Per Scholas is a United States nonprofit that provides tuition-free technology training to unemployed or underemployed adults for careers as IT professionals. Per Scholas was founded in 1995 by John Stookey and Lewis Miller in the South Bronx,

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

. Today Per Scholas is in 14 cities across the country:

Atlanta, GA Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

;

Baltimore, MD Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic, and the 30th most populous city in the United States with a population of 585,708 in 2020. Baltimore was ...

;

Boston, MA Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- most ...

; Charlotte, NC; Chicago, IL;

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...

and

Columbus, OH Columbus () is the state capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio. With a 2020 census population of 905,748, it is the 14th-most populous city in the U.S., the second-most populous city in the Midwest, after Chicago, and ...

; Denver, CO; Detroit, MI;

Dallas, TX Dallas () is the third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 million people. It is the largest city in and seat of Dallas County wi ...

; the

National Capital Region A capital region, also called a capital district or capital territory, is a region or district surrounding a capital city. It is not always the official term for the region, but may sometimes be used as an informal synonym. Capital regions can exis ...

; Newark, NJ; New York, NY; and

Philadelphia, PA Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

. To date, Per Scholas has trained 8,000 individuals.

Programs

IT training programs

Per Scholas offers a free IT training and workforce development program. Per Scholas offers a targeted range of tuition-free technology and professional development training that vary based on local market demands. Each Per Scholas program includes hands-on technical skills training, job skills instruction, individualized support for job placement, and personal and career advancement. The success of the Per Scholas training programs (relative to earlier

workforce development Workforce development, an American approach to economic development, attempts to enhance a region's economic stability and prosperity by focusing on people rather than businesses. It essentially develops a human-resources strategy. Work-force dev ...

programs) is attributed in large part to its understanding of the industries its students will enter. The organization works in close partnership with many prominent corporations, its instructors are experienced experts in the field, and its leadership consists of leading professionals in the IT field. Training is also structured to fill specific demands in the labor force. The programs are funded by a diverse makeup of partners, who range diversely from corporations and foundations, to numerous public agencies, elected officials and other random people.

Additional IT Courses

In addition to the standard IT Support career-track training, offerings have been expanding to include courses for careers in network engineering, software testing / quality assurance, cyber security, web development and more to respond to labor demands within the sector.

Social Ventures

In August 2013, Per Scholas launched the Software Testing Education Program (STEP)--an 8-week training that prepares graduates to fill entry-level software testing roles. While developing this program, Per Scholas was given the opportunity to partner with software consulting company Doran Jones to create the Urban Development Center, a software testing center built adjacent to Per Scholas' Bronx location to employ graduates in the software testing field.

Platform by Per Scholas

Platform by Per Scholas (PxPS) offers employer customized training tracks that put students in direct hiring pipelines with major technology employers, as an extension of the Per Scholas workforce development model. Platform students receive tuition-free, hands-on training, career development resources and interview opportunities with technology employers to help take their career to the next level. PxPS currently operates career tracks with corporate partners in New York (Bronx, Manhattan), Pennsylvania, and Texas (Dallas, Irving) for aspiring Java/Python/.Net Developers, Data Engineers, SOC Analysts, Programmer Analysts, Quality Engineers, and RPA Developers.

Recognition

Per Scholas was featured in WIRED magazine in November 2014. Four Per Scholas graduates were featured in the New York Times in the winter of 2014. In 2012, Per Scholas was named one of America's top-performing nonprofit organizations by the Social Impact Exchange S&100 Index for its impressive outcomes and results-driven work. Per Scholas received a Heroes Award from the Robin Hood Foundation in 2011.

Leadership

Founder and Chairman Emeritus John Hoyt Stookey was chairman, president and CEO of Quantum through 1993, and has held positions on various boards since retiring in 1995. Current Chairman Lewis E. Miller is the president of Qvidian, a provider of cloud-computing applications, and was previously CEO of Synergistics and The Future Now, Inc. CEO and President Plinio Ayala was previously director of program operations at SOBRO. In 2006 he received the Liberty Award from the ''

New York Post The ''New York Post'' (''NY Post'') is a conservative daily tabloid newspaper published in New York City. The ''Post'' also operates NYPost.com, the celebrity gossip site PageSix.com, and the entertainment site Decider.com. It was established ...

'' for his work in the NYC community and in 2005 was issued a Citation of Merit by the Bronx Borough President. Each regional site outside of New York has an advisory board as well.

References

{{Reflist, 30em 501(c)(3) organizations Port Morris, Bronx Education in the Bronx Non-profit organizations based in the Bronx