Welcome to ActivateWork’s July 2025 Impact Report. This mid-year update highlights our progress, from new training initiatives and employer partnerships to proven learner outcomes and system-level innovation. Explore how we’re building a more inclusive, agile, and future-ready workforce for Colorado.
Agile Like the Tech We Teach
From Helen Young Hayes, Founder & CEO
Resilience and agility have always been at the heart of ActivateWork’s model. We cultivate these attributes in our learners, and we embody resilience and agility in every action we take. In 2025, that commitment remains stronger than ever.
This year has brought continued change across the labor market. Colorado is facing two challenges: a profound demographic shift and accelerating technological evolution.
As the state’s workforce rapidly ages and retires, Colorado will soon confront a worker shortage. Simultaneously, AI and automation are streamlining routine tasks and transforming knowledge work, causing employers to slow hiring and reassess what skills are needed now.
Talent shortages and surpluses will shape the labor landscape, demanding a more integrated and future-looking workforce ecosystem that rapidly upskills and re-skills Coloradans to meet evolving needs.”
More than ever, the “Big 3”—industry-demanded credentials, college credit aligned with career pathways, and work-based learning through on-the-job experience—must be expanded and integrated to close skill and experience gaps in the workforce.
At ActivateWork, we see this as a call to action—not with incrementalism, but with bold, coordinated strategies that meet the moment. In the first half of 2025, we’ve launched five major initiatives that foster an education-to-employment system rooted in nimbleness, relevance, and opportunity:
- We are partnering with CU Denver and MSU Denver to translate our curricula into college credit. This means our graduates will have a clearer, faster path to degree attainment—and our higher education partners will gain learners who are already skilled, motivated, and workforce-aligned.
- We introduced a new Data Analytics bootcamp designed in close consultation with employers. This 14-week course responds to the growing demand for analysts across sectors and gives learners the tools—SQL, Excel, Power BI, and more—to step into entry-level roles with confidence and competence.
- We continue to champion apprenticeship as a powerful solution to closing skills and experience gaps. With state tax credits of up to $12,600 and an additional $8,000 in incentive funding through our federal Apprenticeship Building America grant, employers can now reduce the cost of hiring an apprentice by up to $20,000. It’s a compelling opportunity to build workforce capabilities through strategic skills development and knowledge transfer.
We launched a new program to support military service members and spouses as they transition to civilian careers. Colorado leads the nation in per capita aerospace employment and is home to thousands of veterans with the technical aptitude, leadership experience, and security clearances sought after in aerospace, cybersecurity, and defense. As an official partner for SkillBridge and the Military Spouse Employment Partnership (MSEP), we can train and connect military-connected talent to employers ready to hire.- With AI democratizing tasks that once required years of experience, durable skills are more important than ever. We are working to recruit for these professional skills and help our learners contextually build them during our bootcamps and apprenticeships.
We know that the nature of work is evolving. But our mission is unwavering: to connect homegrown talent to in-demand careers through training, coaching, and community.
We’re not just equipping our learners to adapt to change—we’re empowering them to lead it.”
Thank you for your continued support as we expand pathways to economic mobility and equip Colorado’s workforce to embrace not just the future ahead, but the full range of possibilities it holds.
Warmly,
Helen
WORC Study
ActivateWork was featured in the 2025 Colorado Wage Outcomes Results Coalition (WORC) study—a rigorous, multi-year evaluation of workforce programs across the state launched by Colorado Equitable Economic Mobility Initiative (CEEMI), in partnership with the Colorado Evaluation and Action Lab at the University of Denver.
The results are clear: ActivateWork participants experience sustained wage growth even three years after enrolling. This independently validated research reinforces our commitment to data-driven decision making and evidence-based programming that delivers lasting economic impact.
Impact in Numbers
Total Enrolled Learners
Job Attainment
Job Retention at 6 months
Job Retention at 12 Months
Learner Vibrancy
People of Color
Hold Less Than a Bachelor's Degree
Immigrants
Women
Employer Spotlight
CEI and the City of Aurora: Powering Talent, Driving Impact
The City of Aurora relies on Computer Enterprises, Inc. (CEI) to deliver exceptional local talent—and their partnership with ActivateWork is expanding that pipeline. CEI’s hands-on, inclusive recruiting approach has placed seven ActivateWork graduates into high-impact IT roles at the City, from the service desk to infrastructure operations.
In today’s fast-changing talent landscape, technical skills alone aren’t enough. Says Ray Spelling of CEI:
We see a convergence of soft and durable skills and technical skills because there are more interdependencies across IT and other divisions.”
