TechHire photo, courtesy of the White House.
Austin is one of 15 new communities added to the TechHire program. San Antonio joined the program last year when President Obama launched it.
“In my State of our City address last month, I promised to make workforce development in tech a special focus of this year,” Mayor Steve Adler said in a news release. “The White House designating Austin a TechHire Community reflects the real progress we are making. The TechHire Initiative will help us create the best, most-effective job training ecosystem in the country. Austin is good at creating jobs. This will make us better at getting our own people ready to take those jobs.”
Mayor Adler held a press conference Wednesday morning to announce the news.
President Obama launched TechHire with 21 communities and 300 employers. The communities are training people for high-tech jobs using coding bootcamps, which can train workers in coding skills in just a few months.
In Austin, Microsoft, Google Fiber, Google and IBM are working with the City to provide opportunities for up to 220 graduates from training programs for veterans and low-income residents at Austin Community College, Texas State University and Zenith Education Group. These students will be eligible to interview for paid internships or similar offerings at the end of the program.
Today, a total of 50 communities and 600 employer partners participate in the TechHire program.
All of the communities have pledged to use data and innovative hiring practices to expand openness to nontraditional hiring. They’ve also agreed to expand models for training to prepare students in months through coding camps. And they have pledged to provide active local leadership to connect people to jobs with hiring on-ramp programs.
In addition to Austin, the other TechHire communities announced Wednesday include Atlanta, Burlington, VT, Riverside, Ca., Flint, MI, State of Hawaii, Indianapolis, IN, Jackson, MS, Milwaukee, WI, Raleigh, NC, Jackson, TN, Seattle, WA, Tallahassee, FL, Commonwealth of Virginia and Miami, FL.
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