activatework

Second chance for a Colorado veteran thanks to breakthrough IT training program

June 11, 2022
By Carol McKinley

Quasey Vinson gave his kindergartner a taste of a faraway place. “Could you possibly mix pineapple juice with apple juice?” he asked the waitress.

“And a mahi-mahi taco?” asked Tyrese, who is missing his two front teeth. Vinson ducked his head at the extra expense. "One mahi-mahi please and the rest chicken."

The request was in line with the 5-year old’s pre-school graduation bucket list wish: a trip to an exotic island. The tropical treats were a father’s compromise. “You want to go to an island? We can’t do that now. Someday we’ll do that.”

Vinson, 47, feels pretty good about his chances for a full life with Tyrese now that he has a new career in computer technology. After beating his head against the wall in a life of jobs that were leading nowhere, he took on a program to learn computer skills which he knew would increase his value to employers salivating to fill urgent needs in IT.

The fact that he landed in Denver after leaving the Army was a happy coincidence. Denver Metro’s share of national tech jobs grew by 2% from 2015-2019, according to the Brookings Institute, and is considered a rising star in the industry. El Paso County is also a technology hub, and it is currently hurting for IT experts. Numbers from the Colorado Springs Chamber and EDC show that from around 28,500 openings last month, nearly a tenth of those were for software developers, computer systems engineers and information security analysts.

Statewide, according to the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment, Colorado is suffering from a critical IT worker shortage. The latest numbers show that of 115,000 open jobs in Colorado, 15,863 are in the computer technology and mathematical fields.

Vinson filled one of those op when he accepted a job three weeks ago.

“I’m in a better spot as far as having my own place, an apartment. My son can stay with me so I him on every weekend instead of sparingly,” said Vinson, who credits an unconventional training and placement program called Activate Work for his recent good fortune.

The journey hasn’t been easy.

Just two years ago, the Army Corps of Engineers veteran was down and out having moved to Colorado to start a family with Tyrese’s mom. That failed relationship plus the pandemic had him struggling to make ends meet even though he was working two jobs.

“I worked as a restaurant line cook and I was also working at a warehouse. I enjoyed those jobs, but I wasn’t going anywhere.”

When Vinson was feeling at rock bottom, a Veterans Affairs counselor handed him a recruitment flyer for a non-profit called Activate Work which promised free tuition, materials hardware, exam fees and career counseling to people who were willing to take its 15-week job computer science training program. The kicker? It was free.

Too good to be true?

Vinson found out that Activate Work was for real. But that the commitment would require a dramatic lifestyle change. Vinson went through two interviews just to be accepted into AW’s program.

“They liked my eagerness to learn and my willingness to do something different,” said Vinson. When he graduated in Nov. 2020, he was part of AW’s second class. “After covid hit and everything was shut down I wanted to add to my skills. I wanted to add something else to my resume for when the economy opened back up.”

Activate Work’s founder and president, Helen Young Hayes was on the same thought wave. When COVID19 began, Hayes foresaw that once the pandemic was over, employers would be starving for reliable employees. She also correctly predicted that not only would people lose retail and fast food jobs with the evolution toward automation, but that Information Technology could provide a firm landing for those displaced workers.

“What we saw during the pandemic was a bigger move to working from home. And 40% of the people who were in economically cyclical industries and displaced in Colorado during the pandemic say they were looking for a career before it started,” said Hayes. “There is a difference between a job and a career.”

Her solution? A focus on a population struggling to achieve financial security. It appeared to be a win-win.

Activate Work, recruits marginalized workers whom she calls “diamonds in the rough,” who have been laid off or are disillusioned in a nowhere job. AW trains and coaches them, placing them with Colorado companies desperate to fill thousands of empty IT positions.

People like Vinson who are accepted to the Activate Work program go through a fast-track IT program as opposed to getting a college degree, which Hays believes is an unnecessary expense for that particular discipline. “IT used to recruit 4-year computer science graduates. But there’s a million person IT talent shortage in the U.S. We have a real macro problem for IT,” said Hayes. “This is what employers tell us they want. This program moves people to the middle class really quickly.”

Among the Colorado companies which use Hayes’ IT placing program are First Bank, Ping Identity, Bank of America, Trimble, and Denver Health. Companies pay a fee for the service and continued training and Hayes supplements that with philanthropy.

