INDIANAPOLIS (October 11, 2022) — TechPoint, the nonprofit, industry-led growth accelerator for Indiana’s tech ecosystem, today announced a strategic partnership with New Apprenticeship TM (NEW), another key element of its Mission41K plan to inclusively grow the Indiana tech workforce by an additional 41,000 workers by 2030.
Apprenticeships are a proven way to encourage youth to join the tech sector, and a quick way for adults to enter the field while also providing an immediate return on investment to employers.
TechPoint Executive Vice President of Talent Dennis Trinkle, citing U.S. Department of Labor statistics, said there are more than 435,000 adults working today in the U.S. as adult apprentices. Only about 4,000 of them are in the tech field, he said.
“We know this approach works, but the tech sector is only now beginning to embrace it,” he said. “Now is the perfect time to encourage it because so many tech roles lend themselves well to an apprenticeship model. These “new collar” jobs can be mastered through on-the-job training, which can be coupled with college credit, so that the apprenticeship creates a pathway into a career in tech and advances someone towards a degree to open that option. To get a fast start, we are partnering with NEW to handle administrative matters and many training components, which will make adoption virtually seamless.”
“Combining TechPoint’s deep company and community relationships with NEW’s expertise in growing diverse and robust leaders serves to create impactful, measurable, and sustainable benefits for individuals, communities and companies in Indiana,” said NEW CEO Brad Voeller. “This partnership positions Indiana as a model for states nationwide to witness how employers and overlooked Indiana residents can benefit from tech apprenticeships.”
Mission41K is a TechPoint-driven, collaborative movement designed to address the largest problem tech employers are facing today: finding, hiring and retaining qualified tech talent. It prioritizes skills-based hiring, provides more inclusive pathways into tech roles for significantly more people, and puts a focus on apprenticeships as a viable path to a successful and lucrative career in tech.
“Many tech leaders have been so focused on trying to hire the talent they need that they haven’t been able to focus on a long-term, big-picture solution,” Trinkle said. “These programs deliver both immediate and long-term benefits. Early support from Eli Lilly and Co., Infosys, Cummins, OneAmerica, Allegion, Zotec Partners, Wunderkind, Ivy Tech Community College and the Indiana Economic Development Corporation, was key to illustrating recognition that these new pathways are important to our successful future.”
Infosys’ Executive Vice President, Head of US Delivery Operations and Global Head of Training and Assessments Tan Moorthy said his company is happy to support the effort, which he said, will encourage more individuals to pursue tech careers.
“Technology’s impact is growing exponentially and offering non-traditional pathways into tech careers is a solid business strategy for both individuals and the firms that will employ them,” Moorthy said.
To address youth apprenticeships, TechPoint is working with Ascend Indiana and EmployIndy, which recently received a $6 million grant from the Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation to continue to grow the Modern Apprenticeship program in Central Indiana.
The Indiana tech workforce has grown by 16.3 percent over the past decade, a 60 percent faster growth rate than seen across other sectors. More than 184,000 Hoosiers now work in tech and tech-enabled roles, filling one out of every 10 jobs in Indiana. Tech jobs offer high salaries, stability and strong advancement pathways. For every 10,000 new tech workers added to the Indiana workforce, $698 million in new annual wages are generated and $56.9 million in state and local tax revenues are gained.
About TechPoint: TechPoint is the nonprofit, industry-led growth initiative for Indiana’s technology companies and overall tech ecosystem. The team is focused on attracting talent, accelerating scale-up companies, activating the community and amplifying stories of success. For more information, please visit www.techpoint.org.
About New Apprenticeship: Founded in 2016 in San Antonio, TX, New Apprenticeship partners with employers nationally to transform lives by bridging the gap between what schools teach and only experience can bring. Offering programs not only in IT, digital marketing, cloud computing, and data analytics, NEW offers a unique approach to both learning and hiring. NEW’s experience-based learning and performance coaching system equips talent with the skills they need to accelerate their careers and provides employers with highly qualified and productive talent, creating future leaders in tech. For more information visit: NewApprenticeship.com.
