Ninety Percent of IT-Ready Graduates Still Employed After One Year

EDINA, Minn., July 13, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Creating IT Futures Foundation reported that 90 percent of its IT-Ready certified graduates in the Twin Cities over the past four years were still employed in the information technology (IT) industry one year after leaving the program.

As part of the City of Minneapolis' TechHire Initiative, the free IT-Ready program trains, certifies and places unemployed and under-employed adults in their first jobs in the IT field. The accelerated tech training program is no cost to students (18 years of age or older).

"Over the past four years of the program in the Twin Cities, 90 percent of our certified graduates are still employed in IT occupations one year after graduation, whereas nationally, typical workforce development programs average closer to 33 percent job retention after one year," said Charles Eaton, CEO, Creating IT Futures. "We attribute our success to a five-part strategy to recruit, assess, train, certify and place students with more than 60 local employers. Many other industry training programs don't screen applicants as heavily and don't have the close connections with potential employers, helping transition graduates directly into full-time career opportunities."

The next IT-Ready eight-week class will be held in Edina, starting October 10. Applications will be accepted through September 19 at www.ITReady.com.  There are two upcoming information sessions for potential students to learn more about the program: Thursday, August 4 at 10:00 a.m., and Tuesday, August 23 at 10:00 a.m. RSVP for the information sessions at [email protected].

What Do IT-Ready Students Learn?

In the IT-Ready program, students get hands-on labs taking apart and building desktop computers and other hardware; learn about motherboards, printers, peripheral devices, memory and physical storage, connections and mobile devices; set up computer networks and troubleshoot networks, displays, printers, and operating systems; configure operating systems and hardware; and secure networks, systems and data.

IT-Ready students also receive targeted professional development in key business "soft" skills such as professional communication and presentation, teamwork and collaboration, and critical thinking and problem solving. IT-Ready graduates are grounded in these key skills and prepared to apply them on day one of their new jobs. After completing their training, the students sit for the CompTIA A+ certification exam which covers desktop and help-desk technical support duties and skills.

IT-Ready students receive free tuition, books and learning materials, more than 240 hours of classroom and hands-on tech and soft skills training, and certification vouchers toward the CompTIA A+ exam. 

The class in Edina will run from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. every weekday. To demonstrate their commitment to the training and pursuing an IT career, IT-Ready students are allowed only one absence and two late days during the program.

Potential employers, mentors, students and community partners can learn more at www.ITReady.com.

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SOURCE Creating IT Futures Foundation

Related Links

http://www.creatingitfutures.org/