We are very excited to announce our panel 'Apprenticeships and Solving the IT Skills Gap’ has been selected to present at the 2017 SXSW Conference in Austin. The panel will be moderated by Charles Eaton, CEO of the Creating IT Futures Foundation. We are extremely fortunate to have United States Senator Orrin Hatch joining him on the panel. Sen. Hatch is a co-sponsor of the Effective Apprenticeships Rebuild National Skills (EARNS) Act with Sen. Patty Murray. The EARNS Act, would strengthen the nation’s workforce development system through registered apprenticeship programs. It would also support pre-apprenticeship programs and new or expanding registered apprenticeship programs that provide national, portable credentials, and help secure academic credit for on-the-job learning portions of an apprenticeship. Rounding out our panel is Heather Terenzio, the Co-Founder, Chief Executive Officer and President of Techtonic Group, a software development company that has built its own registered apprenticeship program for software developers.
CompTIA and the Creating IT Futures Foundation have been working very closely with companies, organizations and policy makers across the country to address the ever growing IT skills gap. More than half a million information technology job postings exist for open positions in businesses of all shapes and sizes at any given time in the current U.S. market, according to estimates by the job analytics firm, Burning Glass. Our panelist will be discussing ways in which the IT industry can work together in an effort to narrow the skills gap through apprenticeships, early education, increased technology programs in schools and creative hiring methods to attract and retain qualified workers.
