But to assume that Trump will be able to negotiate every company considering relocation is a bit of a pipe dream. One option for the loss of manufacturing jobs in the country is the growth in technology jobs — nearly 40 percent of which do not require a four-year degree and training can take less than a year.

The White House also is invested such training: Its TechHire initiative is working to help provide the education necessary for workers to transition into IT. The program made a series of announcements to this effect on Thursday, Dec. 1:

• 20 more communities have joined the program, bringing the total to more than 70 communities nationwide;
• Opportunity@Work, an independent social enterprise, has partnered with the U.S. Department of Education and together, they will continue the program's growth; and
• The Include.io 2017 Roadshow will tour around the nation, sparking local tech ecosystems by providing tech demos, coding bootcamps and a career fair to highlight the next generation.

20 New Communities Alachua and Bradford counties, Fla. Anchorage, Alaska Arizona Bellevue, Wash. Boston, Mass. Carroll County, Md. Central Florida El Paso County, Texas Howard County, Md. Mobile, Ala. Oklahoma City, Okla. Omaha, Neb. Pensacola, Fla. Puerto Rico Santa Fe and Northern New Mexico Stamford, Conn. Tampa Bay, Fla. Toledo, Ohio Trenton City, N.J. Tulsa, Okla.

Tech training is vital to the future of the American workforce. There are more than 600,000 open IT jobs across all sectors, which pay one-and-a-half times more than the average private-sector job. A recent survey from Course Report found that after graduating, salaries increased by 38 percent.

The TechHire program began in March 2015 with 21 communities, and after today's announcement, that number has more than tripled. Members include cities, states and rural areas.

The program has three primary components: creating hiring pathways for people without traditional credentials who can demonstrate that they have the skills to succeed in a tech job; creating tech education programs; and connecting people to jobs by backing organizations that can vouch for those who have the skills to do the job.