Charlotte nonprofit bridges tech skills gap with free IT support courses

CHARLOTTE — A Charlotte nonprofit is offering free IT support courses to help close the tech skills divide among local workers.

Mary Smith is a student of the course with Per Scholas North Carolina. She’s an Airforce veteran with a background in manufacturing and production, but she wanted to pivot.

“I want to be a desk technician, you know, start off there,” she said.

Smith says her goal is to be an IT project manager in healthcare.

“I don’t want to get left behind,” she said. “In the technology field, things are rapidly changing.”

Per Scholas North Carolina focuses on economic mobility by offering rigorous tech training.

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“I think a lot of people just aren’t aware of, like, what those inroads kind of are into technology,” Mike Terrell, with Per Scholas North Carolina, said.

Terrell says the goal is to get their graduates tech jobs with what he calls a “thriving” wage.

“Over the past five years, we have about an 85% graduation rate,” he said. “We have seen about 75% of those folks in full time roles within their first year of graduating, making an average of $51,000 a year.”

The program aims to support communities who have historically been excluded from the industry.

“About 75% of the folks who have come through the program have been people of color,” Terrell said. “We’re really proud to say that about 50% have identified as women.”

Esther McIlwain is a graduate of the program. One year after being laid off from her banking job, she now works in tech support for a dental equipment and software company.

“I just, I don’t think I would be where I am if I didn’t attend this program,” she said.

Technology moves quickly, and McIlwain and Smith say they want keep up.

Smith says the program is not only putting her on a new career path, but it’s given her new confidence.

“I’m not the biggest person in the room, but I can fit somewhere in the industry, and that’s what Per Scholas is, you know, equipping us to do,” she said.

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