Learners, as AW calls its trainees, have been known to triple their annual salaries once they are placed. The average starting pay for prospective workers who go through Activate Work’s program begins at $20 and the retention rate is one year, which is around 35% higher than the industry average.

Hayes said all it takes for people like Vinson is the willingness to go through the training and a desire for a better life. “We look at individuals who are struggling to make ends meet. Historically Colorado ranked 12^th in overall prosperity but we ranked 37th in terms of racial inclusivity. We don’t target diversity for diversity’s sake,” said Hayes. “Our goal is to get them to the point where they can take care of their families and are driving wages instead of barely getting by wages.”

Besides the training, AW devotes one day a week to help learners target their goals and write resume’s. Behavioral health is also a component of the training.

A mental health turnaround was exactly what Vinson needed.  With his unemployment money, he bought a computer for virtual classes. His next goal is to purchase a vehicle. He resolves technology issues  hands on at 9^th Way Insignia, a cyber security and software development business within the Department of Veterans Affairs which has a branch in Colorado.

One day he’ll take Tyrese to build castles in the sand.

“I’m in awe. I get tears sometimes when I think about the journey,” said Vinson.  “Things are moving up.”

by activatework

Colorado has had a shortage of cybersecurity professionals for years. Here’s how that’s going.

Colorado schools like MSU Denver have ramped up cybersecurity programs as the world’s thirst for cyber protection grows. But it’s not just about a college degree.

June 9, 2022
By Tamara Chuang

The pressure was on. Someone, somewhere, was attacking computer systems so customers couldn’t reach certain websites. In a windowless room in Denver, Zack Privette had worked all morning with his security team to figure out what the cyber strangers were up to.

“What’s happened is that we have an attacker who has been going through our different websites and they found a vulnerability into our active directory and …,” Privette explained to Richard Mac Namee, identified as chief operating officer of the company under attack.

“OK, I’m not technical. What does that mean?” interrupted Mac Namee, who is really the director of the new Cybersecurity Center at Metropolitan State University of Denver. And he’s actually quite technical.

This was a simulation.

The makeshift “Cyber Range” command center inside MSU Denver’s Cybersecurity Center had multiple TV screens showing ominous maps of live cyber threats. It’s part of a unique training ground for students, recent grads and people who don’t even attend the college but are interested in cybersecurity careers.

Privette, who isn’t an MSU student, got to experience the Cyber Range program because it’s open to outsiders. The industry needs more outsiders. According to one estimate, there are 66 cybersecurity professionals for every 100 job openings nationwide. It’s tighter in Colorado, where there are 59 for every 100. And demand is growing faster than training programs like MSU can graduate.

Mac Namee is behind the school’s Cybersecurity Center and getting the school designated as a National Centers of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense in March. A former commander in the United Kingdom’s Special Forces who’s worked as a specialist in counterterrorism, Mac Namee keeps it practical. During the simulation, he pretends to be an ordinary company executive. Students must figure out how to explain the cyber mayhem to non-techies — and fast!

The makeshift “Cyber Range” command center inside MSU Denver’s Cybersecurity Center had multiple TV screens showing ominous maps of live cyber threats. It’s part of a unique training ground for students, recent grads and people who don’t even attend the college but are interested in cybersecurity careers.

Privette, who isn’t an MSU student, got to experience the Cyber Range program because it’s open to outsiders. The industry needs more outsiders. According to one estimate, there are 66 cybersecurity professionals for every 100 job openings nationwide. It’s tighter in Colorado, where there are 59 for every 100. And demand is growing faster than training programs like MSU can graduate.

Mac Namee is behind the school’s Cybersecurity Center and getting the school designated as a National Centers of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense in March. A former commander in the United Kingdom’s Special Forces who’s worked as a specialist in counterterrorism, Mac Namee keeps it practical. During the simulation, he pretends to be an ordinary company executive. Students must figure out how to explain the cyber mayhem to non-techies — and fast!

“So, 14 minutes of outage,” Mac Namee said. “Fourteen minutes with our athletes and the way they’re trying to log on, that’s quite a big problem. How will we resolve this?”

Privette went on to explain that there was a backup so the data is safe. But he acknowledged the attackers were still inside the system and his team was now trying to figure out if data had been stolen. His team thinks credentials were taken, but he doesn’t think the theft involved customers’ personally identifiable data, he said. Mac Namee gave him an hour to figure it out.

