Crossing the bridge to employment just a little sooner
Lonnie Emard
THE ARKANSAS CODING Academy (ArCA) at the University of Central Arkansas has been holding tech boot camps for eight years, during which time candidates have received quality training from industry professionals, built a capstone project to demonstrate their proficiency, been awarded a certificate of completion, and been given career assistance. Arkansas employers really believe in the focus and content of that training, so many of these candidates have paid their own way in order to get prepared to enter the IT profession. And at the end of each boot camp ArCA holds a “Demo Day,” when employers interview the various boot camp grads and potentially offer them jobs.
ArCA’s primary focus is on web development, specifically full-stack web development, and these boot camp candidates receive a rigorous technical training program taught by working professionals. In addition, ArCA’s own network of technical pros add their wisdom and experience, teaching the soft skills these candidates require in order to be competent contributors as they begin their new careers in tech. ArCA then works with employers to help place their graduates. But the fact is, just like with college graduation and career fairs, some candidates might get multiple job offers, while others don’t receive any.
In recent years, Apprenticely has also been working with those ArCA candidates to find apprenticeship matches. Apprenticely, formerly ACDS, was founded in order to close the gap between Arkansas employers’ tech demand and our state’s tech talent supply. We see our role as building a “bridge” connecting those two entities—how else do you get across a chasm? So, in our partnership with ArCA, we posed a single question: All other things being equal, what if the employers were to cross that bridge just a little sooner?
Well, I’m happy to report that we and ArCA have come together to add that slight—but very significant—twist to an already great program. By the time you read this, we will have reached out to all the 48 companies that have hired ArCA graduates in the past, as well as to another 40 or so that have never before worked with the Coding Academy. We will be telling them that we have a group of candidates ready to sign up for the next boot camp, plus all of our regular Apprenticely candidates that we’ve never routed to the boot camp. All of these candidates will have been pre-screened by our Apprenticely Talent Team, after which we’ll put them in front of these Arkansas employers and find the candidates that would be a good fit for the company. The only change is that now they hire them as apprentices before the boot camp starts. In that way, the boot camp becomes the RTI training of an apprenticeship instead of training for a hoped-for job.
It’s just a little adjustment that changes the game for everybody. The same training is being delivered to the same kinds of individuals that the employers have hired and found a fit for in the past. The only thing that really changes is that the employers have invested in that person a couple of months earlier, paying their wage as an apprentice and trusting the kind of training their new hire is going to get.
But this little adjustment makes a huge difference. ArCA will still be getting paid to deliver the training, but not only does the candidate not have to pay upfront for that training, the employing company isn’t going to have to pay for it either. This is because Apprenticely has the cost of the training covered as part of the apprenticeship.
And here’s the real magic of this whole thing. In the past when someone went through the boot camp, they didn’t know who they were going to work for. Even though they’re learning from practicing industry professionals, this new knowledge can feel theoretical until they can view it in the context of the company they’ll actually be working with. If they’re hired first, now they have context. Now, all of a sudden, everything they’re learning can be connected to how they will apply it to their actual job. Plus, the apprentices’ capstone project becomes a real project for their new job.
We’ve been talking about this with ArCA’s Executive Director, Alison Wish, for about a year and a half and have finally got the pieces in place. We’re shooting to begin in late October with an initial cohort of 15, and we’re going to provide the employers a healthy supply of candidates to screen and interview.
“Arkansas Coding Academy (ArCA) is thrilled to partner with Apprenticely to launch an exciting new apprenticeship program,” says Alison Wish. “As the training provider, ArCA will leverage its proven expertise in preparing individuals for successful tech careers, while Apprenticely brings its exceptional track record in creating impactful apprenticeship opportunities. Together, we are offering Arkansans an incredible chance to earn while they learn, gaining valuable skills and knowledge in the rapidly growing tech industry. This collaboration represents a powerful fusion of two organizations known for their commitment to empowering individuals and fostering career growth.”
And, by the way, there’s nothing that rules out a company putting an incumbent worker in this program, much like they do for other apprenticeship training. They might have an entry-level person on the help desk, or they may have somebody who isn’t a software developer today but who may aspire to that, and whom they want to promote. Those individual employees could become apprentices and be a part of this cohort.
We’re very excited about working with the Arkansas Coding Academy on this new apprenticeship program. It’s a win all the way around. ArCA is delivering the same content, same delivery schedule, same quality, and they’re getting paid the same amount. The employer, who before was hiring one of the candidates at the end, is now identifying him or her sooner—but now they’re getting the value of that hire’s having real work context for their training. And they’re using the apprenticeship model with all of its strength and proven capability. But it’s the same people, the same players, the same training. All we’re doing is showing the employers the wisdom of crossing that bridge just a little bit sooner.
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Lonnie Emard is Apprenticely’s National Apprenticeship Director
