Paul Cashen, Managing Director, Per Scholas

WHAT WE DO:

"At Per Scholas, we position the underprivileged, the disadvantaged and unemployed for a new career in information technology. At any given time, there are 1800-2000 open positions in Greater Cincinnati without the supply to fill them. Our core curriculum is "A+ Certification," 8 weeks of training and an independent exam to get an industry-wide certification from CompTIA. About 85% of our students graduate the course, 85% get the certification and about 85% get new careers.

This year, we’ve ventured into a new track called QA Software Testing - something that for the last 15 to 20 years, had only been done overseas because it wasn’t economically feasible to do it here. Because of all the time zone changes and language barriers to deal with, most companies would prefer to do it on-shore and Per Scholas is now addressing that interest."

[History: "Per Scholas is a 20-plus year old organization that started in the Bronx in New York. Ironically, it was co-founded by a Cincinnatian, a serial-technical-entrepreneur, who couldn’t find the philanthropy in Cincinnati at the time for what he wanted to do. It’s a non-profit endeavor that operated in the Bronx successfully for 15 years providing workforce development programs. Around 2010, an independent research study acknowledged that the program was working and should be replicated. This caught the attention of the US Department of Labor, the White House and other for-profit enterprises and money came forth to replicate the program around the country. The metrics continue to replicate themselves, the success story continues and another double-blind research study, completed in the last few months bears out that Per Scholas is extremely successful."]

What are the top 2 challenges facing IT organizations this year? What are the top 2 opportunities? 

"The opportunity for Per Scholas is meeting the IT challenges most companies face. I think all the businesses out there today would tell you that one of the biggest challenges is finding good talent. Again, there are 1800-2000 open IT positions out there without the supply to fill them, so many of these companies are turning to alternative sources, like Per Scholas, to fill them. They also recognize that they’re doing something very good for the community, so they are multiplying the bang for their buck – they’re giving back, contributing to society and helping people who would not have had the opportunity, to find a career.

Historically, Information Technology has been a young, white male dominated industry, but companies today are very interested in diversity in their IT workforce. Per Scholas candidates are assisting in that process. About 65% of our students are racially diverse and about 35% are women, so I like to say that Per Scholas is literally and figuratively changing the face of technology."