Press Releases

Denver nonprofit is collaborating with Ping Identity to offer turnkey apprenticeship solution

DENVER – ActivateWork, a leader in connecting employers to a diverse pool of exceptional talent, is expanding its efforts to train and place aspiring information technology (IT) professionals with top employers in the greater Denver area through a new collaborative effort with the American Institutes for Research (AIR) and CompTIA.

ActivateWork is the latest organization to join CompTIA Apprenticeships for Tech, a United States Department of Labor (USDOL) standards-based Registered Apprenticeship program that is helping employers fill their current and long-term IT staffing needs and creating employment opportunities for people from diverse backgrounds who are underrepresented in the current tech workforce.

As an intermediary organization in the program, ActivateWork is delivering turnkey apprenticeship solutions for employers like Ping Identity that will provide job access to Coloradans who have traditionally been sidelined from lucrative careers in IT.

“Collectively, we want to change the face of IT in Colorado, adding more people of color, women, veterans, and those without a college degree,” said Kathryn Harris, chief operating officer at ActivateWork. “We believe that talent is equally distributed, but opportunity is not. Our employer partners are opening doors to great careers and simultaneously building a Colorado that works for all.”

Colorado has over 30,000 open cybersecurity and coding jobs with an average salary of over $100,000. The state’s IT workforce is 77% white and 79% male. At the same time, over 500,000 Coloradans live in poverty. Poverty rates for young adults are disproportionately high, and Black, Indigenous, and Latinx Coloradans are more than twice as likely to live in poverty. 

“We have partnered closely with ActivateWork to develop Colorado’s first DevOps apprenticeship and are committed to hiring candidates from their program to support modern apprenticeship pathways in Colorado for IT,” said Jennifer Arzberger, Ph.D. and Ping Identity Champion of Learning. “We look forward to exploring additional tracks; including cybersecurity and software engineering as we scale our partnership.”

Training delivered through the apprenticeship program is based on National Guideline Standards created by CompTIA and approved by the USDOL. These standards detail the competencies in technical and employability skills that apprentices need to join the IT workforce in five high-demand occupations: tech support specialists, network support specialists, cybersecurity support technicians, tech project coordinators and data analysts.

The USDOL selected AIR and CompTIA, the nonprofit association for the IT industry and workforce, to serve as a national Industry Intermediary for expansion of apprenticeship in tech occupations. For more information visit https://www.comptia.org/content/lp/apprenticeships-for-tech.

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About ActivateWork
ActivateWork is a nonprofit recruiting, training, and coaching firm that connects employers to a diverse pool of exceptional talent. Traditional hiring processes leave valuable talent out. We help employers solve talent gaps by finding promising candidates in underrepresented communities and preparing them to excel in new careers.

Our proprietary behavioral screening process, rigorous skills training, and 12 months of on-the-job coaching prepare our learners to be valuable new hires, with a one-year retention rate 36% higher than the industry average. And with an average starting wage of more than $20/hour, our model is one of few proven to launch people to lasting economic freedom. https://www.activatework.org/

About CompTIA Apprenticeships for Tech
CompTIA Apprenticeships for Tech is a national initiative funded by the U.S. Department of Labor (USDOL) to increase the number of skilled technology workers and expand tech career opportunities for diverse populations, including women, individuals with disabilities and people of color. https://www.comptia.org/content/lp/apprenticeships-for-tech.

Media Contacts

Steven Ostrowski
CompTIA Apprenticeships for Tech
[email protected]
630-678-8468

Susan Hobson, MPH
ActivateWork
[email protected]
970-736-7436