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Creating IT Futures & TEKsystems Partner on IT-Ready Career Program to Increase Diversity in Tech WorkforceDOWNERS GROVE, Ill., April 3, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- To increase diversity within America's tech workforce, Creating IT Futures and TEKsystems are partnering to expand the IT-Ready career program to more cities. At no cost to students, IT-Ready assesses, trains, certifies and places unemployed and under-employed adults in their first jobs in the IT field, which has a shortage of qualified workers.
Since Creating IT Futures established the program in 2012, IT-Ready has become one of America's most successful tech training programs with 88 percent of its students graduating and 86 percent of graduates garnering paid IT jobs. With a commitment to building a diverse tech workforce, IT-Ready's study body has averaged 66 percent people of color and 44 percent female. TEKsystems is helping to fund new IT-Ready classes, as the program expands from its central location in the Twin Cities to permanent offices in Charlotte, N.C., and Portland, Ore., this year. IT-Ready has plans to expand to 10 cities by 2023. "We've found our partnership with Creating IT Futures to be incredibly rewarding with regard to the opportunity it affords graduates of the program. We get to see first-hand the positive change people create in their own lives if given the tools guidance to help themselves. We continue to expand our partnership with IT Ready because it produces concrete results within th areas where the programs are established, helping to grow an in-demand talent pool locally, benefiting the community at large," said Franklin Reed, director of inclusion and diversity, TEKsystems. Beyond its philanthropic investment in IT-Ready, TEKsystems also is working with graduates in all three IT-Ready cities to place them into tech jobs. For instance, upon graduating and earning his CompTIA A+ certification in Charlotte last October, IT-Ready student Bryce accepted a position through TEKsystems and now is deployed as a desktop support technician for Bank of America. From the last IT-Ready class to graduate in the Twin Cities, TEKsystems placed three students with local employers: Kalvin and Will gained positions as PC technicians at Ecolab and Suzanne is working as a desktop support analyst with IBM/Ameriprise. Last month, TEKsystems participated in a mini job fair with IT-Ready's most recent graduates in Portland. "With TEKsystems' generous help and the support of other donors and partners, we've built a solid base in the Twin Cities and held successful pop-up IT-Ready trainings in 7 other cities," said Charles Eaton, CEO, Creating IT Futures. "Now, we're using what we learned in each of those pop-ups to build permanent homes in several cities across the nation that are creating their own tech talent and using that talent to diversify and enlarge their local tech community. This type of systemic progress in each city is only possible with local partnerships and national support from such organizations as TEKsystems." Potential IT-Ready employers, students and community partners can learn more at www.ITReady.com. About Creating IT Futures About TEKsystems Media Contacts: Nathan Bowen
SOURCE Creating IT Futures 
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