A new public-private partnership is fast tracking STEM community college grads into IT careers and four-year degrees to help meet an enormous demand for entry-level tech employees in corporate America.  

Competition for workers is so fierce that it’s common for IT workers to be “poached” by other companies, said Leo Goncalves, vice president of Workforce Solutions Group for the University of Phoenix that has teamed up with Woz Enterprise and the U.S. Department of Labor to offer the program. 

“Even with the pandemic, IT jobs remain in demand and there is competition for finding resources,” Goncalves said. “Companies are willing to throw money around for higher salaries. There’s a lot of poaching going around in the space, so companies don’t get a lot of retention out of the folks they hire.”  

The new federally recognized apprenticeship program is designed to address both the intense need for entry level IT employees and to help companies retain those workers. 

“Old fashioned” corporate practices back in play to retain workers

To do that, the corporations involved are “getting back to those older mindsets” like paid apprenticeships, paid university tuition and university credits for the apprenticeship, said Chris Coleman, president of Woz Enterprise, a division of Arizona-based Woz U. 

The hope is that by providing financial incentives and on-site experience, participants will feel a sense of loyalty to the company and stick around, he said. 

Woz Enterprise builds and delivers the customized technology curricula that can result in credits toward a University of Phoenix Bachelor of Science degree in . 

For community college grads, the program offers a direct structured path to a job and a degree, typically at no cost to the student, Coleman said. The community college population fits into Woz U’s mission to make technology careers accessible to people who normally would not have that opportunity.

Infosys first corporate partner

The apprenticeship model launched this spring in Arizona and 10 other states in partnership with Infosys, a global leader in digital, IT, and consulting services. 

Selected candidates completed an eight-week pre-apprenticeship training program in one of seven technology tracks to gain essential day-one skills to start a career with one of Woz Enterprise’s recruiting business partners. 

Then as full-time junior associates, individuals participate in a structured online learning program for 12 months. During this time, they continue working and earning a salary, which increases as they gain key competencies. Training hours can be applied for college credit toward an IT degree at University of Phoenix. 

“We have all heard about the tech talent gap,” Coleman said. “Hundreds of companies have been trying to address it, yet here we are in 2020, and the gap remains. This apprenticeship model is the game-changer we have all been looking for.” 

Students and companies wanting to learn more about the program, may visit: . 

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Arizona community colleges, businesses and government agencies have joined a national movement to help those most affected by the massive job losses during the pandemic: low wage workers, women and people of color. 

The effort, called the , is intended to not only to get people back to work but to train them for today’s modern jobs, particularly for technology positions like data and project management, cloud computing, cybersecurity, IT architecture, aviation technology, artificial intelligence and more.

“Many in our community are experiencing hardships because they’ve lost their job or a family member has lost theirs,” said Steven R. Gonzales, interim chancellor of the Maricopa Community College District (MCCD), the largest in the nation. “These families are undoubtedly uneasy about what tomorrow will bring. Our colleges understand that these concerns are very real, and are identifying every solution to ease the worry and set up our community to succeed.”

All ten community college districts join to help economies recover

All 10 community college districts in Arizona have joined the national network, which is a 20-state collaboration to help Americans who have lost their jobs due to the pandemic and help local economies recover to their pre-COVID levels.

Widespread business closures due to the pandemic have led to massive job losses in Arizona and across the nation, particularly for those who work in service industries like restaurants, retail and hospitality. 

Hispanic women among those hardest hit in “shecession”

Hispanic women, immigrants, young adults and those with less education were hit hardest by COVID-19 job losses, according to the nonprofit, nonpartisan Center in Washington, D.C.  

According to the National Governors Association (NGA), businesses closed by the COVID-19 pandemic led to 14 million jobs lost in the U.S. According to the Federal Reserve, almost 40 percent of households making less than $40,000 a year lost their jobs in March.

And while a record number of jobs have been added back into the economy — 4.8 million in June and 1.8 million in July — many women are still being left behind because of jobs that cannot be done through telecommuting, according to the .������

College leaders: Now is the time to act

College leaders said they have been putting new programs in place to reskill workers for the digital age. Now, is the time to be even more proactive. 

