Thanks to a $4 million TechHire grant to Goodwill Industries International from the U.S. Department of Labor Employment and Training Administration (DOLETA), unemployed and frontline workers in Goodwill Industries of the Valleys’ 31 county, 13 city service area will have the opportunity to leverage specialized services leading to rapid employment in technology occupations.
The TechHire grant will allow local Goodwill® organizations to train and place people in technology careers. Through new and existing partnerships, Goodwill Industries of the Valleys will use the grant funds to train people for certifications in areas such as CompTIA A+, Security+, and Network+. Goodwill will also provide computer programmer training certifications for Microsoft Technology Associate and Microsoft Certified Solutions Developer as well as computer language-specific certifications. Additionally, the grant will enable Goodwill to provide paid internships and registered apprenticeships in the service area. Goodwill Industries of the Valleys received $1 million.
As of April 2016, the United States has 5.8 million open jobs, and more than 100,000 are in the information industry, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Goodwill Industries of the Valleys is collaborating with multiple businesses and economic development entities employer partners, including including Cyberline Computers, Ethos Technologies, SharpTop, Carilion Clinic, the Salem-Roanoke Chamber of Commerce and Roanoke City Economic Development.
The grant will serve 702 individuals across three states through the Goodwill Careers in Technology (CiT) program, which includes education and training partners like the Creating IT Futures Foundation (CompTIA’s philanthropic arm), online training provider MedCerts, and local workforce investment boards. The Goodwill CiT program will train individuals for career pathways in the information technology industry in two high-growth H-1B occupations: computer user support specialist and computer programmer.
This funding is a part of the Obama Administration’s efforts to work with communities to get more Americans trained for well-paying technology jobs through the TechHire initiative, which launched in March 2015. TechHire is a multi-sector effort and call to action for local communities to fill critical local IT job gaps. To do so, diverse arrays of Americans are empowered to rapidly gain technology skills by accessing nontraditional training options like “coding boot camps” and high-quality online courses.
Two additional Goodwill organizations in Texas and Ohio will use the grant funds to provide the Goodwill CiT program in their regions. They are Goodwill Industries of Central Texas (Austin), and Goodwill Columbus (OH).
Goodwill Industries of the Valleys, a United Way partner organization headquartered in Roanoke, serves 31 counties and 13 cities in the New River, Roanoke, and Shenandoah Valleys. Its mission is to help people and families in our community achieve a better life through work and independence. In 2015, Goodwill assisted thousands of individuals and in this difficult employment market placed 4,261 people into jobs in our community.