How it’s going

Targeted training programs have been popping up nationwide for the past decade as nearly every business with a website, ecommerce offering or other internet-based operation must deal with data breaches, ransomware and other cyber threats.

According to the Identity Theft Resource Center, which tracks breaches and supports victims, the number of publicly reported data breaches in the U.S. more than doubled since 2015 to 1,862 last year. Regulations in Colorado and around the globe also put the onus on companies to protect customers’ personal data.

Back in 1999, partly to address the lack of qualified professionals, the U.S. National Security Agency launched its National Centers of Academic Excellence program. It certifies schools with a cybersecurity curriculum for cyber research, defense education and cyber operations. There are now about 380 colleges and universities in the U.S. Such designations require standardized cybersecurity curriculum, active challenges and professional development. There are 13 schools in Colorado and include state, community and private colleges.

The partnership with industry and MSU Denver is credited to Mac Namee, said Steve Beaty, a professor in the school’s computer science department. While Beaty started teaching cybersecurity courses in 2004, a cybersecurity degree debuted just four years ago. The new center and partnerships with private cybersecurity companies such as Atos, a European information technology firm that is now taking up space in the facility, really took off after Mac Namee arrived.

“He had the bandwidth. Some of us haven’t had the bandwidth to do a lot of this stuff. Atos is due to him,” Beaty said. “Richard is the one who put the fire under what’s going on here.”

And looking at the heat map of cybersecurity job openings at CyberSeek.org, the U.S. needs it.

by activatework

Understanding Intersectionality and Supporting Asian Americans

A Nonprofit Leader Celebrates Her Own Intersections and Works to Eliminate Inequities Experience By Others

May 11, 2022
By Helen Young Hayes

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, intersectionality is a sociological term meaning “The interconnected nature of social categorizations such as race, class, and gender, regarded as creating overlapping and interdependent systems of discrimination or disadvantage.”

The original term was conceived in 1989 by Kimberlé Crenshaw, a civil rights activist and legal scholar. In the University of Chicago Legal Forum, Crenshaw described the multiplicative nature of intersectionality in which women’s rights and anti-racist policies can unintentionally exclude black women who experience discrimination unique to them.

I’ve been the only woman and the only person of color in numerous settings—corporate leadership, investment circles, philanthropic ventures, and advisory boards. I was also often the only first-generation Chinese American working mom in the room. Growing up, I downplayed the intersectionality in my life. But it was ever-present. During my years on Wall Street, I was often mistaken for my male colleagues’ assistant. I wasn’t invited to play poker or smoke cigars. I was even openly mocked by a previously cordial CEO when he realized, face to face, that I am not white. Now I both celebrate my own intersectionality and work to eliminate the inequity experienced by others.

Overlapping identities and experiences

People’s overlapping identities and experiences can compound their experience of racism, prejudice, inequity—and violence. The intersectionality of gender and race for Asian American women is starkly illustrated in the unprecedented explosion of hate crimes against the Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) community since the March 2021 murders of six Asian American women in Atlanta. While overall, AAPI hate crimes increased by 339% in 2021, Asian American women are more than twice as likely to be victimized as Asian American men. Recently I was in New York City; on a sunny afternoon, seven Asian American women were attacked in a spree of violence just blocks away from my hotel.

Sharp differences among Asian Americans

Broadly viewed as the “model minority,” stereotypical Asian Americans are regarded as highly educated, successful, conformist, and culturally monolithic. In fact, the AAPI community experiences the greatest—and fastest growing—income inequity of all ethnicities. Poverty rates among recently immigrated, less educated and Pacific Islanders place these communities among the poorest in America.

Similar contrasts among Asian women reveal that Pacific Islander and South Asian women, predominantly newer Americans working in service sector jobs, earn less than two-thirds of women of North Asian descent.

ActivateWork

I founded Denver-based ActivateWork in 2016 to help individuals achieve economic freedom through the dignity of work. We work to uplift all underserved communities, including Asian Americans experiencing financial hardship and those whom the government has historically underserved. Believing that talent is evenly distributed but opportunities are not, ActivateWork stands as a bridge to higher-wage careers in technology through credentialing and training. Twenty percent of our IT trainees are immigrants and refugees. Several have lived in Asian refugee camps. And many of our women graduates hail from Asian cultures where women have historically been under-represented in the workforce.

