Note: This WestEd project was completed in 2016.
WestEd served as lead grantee and managing partner of TechSF, an Information Technology initiative funded at $5 million over four years by a U.S. Department of Labor H-1B Technical Skills Training Grant.
Partnering with the San Francisco Office of Economic and Workforce Development, City College of San Francisco, IBM, AT&T, and a consortium of employers and community-based organizations, WestEd implemented sector strategies to recruit, assess, educate, and place in jobs long-term unemployed and those not traditionally represented in IT careers. The project also trained incumbent workers to help them remain competitive in this rapidly changing industry.
WestEd gathered partners’ feedback about the program design, performance and outcome data, and real-time labor market information from employers to inform curriculum design and improve program effectiveness.
WestEd also convened an Education Pathways Working Group. Partners use research on barriers to IT careers to design and implement projects that are helping to build a local IT workforce pipeline including secondary, postsecondary, and community-based training options.
Close to the project’s target of 400 unemployed and long-term unemployed participated in the program, and well over 50 completed and were placed. More than 700 incumbent workers received training and retained or advanced in their positions.