“We have to help people acquire new skills and get the training necessary to adapt to the rapidly changing nature of the workplace,” Pima Community College Chancellor Lee D. Lambert said. “This is also imperative to help us reach Arizona’s Achieve60AZ goal: that 60 percent of Arizona adults have a postsecondary degree or certificate by the year 2030. We only have 10 years, and for the sake of Arizona’s citizens and the future of our state, we need to reach that target.”

Community colleges expand technology offerings

Over the past several years, colleges across the state have been beefing up their  technology offerings to meet industry demand. Here is a small sampling:

Google IT Support Professional: In June, eight colleges began offering a Google IT Support Professional Support Professional certificate program including Maricopa Community College’s Maricopa Corporate College, Pima Community College and Arizona Western College. The nationally accredited program is for beginners to introduce learners to troubleshooting, customer service, networking, operating systems, system administration and security.��

Artificial Intelligence certificate and degree: In the first collaboration of its kind, Intel is teaming up with the MCCD to launch the nation’s first Intel-designed AI certificate and associate degree program.��

Aviation Technology Program: Pima Community College is undergoing the expansion of its nationally recognized Aviation Technology Program that teaches maintenance and repair training for large transport commercial aircraft. A modernization and expansion of the facility that is adjacent to Tucsonadjacent Tucson International Airport is expected to be completed in 2021 or early 2022.

3D Construction Program: Yavapai College announced this year it is launching what is believed to be the nation’s first 3D Construction Program to add to its current construction programs. Students can learn the emerging new technology of 3D printing to construct houses.

Arizona organizations join the reskilling effort��

In Arizona, those joining with the college districts in the effort are the Governor’s Office, Achieve60AZ, Arizona Commerce Authority, Arizona Community College Coordinating Council, Greater Yuma Economic Development Corp., Pinal County Economic and Workforce Development Department, and The Boeing Company.

About the Reskilling and Recovery Network��

The network is a partnership between the NGA’s Center for Best Practices and the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) with support from the Lumina and Siemens foundation. 

Through the network, Arizona and other states will:

• Engage employers in partnering with community colleges to train and hire new employees, prioritizing jobs that pay a living wage or more.
• Engage with a collaborative network of like-minded state leaders  to strategize economic and workforce recovery on a regular basis.
• Receive access to tools designed by peers in the field and be paired with experts engaged by the NGA Center and AACC.
• Have access to technical assistance including webinars, facilitated peer-to-peer learning, virtual state site visits and more.

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A year ago, students of construction trades at Coconino Community College worked in cramped outdated quarters. Labor-strapped construction companies snatched them up upon graduation, or before.������

Like much of the state, northern Arizona is seeing a construction industry on the rise. But qualified workers have long been in short supply.��

“It’s challenging with our students trying to fit a schedule,” said Jeff Jones, dean of career and technical education (CTE) at the college. “Many are in evening classes so they can work at entry level during day and increase their skills at night.”��

Now, there’s a beacon of hope with the completion of a newly expanded state-of-the art facility for the college’s Construction Technology Management program. It will allow the program to triple its student count.��

Premier training laboratory for all trades��

The renovation was made possible, thanks to a $1 million grant from the Del E. Webb Foundation last year.��

Del Webb’s grant allowed the college to expand current offerings and offer new in-demand programs like Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning and Refrigeration (HVACr) Technology, Welding Technology, Electrical Technology, Solar and Wind Technology, and Electronic Drafting.

Situated in the heart of , the newly renovated 5,000-square-foot facility is a showcase for the latest technology with new virtual reality welding, electrical and HVACr simulators.��

“It’s what it should be to really get our students ready to walk in (to a job). We try to use the same tools, the same exact meters, the same code,” said Jones, who added that students at the college were the first in the country to pass the International Building Code 2018.��

Homegrown labor for the region��

With the expansion, the program gained the capacity to triple the number of students graduating with certificates and degrees from 30 to 94.

It couldn’t be soon enough, said Steve Hanson, the owner of Flagstaff Comfort Systems and a member of the Northern Arizona Building Association (NABA) board of directors.

