Creating IT Futures Foundation & EMERGE Partner on IT Career Training for Young Adults in Cedar Riverside Neighborhood

EDINA, Minn., Aug. 31, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Creating IT Futures Foundation and EMERGE Development Community are partnering to bring the foundation's IT-Ready career program to young adults in the Cedar Riverside neighborhood in North Minneapolis. IT-Ready trains and certifies information technology (IT) workers and helps place them into their first paid IT role.

IT-Ready is offered free of charge in order to help unemployed and under-employed individuals enter the IT field, which has a shortage of qualified workers. The eight-week IT-Ready program to be hosted by EMERGE and funded by the City of Minneapolis Employment and Training and the Pohlad Family Foundation will be limited to 18-24-year-old Minneapolis residents. The class begins on October 12 with applications due by September 24 and includes 16 hours of credentialed customer service training taught by Jewish Family and Children's Service of Minneapolis. EMERGE is running free information sessions about IT-Ready at the community's Brian Coyle Computer Lab every Thursday in September from 12:30-3:00 p.m.

"We're pleased to partner with Creating IT Futures on this program and help young adults in Cedar Riverside redefine themselves and get into a stable and growing career field," said Mike Wynne, president and CEO. "If you're willing to learn and you desire a tech career, then this is the program for you."

Since the program was established in Minneapolis / St. Paul in 2012, more than 150 individuals have graduated from IT-Ready, with nearly 95 percent earning their CompTIA A+ certification and 80 percent moving into paid IT roles with area companies after graduation. Beyond the Cedar Riverside class, Creating IT Futures also will hold their final IT-Ready class for 2015 in Edina, with classes starting October 19 and open to anyone 18 years or older.

"Earlier this year Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges named IT-Ready as one of Minneapolis' three programs to work with President Obama's TechHire Initiative," said Sue Wallace, Executive Director, Minnesota, Creating IT Futures Foundation. "Since 2012, we've developed roots in the Minneapolis /St. Paul area with employers and community organizations like EMERGE, so that we can offer this unique career program free to hard working people that need a hand up, not a hand out. We're putting people on a growth career track so they can maintain family-sustaining wages and long-term job prospects – all while building up the tech workforce in Minnesota." 

What Do IT-Ready Students Learn?

In the IT-Ready training, students get hands-on labs taking apart and building desktop computers and other hardware; learn about motherboards, printers, peripheral devices, memory and physical storage, connections and mobile devices; set up computer networks and troubleshoot networks, displays, printers, and operating systems; configure operating systems and hardware; and secure networks, systems and data.

All IT-Ready students also receive targeted professional development in key business "soft" skills such as professional communication and presentation, teamwork and collaboration, and critical thinking and problem solving. IT-Ready students are grounded in these key skills and prepared to apply them on day one on their new jobs, and continue to cultivate them with the support of their online mentors. After completing training, the students sit for the CompTIA A+ certification exam which covers desktop and help-desk technical support duties and skills.

IT-Ready students receive:

• Free tuition, books and learning materials,
• More than 250 hours of classroom and hands-on training,
• Qualification for a local, six-month, paid, on-the-job work experience,
• Certification vouchers toward the CompTIA A+ exam, and
• An industry mentor to guide the student during their classroom training and on-the-job work experience. 

To see what's required of IT-Ready students, potential students, employers, mentors and community partners can learn more at www.ITReady.com.

About the Creating IT Futures Foundation 
The Creating IT Futures Foundation is a 501(c)(3) charity with the mission of helping populations under-represented in the information technology industry and individuals who are lacking in opportunity to prepare for, secure, and be successful in IT careers. Learn more at www.creatingITfutures.org.

About EMERGE Community Development
Based in North Minneapolis with a presence in the Cedar Riverside neighborhood, EMERGE helps people facing significant obstacles redefine themselves. Every year, we help thousands of adults and youth access jobs, financial coaching, supportive housing, and other key services, along pathways to brighter futures. We are committed to creating better jobs, better lives, and better communities. Learn more at www.emerge-mn.org.

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SOURCE Creating IT Futures Foundation