What sets ActivateWork alumni apart is their professionalism, dependability, and strong communication—traits that reflect and reinforce the City’s values and workplace culture.
By combining CEI’s strategic recruitment with ActivateWork’s rigorous training and curated candidate matching, this partnership is delivering the talent that municipalities like the City of Aurora need to meet 21st-century challenges—and proving what’s possible when employers invest in proven, high-return training models.
Graduate Spotlight
Ulises Aguilar Maturin
IT Service Specialist, Janus Henderson Investors
Before joining ActivateWork, Ulises (Uli) Aguilar Maturin was working in construction and HVAC—reliable work, but far from his passion.
A lifelong gamer with a natural curiosity for how technology works, Uli began self-studying for IT certifications and applying for jobs in tech. But without experience or industry connections, breaking in felt impossible. That changed when he found ActivateWork.
Through our technical bootcamp, Uli built a solid foundation in IT fundamentals and earned his CompTIA A+ certification—credentials he now puts to work as an IT Service Specialist at Janus Henderson.
Just as importantly, our career development training and personalized coaching supports helped him develop the essential professional skills that helped him stand out.
“My instructor emphasized the power of communication, even when you’re nervous,” he says. Mock interviews and constructive feedback prepared him to confidently land his role and opened the door to a fulfilling tech career.
Uli’s journey is a testament to what’s possible when potential meets opportunity. As he puts it:
“I couldn’t have gone to a better bootcamp than ActivateWork.”
Tech Talent Partnership: Building Colorado’s Cyber Workforce of the Future
Amid ongoing economic headwinds in the tech sector, the Tech Talent Partnership (TTP)— ActivateWork’s initiative to strengthen Colorado’s tech talent ecosystem in Colorado—is doubling down on strategies that meet employers where they are.
The goal: help companies navigate uncertainty while building a more inclusive, resilient talent pipeline for the future.
Led by Adele McCarthy-Beauvais, who stepped into the role of Vice President in March 2025, TTP is aligning workforce efforts with employers’ real-time hiring needs, particularly for critical roles in cybersecurity and IT.
Over the past six months, TTP has brought employers together to reassess skill requirements in light of AI disruption, launched “pipeline health” reports for key entry level roles identified by the industry steering committee, and collaborated with educators to align training programs with in-demand skills.
As hiring slows in some areas, employers are placing greater emphasis on quality over quantity—fueling TTP’s pivot toward competency-based training, apprenticeships, and upskilling strategies that produce work-ready talent. McCarthy-Beauvais emphasized:
“Strivers need real-time, relevant, and accessible training that directly connects them to in-demand careers.”
ActivateWork’s leadership is rooted in a deep belief in community-centered innovation and skills-first hiring. By building stronger bridges between education and employment, TTP is helping Colorado’s tech ecosystem weather today’s challenges—and preparing it to thrive tomorrow.
ActivateWork Welcomes
Adele McCarthy-Beauvais, Vice President of the Tech Talent Partnership
ActivateWork is thrilled to welcome Adele McCarthy-Beauvais as Vice President of the Tech Talent Partnership. A seasoned leader in education and workforce development, Adele brings deep expertise in operational strategy, coalition building, and systems-level change.
She previously served as the General Manager of the Colorado campus of tech bootcamp General Assembly and held national leadership roles focused on instructional quality and community growth. Her track record spans strategic leadership, program development, and product market refinement.
Under her leadership, ActivateWork will launch and sustain this important employer-led coalition to build homegrown talent pipelines.
A New Look, A Sharpened Focus
ActivateWork has always been driven by the belief that talent is everywhere, even if opportunity is not, and when high-potential individuals have access to the right opportunities and support, there is no limit to what they can do. In short, we believe that opportunity transforms lives and communities.
In 2025, we took an important step to better reflect this belief, and the power and purpose behind our work. We launched a refreshed website alongside a new mission, vision, values, and tagline: Opportunity to Impact.
These updates reflect not only who we are, but where we’re headed—as we continue to build pathways to economic mobility and a vibrant tech talent ecosystem fueling opportunity, growth, and prosperity for all.
Our new site brings this vision to life with clearer messaging, updated visuals, and a more compelling story about the individuals and businesses thriving through our programs.
Support ActivateWork
We’re deeply grateful to the partners and donors who make this work possible. Your belief in the power of opportunity fuels every learner’s journey—and helps build a stronger, more prosperous Colorado. If you’d like to be part of this mission, visit our Support page to explore ways to get involved and champion our work.