White House names ACC and City of Austin a ‘TechHire’ community

Austin Community College (ACC), in partnership with the City of Austin, joins the White House’s TechHire Initiative, designed to train and develop a home-grown information technology workforce.

“Central Texas is and will continue to be a high-tech hub,” says Dr. Richard Rhodes, ACC president and CEO. “We must develop new, accelerated pathways to well-paying jobs. Together, we can close the workforce gap.”

Of the nearly 5 million job openings in the United States, more than half a million are positions such as software developers, network administrators and cybersecurity specialists, according to White House statistics.

The Austin Chamber’s February jobs report indicates approximately 8,000 local jobs in IT.

“What TechHire is going to do is to help local leaders connect the job openings to the training programs to the jobs,” said President Barack Obama during at the National League of Cities TechHire Launch in 2015. “It turns out, it doesn’t matter where you learned code. It just matters how good you are in writing code.  If you can do the job, you should get the job.”

ACC’s Accelerated Programmer Training is designed to give unemployed and underemployed adults rapid training in computer information technology. The program features competency-based learning. Students advance as they master concepts. Those with existing experience and skills can leverage their knowledge to speed time to completion. Since its launch in 2013, the number of students earning a degree or certificate in computer information technology at ACC has increased more than 50 percent.

Additional programs at the college designed to expand the pipeline of skilled workers in IT include:

  • BACK TO WORK 50+: Providing resources and skills to help women 50+ learn skills relevant to today’s workforce including computer skills.
  • IT Career Academy: Giving high school students the opportunity to earn workforce credentials and entry-level certifications.
  • IT Career Expressway: Combining accelerated instruction designed to prepare unemployed and underemployed adults for in-demand IT careers with financial assistance, support services, and internship opportunities.
  • Women in Information Technology: Accelerating women into entry-level IT careers by supplementing programs in four IT career pathways with workshops and mentoring specifically for women.

For more information about the TechHire Initiative, visit whitehouse.gov/techhire.

To learn more about ACC’s IT programs, visit austincc.edu/info/cs or contact Mary Kohls, department chair, at [email protected] or 512-223-3185.

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