Press Releases
12/12/2018
Gov. Malloy Announces Two High-Tech Training Firms Establishing Programs in Connecticut To Provide Residents With Skills Needed To Fill In-Demand Jobs
Boot Camps in Hartford and Stamford to Begin in Early 2019
(HARTFORD, CT) – Governor Dannel P. Malloy today announced that leading technology training firms General Assembly and Tech Talent South are establishing boot camp programs in Connecticut that are designed to provide residents with the skills needed to fill in-demand, high-tech jobs that employers need.
General Assembly will establish its training operation in Stamford, and Tech Talent South, located in the Upward Hartford building at 20 Church Street in downtown Hartford, will focus on theHartford region.
The boot camps will target individuals with a variety of skill levels who want to enter the tech world. They also hope to attract individuals from communities with some of the highest unemployment rates in the state. Courses are targeted to begin in the first quarter of2019. Together, the two companies are expected to enroll 400 students by 2020.
“Companies in wide variety of industries from around the state are focused on growing their technology workforce,” Governor Malloy said. “While much work has been done to increase the number of computer science graduates in the state – we’re up 136 percent at our state universities since 2012 – we need to equip more candidates with tech basic skills so companies can put them to work now.”
General Assembly offers training and assessments in web development, data science, digital marketing, and more. It provides online offerings, onsite trainings for the Fortune 500, and a global community of nearly one million professionals.
“As the leading provider of digital skills trainings globally, we’re thrilled to open our doors inStamford and welcome Connecticut residents to the General Assembly community,” General Assembly CEO and co-founder Jake Schwartz said. “With tens of thousands of web developers, data scientists, and designers in our global network, we are excited to become part of the greater Stamford tech ecosystem and to help Connecticut residents acquire the most relevant skills for the digital economy.”
Tech Talent South currently has eleven campuses throughout the U.S. Its most popular offerings range in commitment and subject matter, from corporate training partnerships to public facing courses that range from a 12-week, full-time, full-stack web development program to a weekend workshop on Google Analytics.
“We are excited to join forces alongside the agencies and organizations in motion in the State of Connecticut, creating opportunities in the spaces between the supply and demand in the local technical workforce,” Tech Talent South Founder and CEO Betsy Hauser Idilbi said. “We look forward to building relationships with education partners who already play a critical role in opportunity creation and the students who are eager to launch into a tech-based career as we continue with our core mission of connecting local tech and entrepreneurial ecosystems.”
The state, through its Tech Talent Fund, is providing seed capital of $750,000 for the first year and $500,000 for the second year to provide scholarship funds and operating support to each of the two entities. The Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD) administers the fund, which was created by the legislature in 2016 to find ways to help close the gap between the thousands of open jobs and job seekers. The fund has also has supported the Tech Talent Bridge, a program which provides matching grants to companies hiring tech interns from local colleges and universities.“
Connecticut is home to one of the most highly skilled, productive workforces in the world, but changes in technology necessitate new skills and new training for our workers,” DECD Commissioner Catherine Smith said. “The boot camps will provide critical training to hundreds of jobseekers in the state, jumpstarting their knowledge of data analytics and code writing so they can become productive members of the companies in all sectors of our economy. Having a healthy and growing technology talent pipeline is critical to attract and retain business growth and innovation throughout our state.”
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For Immediate Release: December 13, 2018
Contact: David Bednarz
Office of Governor Dannel P. Malloy
David.Bednarz@ct.gov
860-524-7315 (office)
860-770-9792 (cell)
Contact: Jim Watson
Department of Economic and Community Development
Jim.Watson@ct.gov
860-500-2482 (office)
860-306-3737 (cell)