In Response to the President's Call to Action, Hack Reactor Announces Involvement in TechHire Initiative to Help Bring Half a Million Tech Jobs to the Labor Market

SAN FRANCISCO and WASHINGTON, March 9, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- President Obama announced today the launch of TechHire, a bold public-private initiative to spur technology training opportunities in communities around America. Hack Reactor, a collective of both in-person and online programming schools focused on student outcomes, that graduates over 1,000 software engineers annually, has committed to engage with TechHire communities to open TechHire programming schools across the country. Their first TechHire campus, in Oakland, Calif., will open this summer. Hack Reactor will work with qualified communities to devise risk sharing, scholarships and need-blind admissions systems to maximize the economic impact and opportunity for underrepresented communities and individuals.

American companies have over 5 million unfilled jobs today, more than at any point since 2001. Over 500,000 of those openings are in fields like software development, network administration, and cybersecurity, many of which did not even exist just a decade ago. Helping more Americans attain the skills needed to meet this burgeoning need is a key element of the President's agenda to build a 21st century economy that modernizes the American workforce, and create jobs that drive innovation in the United States. TechHire programs range from efforts in partnership with community colleges and traditional online education programs, to an aggressive expansion of newer and highly successful accelerated learning programs (ALPs) that have proven successful in rapidly training technology workers in a matter of months. Hack Reactor was invited to partner in TechHire due to its unmatched student outcomes, mission of growing and fostering a vibrant middle-class, and proven track record of filling the tech talent gap faster than many of the nation's most prominent computer science programs combined.

"Hack Reactor is excited to invite municipalities to work with us through TechHire to bring a new dimension to their labor market: workplace-ready software engineers and high-skill job opportunities," said Hack Reactor Co-founder Shawn Drost. "We are committed to bringing our data-driven educational programs and rapid-iteration teaching style to high-need labor markets across America, and kicking off the first TechHire school in Oakland, where opportunities in tech sit side-by-side with an underserved community. We're hoping to help change that."

Hack Reactor has, in just two years, successfully graduated students who have gone on to become mid- to senior-level engineers at Fortune 500 companies and growing startups. Hack Reactor has two schools in San Francisco and one in Austin through its recent acquisition of MakerSquare, and runs an immersive remote program which makes the program available to aspiring software engineers anywhere. Hack Reactor's commitment to TechHire is motivated by the same sense of mission, and backed by the same resources and community, that enabled them to be involved in Code 7370, America's first coding school for inmates of the U.S. prison system.

As part of the TechHire initiative, 20 regions with open technology jobs, and more than 300 employers, are announcing plans to work together to create more tech training opportunities. The President plans to announce TechHire in a speech to the National League of Cities at 11:30am EST in Washington, D.C. Live coverage will be available at www.whitehouse.gov.

About Hack Reactor
Hack Reactor's mission is two-fold: to empower people and to transform education through rapid-iteration teaching. Hack Reactor designs and conducts advanced immersion education programs that train students 11 hours per day, 6 days a week, over 12 weeks. Our curriculum cultivates mastery of computer science fundamentals and the JavaScript programming language. Hack Reactor educates more software engineers every year than Stanford University, University of California, Berkeley and the California Institute of Technology, combined. We maintain a 99% employment rate and a median graduate salary of $110,000. Alumni work in a variety of mid- to senior-level engineering roles at industry leaders like Google, Adobe, OpenTable and Amazon, as well as at several growing technology companies. For more information, visit: www.hackreactor.com.

Media Inquiries
Rachel Rocero
Hack Reactor
(415) 961-2412
[email protected]

SOURCE Hack Reactor

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