Greater Philadelphia Celebration of Impact Luncheon

Bruce received an email from his high school about Tech Impact’s ITWorks. They thought he would be interested in the program because he liked working with technology at school. He enrolled because he wanted to change the life that he was living, to learn new skills and start an IT career.   After completing 11 weeks of classroom training, Bruce earned the Cisco IT Essentials Certification. He then received a paid internship at FS Investment where he spent 5 weeks checking the IT functionality of the conference rooms, re-image laptops, and repairing, fixing, and replacing docking stations. At first, he shadowed his mentor, but after a couple days, he was handing tickets on his own.  

Bruce graduated the ITWorks program in December of 2022 and was immediately hired by FS Investment as a Help Desk Technician. “This program helped me grow a lot from how to present myself with my body language in an interview to how I set goals to help me reach my dream. I learned that it doesn’t matter if you fail at something, it’s about how you respond to that failure. ITWorks has helped me see things about myself that I didn’t even notice in the past.   I used to overthink questions but now I can focus more on what the question is asking.”

Justin was working at his families’ car mechanic shop and living with 6 family members. His brother graduated from ITWorks in 2018 and recommended the program to Justin since he is well-versed in technology and software.   After earning his Cisco IT Essentials Certification and Comp TIAA+ Certification, Justin completed a paid five-week internship with Hyopsys LLC. After graduation, Justin accepted a full-time job as a Network/ Systems Administrator at Hyopsys.  “I try my best to meet expectations for the requirements of the job. I want to better myself in the wide varieties of technology and software and prepare my future for what’s to come later in life. Thank you, Tech Impact, for giving me this opportunity to better myself for my future.”    

Hannah was cleaning houses for a living when she found out about Tech Impact from an ITWorks alumnae. “The recent pandemic took a toll on my ambition and drive to accomplish new goals. This program (ITWorks) was an opportunity to transform my life and future careers.”  Hannah completed her 5-week paid internship with Accenture and graduated from the ITWorks PA spring 2022 cohort. She spoke at the graduation on June 17^th: “You see, this class did not just teach us about computers, mobile devices, printers, networking, and over 300 acronyms. We got some super valuable life skills such as professionalism, resume building, time management, emotional intelligence, and a whole lot about finances.” Hannah has been accepted into the Accenture IT Apprenticeship Program. An “earn while you learn” IT training and hiring program designed to connect nontraditional candidates with IT career opportunities to diversify the talent pipeline and address the growing IT talent skills gap, they give people an environment where they can learn to do real jobs in a space where they’re safe and supported.  With on-the-job training through the apprenticeship program, apprentices get a sense for what career path they might want to take in IT while learning skills in real-life scenarios that can’t always be taught in a classroom.