Sunita Shakya: Learner of ActivateWork

Meet Sunita Shakya, a 39-year-old Nepalese female residing in Denver with two children and a husband; she is a current learner in the desktop security cohort with ActivateWork. She immigrated from Nepal 11 years ago, is a mother, wife, learner-student, and speaks two languages, English and Gurkha (the native language of Nepal).

She earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and worked as a middle-school teacher for five years in Nepal. She continued her education in Colorado. But she took a break from school to raise her children. Now she’s ready and eager to return to contribute to her household income.

“I want to join the workforce because I want to support my family, and working is my passion,” she said.

When Shakya finishes her tuition-free training under ActivateWork, a designated coach will guide her through the job search, polish her resume and learn all the tips associated with interviewing for a job as a QA analyst or QA tester. The assigned coach will stay with her a year after her IT training to ensure she is on the pathway to a career in technology.

Colorado Inclusive Economy Movement

In April 2020, during the depths of the COVID pandemic, I was inspired to launch the Colorado Inclusive Economy Movement.

Having studied past economic shocks, I knew that this pandemic would hit people of color first and hardest, and that they would recover slowest, if ever. To change the narrative, we needed a movement comprised of CEOs and other community leaders to unite and build a Colorado that works for all.

With a powerful team of volunteers, we designed a comprehensive plan of action and accountability toward becoming the nation’s most inclusive economy. We have our work cut out for us. Colorado ranks 12^th out of 50 states for overall prosperity but ranks 37^th in economic racial inclusivity. We are 105 CEOs today and will be 140 strong in August. We commit to creating change: change in ourselves, change for others, and change in our recruiting, hiring, retention, and promotion practices.

Understanding intersectionality and supporting Asian Americans

I invite my fellow community leaders to support Asian Americans through a genuine commitment to personal and workplace change. Below, I share some suggestions to become a DEI champion. Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month is great time to start:

1. Get curious. Educate yourself about why DEI is important. Learn about historical and current systems and processes that contribute to persistent inequity, prejudice, and racism. (The Colorado Inclusive Toolkit is a valuable diversity resource including longitudinal overviews like  How We Got Here: Historical Context of Racism. MIT Press has published a series of Articles for Understanding: Systemic Racism and Social Justice.)
2. Get close. About 40% of white people and 25% of people of color in America socialize with only people of the same race. Welcome and embrace new friendships. Proximity dissipates prejudice.
3. Get inclusive. Invite everyone, especially individuals from under-represented communities, to have an active voice. Understand that many Asian Americans come from cultures that esteem humility and might not readily share their accomplishments or opinions.
4. Get diverse. Learn new, equitable ways of recruiting, hiring, retaining, and promoting people of color. You won’t get different results with the same old HR practices. (See CIE Toolkit for tips.)
5. Get involved. Mentors and coaches can be valuable allies to help diverse employees understand the unspoken norms and become advocates for younger generations of employees.

It’s a step in the right direction — embracing the all-encompassing identities of Asian American women. As we celebrate May as Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, let’s step up and embrace our mothers, our sisters, our daughters, our girlfriends, neighbors, and colleagues who are Asian American women by uplifting them, recognizing their work, crediting them for all their perseverance, and encouraging them to continue as leaders, supporters, and driving forces of our community.

Helen Young Hayes is the founder/CEO of ActivateWork and a founding leader for Colorado Inclusive Economy.

by activatework

ActivateWork champions a diverse workforce through the IT and healthcare industries

Asian Avenue Magazine recap of April 6, 2022 - Elevating Colorado’s Economy by Launching Tech Careers

Last April 6, Governor Jared Polis applauded the work of ActivateWork
in building and creating an ecosystem of talented workers.

ActivateWork provides world-class technology training and credentials through its partner, Per Scholas, who has placed more than 15,000 IT professionals in 500-plus companies in 20 cities.

“Colorado is facing challenges in hiring,” Polis said. “We need the right
applicants for the right skills, for the right jobs.”

ActivateWork’s mission is to help underserved individuals achieve
their fullest potential through the dignity of work. Founded in 2016, the
organization is dedicated to transforming ambition into lasting success
by launching individuals into flourishing careers in IT and healthcare.