“We’re very excited about it because the college is trying to groom the kids that are here and want to stay here instead of trying to import people who have no support system here, like mom and dad who can help pay the bills,” he said.����

Annual minimum wage hikes mandated by the state and the city of Flagstaff are making hiring even more challenging, Hanson said.��

“The basics of it is, if you can get paid $15 an hour to cook burgers instead of dig a ditch for a construction company, what are you going to do?”����

Hanson, who donates used furnaces to the program so students can learn how to work on “old stuff” that isn’t necessarily in modern textbooks, said NABA has been working to promote and assist the development of much-needed CTE programs for students.������

Demand for skilled workers to continue������

Contractors and subcontractors have been knocking on the college’s door for years. Northern Arizona University’s Construction Management graduates also are in high demand.��

The need is not expected to slow, Jones said, citing a number of proposed projects in the region including new development around the Navajo Nation’s gambling casinos.��

Dual enrollment program to attract high school students��

With the expansion complete, there is talk of a dual enrollment program to pull in local high school students. There are scant options for teenagers interested in construction trades, Jones said. One high school offers a welding program.

“Being able to offer a dual environment to really get high school students passionate about trades is one of the add-ins to this,” he said. “Young kids really like the look and feel of new stuff, the technology. So we really want to use that to attract the younger crowd.”

For more information about the college’s construction technology management and other programs, go to .

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Self-driving truck company TuSimple and Pima Community College announced a new autonomous driving certificate program for truck drivers.

The will teach experienced truck drivers how to operate and work with autonomous trucks in a 12-credit program that can be completed in as little as one semester. The program requires a Class A Commercial Driver’s License (CDL) prior to enrollment, and drivers will build on their existing knowledge.

“Today is another important milestone in the transformation of Pima Community College, as well as the community of Tucson and the greater Pima County and beyond,” said Lee Lambert, chancellor of Pima Community College. “At Pima, we’re not interested in being mediocre; we’re not interested in status quo. We’re interested in major disruption that these technologies I referred to earlier are really driving in every sector of our economy.”

and Pima Community College co-created a program curriculum comprising five classes: Introduction to Autonomous Vehicles, Industrial Safety, Computer Hardware Components, Electrical Systems I, and Transportation and Traffic Management.

TuSimple said it will prioritize hiring graduates of the program for jobs at its Tucson .

“It’s one-of-a-kind, first of its kind — and for the whole industry,” said Robert Brown, director of public affairs for TuSimple. “We hope this is the basis for a program for other companies to use… Arizona is a Mecca for autonomous vehicles, and we hope that this program grows beyond TuSimple and .”

The program — and the self-driving truck industry — is meant to be a “positive disruption,” offering new, more exciting opportunities to drivers rather than eliminating the need for them, Brown said.

“We want drivers to be able to go up-skill themselves, get a better wage, have a better lifestyle and be home with their families every day and every night,” he said.

The program will be offered at Pima Community College in Tucson starting September 2019, with registration opening in August. Pima and TuSimple said they plan to collaborate with other schools to expand the program after it launches.

“We commend Pima Community College for offering this innovative and exciting program that can help address the acute driver shortage,” said Dr. Xiaodi Hou, founder, president and chief technology officer of TuSimple. “The program offers driving professionals a smooth transition into an emerging field that requires different skill sets in addition to existing truck driving knowledge by providing training.”

The that goes into creating autonomous vehicles require advanced degrees, but operating and maintaining the vehicles can be done by skilled technicians, said Tucson Mayor Jonathan Rothschild.

Because of the nature of the new technology, must be created to meet the needs of industry, developing skills specific to emerging technologies, he said.

“When we’re talking to companies, trying to bring companies to this community, one of the things everybody is always concerned about is, ‘Do you have the appropriate workforce?’” Rothschild said. “Well, technology moves so fast now that we can say ‘yes,’ but a year from now the answer could be ‘no,’ unless we have places of higher education that are willing to go out to these companies and say, ‘What do you need? We will get it for you,’ and that’s exactly what Pima’s doing.”

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