While more and more people are going to college, the reality for a growing majority of students is that asides from leaving school with crippling student debt, limited job prospects, and a diploma with dwindling value, graduates are also starting to realize that the skills they went to school for are no longer the skills of the future.
So if you didn’t go to college, or if you went to college and you still don’t have the skills to get the job you want… what do you do? All the “goods jobs” are taken anyway, right?
Actually, quite the opposite. Interestingly enough, businesses also have an issue finding talented people who can successfully fill these high growth positions in coding and technology.
To recap–that means people want to work and companies want to hire them, but there is currently a gap in training and preparing these candidates for success.
That’s where Carolina Fintech Hub is stepping in by introducing the Workforce Investment Network (WIN) program. Through this intensive six-month training program, students will receive 700 hours of JAVA training provided by Tech Talent South, soft skills certification through Charlotte Works, and on-the-job experience at one of our hiring partners, all while getting paid! Still not enough? Well, if students satisfy all the criteria for graduation and complete the program, they will then transition to a full-time position at one of Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Ally, BB&T, or EY.
The mission is to provide three things:
- An opportunity to allow people living in underserved communities access to the training and resources necessary to find meaningful work in technology (impacting upward mobility).
- Help businesses find talent from diverse populations, giving women and minority candidates access to opportunities they are currently underrepresented in.
- Combat the reputation that the Carolinas lack the technology talent needed to create meaningful innovation at a global scale (see: Amazon’s decision to leave Charlotte off their top-20 list).
While there is certainly a social positive resulting from the program’s expected outcomes, the CFH team does not view the WIN program as a charity, per se. Simply put, this program fills a business need while also doing good by the community. A true win-win.
The response from the community has been overwhelming. In just a few short weeks, already over 1,000 people have applied to be a part of the first class. Registration is open until midnight of Sunday, Feb 10th with a scheduled program start date of March 18th.
Visit www.carolinafintechhub.org/WIN to find out more details and apply for consideration into the program. For more information about the program, please contact pasha.maher@carolinafintechhub.org.
