50-city Tech Jobs Tour Launches; Hustling to Fill 100,000 Open Positions by End of 2017
SAN FRANCISCO (PRWEB) March 09, 2017 -- Today, TechUp, the tech industry’s leading diversity inclusion organization, in partnership with TechHire, announced the launch of a 50-city Tech Jobs Tour, an initiative that will connect America’s talent to open tech jobs, ultimately filling 100,000 positions in 2017. Hundreds of professionals will celebrate the Tour’s launch at a kickoff party on March 11 during SXSW. The event will feature co-founder of Recode Kara Swisher, founder of Code2040 Laura Weidman Powers, and CNN commentator and co-founder of Dream Corps Anthony Kapel "Van" Jones.
America has over 500,000 open tech jobs – and over 60 percent of all new coders, engineers and data scientists are emerging from bootcamps and industry-current vocational schools. The Tech Jobs Tour will connect the current and next generation of technical talent to companies who need their skills to grow and thrive in today’s economy.
“American cities are shifting from industrial to digital economies, meanwhile, our workforce is acquiring technical skills via non-traditional training,” said TechUp’s founder Leanne Pittsford. “From Philadelphia to Omaha to Honolulu, we’re creating activations in 50 United States cities this year with one simple goal: help innovative companies hire America’s talent.”
The Tech Jobs Tour is launching under the leadership of Pittsford and is supported by a team of experienced economic development, social impact and technology professionals. In addition, the program’s initial advisors include Megan Smith, third chief technology officer of the U.S.; Tess Gilman Posner, managing director of Tech Hire, an initiative of Opportunity@Work; LaTeesha Thomas, director of partnerships and corporate training for Dev Bootcamp; and Tom Ogletree, director of social impact at General Assembly.
“The idea for the Tech Jobs Tour was born during my time in the Obama Administration and I’m pleased to see it coming to fruition so quickly thanks to the private sector,” said Smith. “At this rate, by 2020 we are going to have over 1 million open jobs in our innovation economy. The Tech Jobs Tour will fill an important role in connecting job seekers to opportunities in our rapidly evolving and growing workforce.”
To learn more about the Tech Jobs Tour, visit http://www.wetechup.com/techjobstour. SXSW goers are also invited to the launch party on March 11 at 4pm at Highland Lounge in Austin. The event will include welcome remarks from Jones, and a fireside chat with Swisher and Powers entitled “Future of Tech Jobs in America.” Click here to register.
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About TechUp
TechUP connects diverse tech talent with companies who believe diversity is an advantage, and that inclusive teams are stronger, smarter, and better. TechUP intentionally recruits badass, underrepresented and talented tech professionals with a variety of skills. We especially seek women, people of color, LGBTQ individuals, and people who live with a disability.
We seek: front end developers, back end developers, mobile developers, graphic designers, UX + UI designers, data scientists, database administrators, tech journalists, product + project managers, IT professionals, full stack engineers, JavaScript, Ruby, Python, and Java programmers, social media professionals, marketing professionals, and more. We love engineers, auto-didacts, innovators, peer mentors, instigators, optimizers, and problem-solvers.
Anna Ruth Williams, AR|PR, http://www.arpr.com, +1 (855) 300-8209, [email protected]
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