Hello all! I’m in the midst of another busy and exciting week here at Per Scholas, but I just wanted to share a little bit more about this great organization and the work I’ll be doing here this summer. I’ve become much better acquainted with Per Scholas this week and let me tell you, the work being done here is GOOD! Per Scholas is, as I mentioned last week, a national organization, with offices in New York, Dallas, Cincinnati, Washington, D.C., and right here in our fair city of Columbus, Ohio. What Per Scholas does is meet needs. The folks at Per Scholas meet the needs of unemployed or underemployed individuals in the Columbus area and they meet the needs of countless employers in the area.

Since I arrived at Per Scholas I’ve been learning about something called the skills gap. Essentially this means that the needs of the employer and the skills of job candidates aren’t matching up. People looking for jobs are either under-qualified or over-qualified. Columbus has a huge market for what are called “middle-skill” job opportunities. Middle-skill careers require a high school diploma and some additional training or certification, but do not call for a college degree. Middle-skill careers pay well above the living wage and guess what?! There are ample opportunities. So the work that Per Scholas does each and every day is beginning to close that skills gap, giving job seekers the skills employers are looking for. It’s been so awesome to see alumni come in the office and share about their promising interviews and job offers. It’s almost a revolving door of exciting news around here. The education Per Scholas provides is really changing lives.

Per Scholas specializes in IT training and development. Students who come through the program graduate in eight weeks with a CompTIA A+ certification and hundreds of hours of experience. This program is intensive. Students are in class all day Monday through Friday and there is plenty of studying going on outside of class. The very best part about Per Scholas is that they provide all of this education at no cost to the student. Coming from a girl who just graduated with her fair share of student loans, this is huge!

So, what exactly am I doing here? I graduated with a degree in literary studies and know next-to-nothing about how to put a computer together, so what am I going to do all summer at an IT workforce development center? Well, my main goal is to assess the Columbus middle-skill job market, conducting surveys, interviewing employers and doing some independent research, and to offer recommendations to Per Scholas as to ways that they can better meet needs in this market. But in addition to that, I have just jumped in where needed, from contacting prospective students to grading exams to finding partner organizations…and just about anything else I’m asked to do, and I am loving every minute of it! Stay tuned for more!

-Ashley