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    A Per Scholas student works on a piece of hardware in class
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    It’s no secret that the technology industry faces the double-whammy threat of a worker shortage and a skills gap. It’s also well known that women and people of colour are underrepresented in technology jobs, compounding the industry’s desire to enable a robust talent pipeline.

    Working to tackle both of these issues is Per Scholas, a nonprofit organisation that advances economic equity by providing tuition-free technology skills training and professional development assistance to un- or under-employed individuals across the United States. Launched 25 years ago in the South Bronx, Per Scholas now has campuses in 17 cities across the US and this year is on track to train roughly 3,000 individuals for careers in technology. Committed to increasing diversity in technology, nine in ten of Per Scholas learners are people of colour, more than a third are women, and the majority do not have a degree beyond high school.

    Thanks to ongoing support from Barclays, Per Scholas recently expanded its Brooklyn campus in order to further its reach. Celebrating the grand opening of the expanded campus at a launch event on October 21, which was attended by Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams among other local leaders, Richard Haworth, Americas CEO at Barclays said, “Barclays is incredibly proud to support Per Scholas’ efforts to train and prepare more New Yorkers for careers in technology, and we are thrilled to further the impact of Per Scholas’ programming through this expansion.”

    Left to right: Abe Mendez, Managing Director, Per Scholas New York; Deborah Goldfarb, Global Head of Citizenship, Barclays; Eric Adams, Brooklyn Borough President; Richard Haworth, Americas CEO, Barclays; Ray Dempsey, Group Chief Diversity Officer, Barclays

    Left to right: Abe Mendez, Managing Director, Per Scholas New York; Deborah Goldfarb, Global Head of Citizenship, Barclays; Eric Adams, Brooklyn Borough President; Richard Haworth, Americas CEO, Barclays; Ray Dempsey, Group Chief Diversity Officer, Barclays

    Richard was introduced by cybersecurity graduate Matt Vogetta, who shared the impact Per Scholas had on him and how the organisation not only helped him gain valuable skills but also secure a technology role after graduation. Matt commented, “I was accepted into Per Scholas’ cybersecurity course after I was furloughed from my hospitality job, and started a journey that changed my life. I’m now working as a Tech Support Specialist at a law firm. I’d like to thank Barclays for working with Per Scholas to build both this campus and the cybersecurity course. Thanks to Per Scholas, I’ve been given the tools necessary to forge a new path in my life and career.”

    Barclays’ investment not only helped Per Scholas increase its physical capacity at the Brooklyn location with an additional 2,000 square feet of staff and classroom space, but also includes the installation of blended learning technology that will enable Per Scholas to serve New Yorkers across the five boroughs via its new Satellite Model.

    “Thanks to Barclays’ support, we have been able to add an additional classroom and install technology that allows us to stream our rigorous tech training to any space,” explains Abe Mendez, Managing Director for Per Scholas New York. “The benefit is that we don’t necessarily need to continue building new brick-and-mortar campuses; we can instead develop partnerships with community organisations looking to provide technology training to their local constituents. This approach enables Per Scholas to train more New Yorkers right in their own neighborhoods.”

    Per Scholas expects to train 1,000 New Yorkers in 2022, thanks to the combination of on-campus live training and virtual live training. Initially developed as response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Per Scholas’ virtual training is taking on a new twist. Through a partnership with community organisations Commonpoint Queens and JCC of Staten Island, a classroom of learners with the lead instructor at a Per Scholas campus will experience simultaneous instruction as a classroom of learners with an instructional assistant at their facilities in Queens and Staten Island respectively. Future partnerships are planned to bring training to a Manhattan location.

    This expansion is good news for both historically overlooked individuals seeking to break into the tech industry in New York, and local companies like Barclays, which stand to benefit from hiring talented Per Scholas graduates.

    About 85% of our participants graduate and 80% of our scholars are placed into a job within the first year of graduation, and, on average, earn about four times what they were making prior to Per Scholas.
    Abe Mendez, Managing Director, Per Scholas New York

    Since beginning its partnership with Per Scholas in 2012, Barclays has hired more than 55 graduates. “Per Scholas’ ability to help people launch upwardly mobile careers in the most in-demand sectors is something we’re incredibly proud to support,” says Deborah Goldfarb, Global Head of Citizenship for Barclays, who adds that the organisation is well aligned with Barclays’ citizenship strategy, which is focused on employability and designed for inclusion. “Promoting social equity is core to Per Scholas’ mission and is critically important to us at Barclays,” she adds.

    Over the last decade, Barclays’ partnership with Per Scholas has gone beyond supporting the 2016 launch and current expansion of the Brooklyn campus. Barclays has helped Per Scholas develop curricula for Java developer and cybersecurity courses. The company also supported the 2019 launch of the Newark, NJ, Per Scholas location, and its employees regularly serve as mentors and career motivators for Per Scholas learners.

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