This story originally appeared in The Job by Work/Shift, a newsletter about the connections between education and work by veteran journalist Paul Fain. Read the original version here.
Curating a Match
Recruit, Train, and Coach
ActivateWork isn’t a coding bootcamp, although it offers tuition-free tech training. Instead, the Denver-based nonprofit describes itself as a bridge between companies and a diverse pool of job seekers.
“We bring employers to our learners,” says Helen Young Hayes, ActivateWork’s founder and CEO. “Employers need to be open to the thought that they might not have it all figured out.”
The group focuses on unemployed or underemployed workers. It recruits through digital media and at workforce centers, the Denver Rescue Mission, and other community organizations. Candidates participate in an eight-hour behavioral and aptitude assessment before they can enroll in ActivateWork’s 15-week training program. Only 20% are accepted.
Roughly two-thirds of training participants lack a bachelor’s degree. With a median age of 30 to 35, 70% are people of color. A third are women, and 22% are immigrants or refugees.
The group’s approach to training is based on the model of its partner, Per Scholas, a well-established tech skills development nonprofit. ActivateWork offers courses in software engineering, security fundamentals, IT support, AWS re/Start, and full-stack Java developer. Some of the 12- to 15-week tracks lead to a CompTIA A+ certification. All are free to learners—ActivateWork covers those costs through philanthropy and employer placement fees.
Its corporate partners tend to be open to hiring for potential, skills, and passion, says Hayes, not just pedigree. “Employers that have a long-term strategic approach versus a short-term reactive approach to solving their IT talent gaps,” she says.
So far 214 students have completed the program. The group is on pace to train 650 learners over the next three years. Graduates see an average annual wage gain from $20K to $46K.
Participants receive coaching for the first year after they are hired into a job. The support is designed to help them make the adjustment into a new role, in part to reduce turnover for ActivateWork’s employer partners.
Hayes says the group curates the match between employers and graduates.
“We coach our individuals on how to develop social capital and set the stage for them to develop close connections through our alumni gatherings,” she says.
Federal Support
ActivateWork has created three federally registered apprenticeships for graduates, which it offers to employers as a “turnkey” approach to on-the-job training. The group’s goal is for half of its graduates to move into an apprenticeship, which Hayes describes as the “surest and shortest path to economic mobility.”
The IT office of Jared Polis, Colorado’s Democratic governor, recently hired three apprentices who are graduates of ActivateWork’s software engineering course.
Hayes is a former investment banker who at one time oversaw $50B in assets as a portfolio manager for Janus Capital, a Denver-based mutual fund company. She would like to see the federal government invest more in work-based learning and backs a proposal for a new workforce training grant.
The concept would draw money from higher education subsidies to create an annual employer grant of $10K for each trainee who splits their time between work and formal training. Hayes also says she would like to see government support for low-income learners who are enrolled in accredited workforce programs that provide evidence-based upskilling, employment, and economic mobility.
In both cases, she says, quality controls are a must, including the decertification of underperforming training programs.
The Kicker: “No funding for organizations that do not provide employment,” says Hayes.