About 89 percent of ActivateWork’s learners are low-income, and
more than 20 percent live in extreme poverty when they enter this program,” said Helen Young Hayes, founder and CEO of ActivateWork.
“Many come from lower-wage jobs in retail, hospitality, construction, or
warehousing, while 10 percent are veterans and 70 percent are people
of color, accounting for 30 percent women.”

Hayes, who is Chinese American, shared during her speech that talent
can be found in underrepresented communities, but opportunities are
not available, so ActivateWork provides that bridge to connections.

As a champion of workforce development, Polis served as the keynote
speaker for “Elevating Colorado’s Economy by Launching Tech Careers.”
He discussed the state’s immediate needs for economic mobility. Last
June, Governor Polis signed two bills that invested $75 million to uplift
Colorado’s workforce training programs and expand access to all interested in pursuing apprenticeship pathways.

“This work is a step up to the visions on how everyone can thrive,” Polis
said.

In addition to graduates, employer-partners like PING Identity and
Bank of America are growing a strategic and diverse technology talent
pool through registered cybersecurity apprenticeships.

As ActivateWork builds additional training for IT courses, the goal is to
pave the way to economic mobility and prosperity for low-wage earners
from underrepresented and underserved communities. For more information about ActivateWork, visit ActivateWork.org.

by activatework

Study: Denver a 'rising star' for rapid growth in tech jobs amid pandemic

Will the shift to remote work during the pandemic have a long-term effect on the geographic shift in tech employment?

Our Founder, Helen Young Hayes, was featured March 8, 2022 by the Denver Business Journal.

Denver has emerged as a rising star in the battle of the tech hubs, part of a trend of remote work expanding some urban opportunities that’s happening alongside the continuing dominance of coastal superstar cities.

While established locales like San Francisco, Seattle, New York and Austin, Texas, continue to rule the tech employment sector, Sun Belt and Heartland cities like Denver and Dallas also have seen a significant surge in tech jobs over the past five years, a study by The Brookings Institution found.

In 2020, amid the coronavirus pandemic, tech sector employment growth slowed in the biggest, most dominant tech centers while nearly half of the nation’s 83 other large metro areas saw their rates increase.

Overall, nine rising star cities — Denver; Atlanta; Dallas; Miami; Orlando; San Diego; Kansas City, Missouri; St. Louis and Salt Lake City — increased their share of U.S. tech job postings from 14.5% in September 2016 to 16% at the end of 2021. The report found that Denver, along with Miami, had particularly vibrant growth in hiring ads during the Covid-19 pandemic and added tech jobs at an annual growth rate in excess of 3%.

Tech sector employment in the Denver-Aurora-Lakewood metro area grew from about 50,000 in 2015 to 64,000 in 2019, and despite the ongoing challenges of the pandemic, Denver's tech employment continued to rise at a steady pace from 2019 to 2020, climbing 4.6% to around 67,000.

The metro area has proven its ability to attract tech talent. Commercial real estate and investment firm CBRE’s 2021 Scoring Tech Talent report ranked Denver No. 12 overall in tech talent across North America based on an analysis of 13 metrics ranging from tech graduation rates, tech job concentration, tech labor pool size, and labor and real estate costs.

The CBRE study found that Denver’s tech sector employment gain was driven by young talent moving to the city, and that local employers have been able to keep tech wages competitive, with an average pay of $107,481 ranking ninth highest in North America.

Still to be seen is whether the shift to remote work during the pandemic will have a long-term effect on the geographic shift in tech employment. Some large tech employers such as Google are asking some employees to return in-person, with Google planning on a hybrid work week involving two days remote. Brookings cited forecasts that show that work patterns at least in the near future will likely follow a hybrid pattern requiring that tech workers appear in-office two or three days a week, limiting their ability to fully exit from established hubs.

The U.S. Department of Labor recently reported that one-third of companies increased remote work for some or all of their employees during the pandemic, and that 60% of those companies expect to make those changes permanent after the pandemic ends.

But Brookings said that while more widespread acceptance of remote work in the tech sector over time could lead to greater dispersion of workers and tech activity, and the shift to remote work during the pandemic may have played a slight role in job growth in the rising cities, the flow of workers away from high-cost metro areas has been modest thus far and does not seem to forecast a wholesale decentralization of tech.

by activatework