Improving Tech Sector Training

With half a million technology jobs currently open and nearly two million similar new jobs expected to be created in the next decade, a new JPMorgan Chase & Co. report shows that the tech training field faces unique obstacles for developing the skilled and diverse workforce required to meet a growing need in the economy. 

The report, titled "Tech Jobs for All? Exploring the Promise and Pitfalls of Technology Training in the United States," looks at five models of tech training programs, including traditional K-12 and postsecondary education, bootcamps, online courses, internships and apprenticeships, and programs that combine many of these methods into a single training program.

Its findings identify current challenges in tech training, including inconsistent reporting and a shortage of data to measure the outcomes of training programs. It also analyzes new developments and improvements that could strengthen the impact of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) training.

Tech Training Challenges

In addition to the problems faced by traditional workforce development programs, such as weak employer connections, the report finds tech training programs face unique challenges:

• Lack of Data for Evaluation: The relative newness of these training programs means there is little or no data, or standards for reporting it for employers, prospective participants or funders to know what programs or methods are successful. The data most training programs release do not show whether graduates take jobs in the field or whether they are still employed several years later.
• Rigid Hiring Requirements: While the increasing consensus is that a college degree is not needed for most tech jobs, and that training programs can give job seekers the skills they need to succeed, many companies still require job candidates to have a degree and are slow to change how they evaluates candidates.
• Lack of Diversity: Despite efforts to increase diversity, African-Americans and Latinos are still underrepresented in tech training programs.
• Rapidly Changing Sector Needs: The fast-developing tech world makes it difficult for programs to predict the needs of companies years, or even months, in advance. While a student is completing a specific training program, the needs of employers or the field in general can shift, such as a new coding language changing market demand.

Employers and intermediaries are also playing important roles in workforce development. In order to match training to their needs, the report finds there is room for improved signaling from employers. At the same time, other intermediary organizations can help bridge the information gap between trainers and employers.

Best Practices

As tech training continues to expand to meet growing employer demand, the report offers several best practices and opportunities to help improve the field as a whole:  

• New Pathways: Developing new opportunities for more participants to enter tech training jobs by introducing more people to technology as a career or providing people with the skills they need to enter training programs.
• Skills Matching: Working directly with employers to ensure that trainees’ skills correlate directly to employer needs.
• System of New Credentials: Creating innovative tools for programs and participants to clearly signal to employers that they have desired skills, either through certifications, portfolios or standardized curricula.
• Intentional Efforts to Support Diversity: Making an effort to create or support programs with the goal of including students from disadvantaged or underrepresented communities.
• Institutionalized Data Collection: Ensuring that programs collect and report standardized and quality data to better measure and improve the success of individual programs as well as the field as a whole.
• Creating a Hub: Forming a system for effective communication toward collaboration, ensuring that programs meet actual need, and expand, replicate, and share best practices.