Living the Tech Dream, Thanks to a New Program

 

While Enrique Rico was growing up in Washington State, his mother cleaned the homes of people employed at Microsoft Corporation.

On days when he was was too sick for school, he joined his mother when she went to work. And soon, he would dream of having the life of a technology worker.

Now, at age 26, Rico is creating computer software programs at Avvo, an online marketplace for legal services. Yet he did not finish college. And he had no former experience in subjects like science, technology, engineering or mathematics.

However, Rico did complete a program called Apprenti. It provides education and on-the-job training for tech jobs to non-traditional trainees¹.

“I never really thought I could do it. But once I dug deep, I gave it my all,” Rico told Reuters news agency.

The Apprenti program is a project of the Washington Technology Industry Association with the United States Department of Labor². It operates at around 50 companies across the country. They include businesses such as Microsoft, Amazon and JPMorgan Chase.

In 2017, in Apprenti’s first year, 76 candidates received training. The program is not easy. Candidates must complete about 400 to 780 classroom hours in just 12 weeks.

After a year of on-the-job training, the program placed 330 Apprenti graduates at full-time³ jobs. The class of 2019 is expected to produce 700 graduates.

Tammy Thieman works at Amazon. She told Reuters that the company is likely to accept up to 1,000 graduates in the next few years. Right now, it has 150.

The tech industry had 2.8 million job openings last year. Half of them were middle-level jobs that do not require a college education. That information comes from Jennifer Carlson, executive⁴ director of Apprenti.

Hiring in the technology industry is slow, however, because companies cannot find workers with the right training, she said.

Apprenti offers most of its training to women, minority groups and military veterans. It will choose its 700 candidates for 2019 from a group of 2,000.

Amazon teamed up with Apprenti after its founder⁵, Jeff Bezos, made a promise to hire 25,000 veterans and husbands and wives of armed forces members by 2021. But the program has quickly grown to find skilled workers for many kinds of open jobs.

While veterans often have valuable skills, they usually do not have workplace experience. That is why the biggest barrier currently⁶ for veterans is being underemployed when they leave the armed forces, said Chris Newsome. He is with a company called RecruitMilitary.

“A lot of these men and women are able to find jobs, but not necessarily careers,” Newsome said.

But even new university graduates often need to complete a program like Apprenti because computer languages change so quickly.

Training at universities or community colleges also can be ineffective in preparing students for jobs which require special certification, Apprenti’s Carlson said.

Even boot camps for computer programming are not always effective. Rico tried that path first, resigning from his $16.50-an-hour job as a salesperson⁷ at an Apple Store to go into a boot camp.

But without a college education, he could not compete against other tech job seekers.

For smaller companies like Avvo, Apprenti is more of a calling.

“The executives⁸ saw the value of a program that gets you talented engineers and does a social good,” said Hunter Davis of Avvo.

The company currently has about 25-30 software developers, with about 15 percent of them coming through Apprenti.

The training helps Apprenti graduates right away. Like Rico, many of them had worked low-paying jobs, earning about $28,000 a year. The starting salary in the Apprenti program is $45,000 during training.

At six months, when candidates begin on-the-job training, the pay rises to $51,000 a year. If they get hired full-time - and almost all of them do - Apprenti graduates can earn at least $75,000.

Those kind of earnings⁹ can change the lives of most of the participants.

“I have an apartment and a dog and a cat,” said Rico, who is still dreaming. “I’d love to get married and have kids and buy a house. I want to be my own boss. I would love to start my own company.”

I’m Alice Bryant. And I’m Pete Musto.

Words in This Story

software – n. the programs that run on a computer and perform certain functions

online – adj. done over the Internet

graduate – n. a person who has earned a degree or diploma from a school, college, or university

hire – v. to give work or a job to someone in exchange for wages or a salary

veteran – n. someone who fought in a war as a member of the armed forces

salary – n. an amount of money that an employee is paid each year

boss – n. the person whose job is to tell other workers what to do

1 trainees   

新兵( trainee的名词复数 )； 练习生； 接受训练的人； 训练中的动物

参考例句：

• We've taken on our full complement of new trainees. 我们招收的新学员已经满额了。
• The trainees were put through an assault course. 受训人员接受了突击训练课程。

2 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

3 full-time   

adj.满工作日的或工作周的，全时间的

参考例句：

• A full-time job may be too much for her.全天工作她恐怕吃不消。
• I don't know how she copes with looking after her family and doing a full-time job.既要照顾家庭又要全天工作，我不知道她是如何对付的。

4 executive   

adj.执行的，行政的；n.执行者，行政官，经理

参考例句：

• A good executive usually gets on well with people.一个好的高级管理人员通常与人们相处得很好。
• He is a man of great executive ability.他是个具有极高管理能力的人。

5 Founder   

n.创始者，缔造者

参考例句：

• He was extolled as the founder of their Florentine school.他被称颂为佛罗伦萨画派的鼻祖。
• According to the old tradition,Romulus was the founder of Rome.按照古老的传说，罗穆卢斯是古罗马的建国者。

6 currently   

adv.通常地，普遍地，当前

参考例句：

• Currently it is not possible to reconcile this conflicting evidence.当前还未有可能去解释这一矛盾的例证。
• Our contracts are currently under review.我们的合同正在复查。

7 salesperson   

n.售货员，营业员，店员

参考例句：

• A salesperson works in a shop.售货员在商店工作。
• Vanessa is a salesperson in a woman's wear department.凡妮莎是女装部的售货员。

8 executives   

（公司或机构的）经理( executive的名词复数 )； （统称公司或机构的）行政领导； （政府的）行政部门； [the Executive][美国英语]（美国政府的）行政当局

参考例句：

• They have taken measures to equate the salaries of higher civil servants to those of business executives. 他们采取措施使高级文职人员的工资和企业管理干部的工资相等。
• He disregarded the advice of his executives. 他对主管层的建议置若罔闻。

9 earnings   

n.工资收人；利润，利益，所得

参考例句：

• That old man lives on the earnings of his daughter.那个老人靠他女儿的收入维持生活。
• Last year there was a 20% decrease in his earnings.去年他的收入减少了20%。