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Businesses Government Microsoft Technology

White House Green-lights Tech Apprenticeship Program 62

Posted by Soulskill from the guaranteed-to-help-tens-of-people dept.
theodp writes: The Washington Technology Industry Association (WTIA) says a $3.5 million U.S. Dept. of Labor grant will help it create a registered apprenticeship program that aims to train 600 people over the next five years. Participants would pay tuition for 3-4 months of pre-apprenticeship training and then be placed with an employer such as Microsoft, Accenture, F5 Networks, or Impinj for a paid apprenticeship lasting 12-18 month, which organizers hope will lead to a permanent position. Candidates will begin with a series of assessments to gauge their potential to learn computer science fundamentals. For those who pass the WTIA's tech skills assessment, next is a pre-apprenticeship training, which is estimated to cost between $5,000 and $10,000 per person. The training will follow existing certificate programs, such as those developed by Microsoft for military veterans transitioning to new careers in tech. The Get in I.T. Apprenticeship program, the White House explains, "will target recruiting women, people of color, and transitioning military members."
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White House Green-lights Tech Apprenticeship Program More

White House Green-lights Tech Apprenticeship Program

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  • Unintended consequences (Score:4, Funny)

    by DoofusOfDeath ( 636671 ) on Saturday September 12, 2015 @05:01PM (#50510929)

    Participants would pay tuition for 3-4 months of pre-apprenticeship training and then be placed with an employer such as Microsoft

    People demanded that we stop letting prisons put people into solitary for months at a time, and now they use this as a replacement. Think things through, sheeple!!!

    • Re: Unintended consequences (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Whatever you said!

      The students should be PAID!

      But they won't because the stem shortage is nothing but a fiction invented by Silicon Valley to get cheap workers for their shit - and it is SHIT!!

      We workers are getting screwed more and more. And yet I am told I am being 'entitled'.

      When I get interrupted during MY time, You fucking OWE me!

      • Historically, apprenticeship programs were simply formalized excuses for abuse of employees.

        The "Masters" of a trade would take on apprentices, whom the masters would train over time... a very long, very excruciating time. Because the apprentices would have to do the majority of the heavy labor, while the "secrets" of the craft were doled out in a stingy and piecemeal manner... because actually letting the apprentice become a journeyman and then master meant 2 negative things: (1) they would lose the use

  • As a white guy with a minor disability that kept me out of the military (minor cerebral palsy, enough to close doors; but not enough for SSI Disability) I am essentially locked out.

    Thanks

    • I don't have a palsy, so I don't even get your sympathy, much less a sweet government sponsored job.

    • Re:So, no seats in the program for me (Score:5, Informative)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 ) on Saturday September 12, 2015 @05:57PM (#50511083) Homepage Journal

      If you read the fine print it's open to everyone, including white males. They are just making a specific effort to attract people from the groups mentioned, probably because experience tells them that most applicants will be white and male and they want more representative levels of diversity.

      • If you read the fine print it's open to everyone, including white males. They are just making a specific effort to attract people from the groups mentioned, probably because experience tells them that most applicants will be white and male and they want more representative levels of diversity.

        If it were going to be fair and equal there would be no such statement in the first place.

  • MSSA Schedule at Central TX College (Score:3)

    by theodp ( 442580 ) on Saturday September 12, 2015 @05:30PM (#50511009)

    Microsoft Software & Systems Academy [ctcd.edu]: Certificate Cost: $3040.00

  • We'll this sucks (Score:5, Informative)

    by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Saturday September 12, 2015 @05:38PM (#50511031)
    Tuition? Back in my day we called that training and the company paid you.
    • I dream of a day when companies will look at their employees like members of a family, and not a set of expandable parts.

      • picturing a sea of office cubicles, and in each one, a temporary office work slowly getting more and more obese. Mmmm, these pellets are good.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by gweihir ( 88907 )

        Looking at employees as a critically valuable resource that needs to be maintained is entirely enough. Incidentally, any good capitalist does that. The problem is that the economy is by now dominated by really bad capitalists that have never understood what makes capitalism work.

    • The program puts out roughly 60,000 per person, for 600 people to be 'apprenticed'. I'm not sure how much the precursors are, or if it will weed anything out (does not sound like it). Start writing those Congress Critters though, because this is pure shit.

      Why this sucks should be painfully obvious. This is Public funding to pay for Private company workers. I guess that the H1-B free-for-all they have not been able to get means that they won't pay for people in a slightly different way. Federal Tax dolla

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by gweihir ( 88907 )

        Right on the mark. If there is a need for a certain type of skill, capitalism says that these people need to be offered significantly more money and better working conditions. After that, one needs to wait for a bit and the problem solves itself.

        So if this really were capitalism, then coders, software engineers, etc. would be treated and paid really well. That is not the case. Instead, it is a system where everybody with power tries to shovel as much money as possible into their own pockets, and screw any t

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by gweihir ( 88907 )

      You mistake this program for something that is intended to train and create competence in the participants. For these, companies used to pay back in the day when the quarterly results were not the only metric involved. Quite clearly, the tuition is the only reason why this program is implemented, namely as a way to scam those participating out of their money.

    • Well if you want to see more Americans trained and hired, it's simple - just stop the H1B programs, companies will be compelled to train and hire. If theres such a big need companies will foot the bill and provide the training.

  • Let me guess (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Let me guess: theodp is against this, because dey are gonna take his jerb?

  • Clueless (Score:3)

    by tomhath ( 637240 ) on Saturday September 12, 2015 @06:32PM (#50511185)

    WTIA leaders believe an apprenticeship program can contribute quickly, providing a non-traditional route into the technology industry, specifically to the high-paying jobs at its heart: software development engineers and technical project managers.

    (WTIA CEO Michael Schutzler says) ...“When you graduate from college—even if you graduate from UW or MIT or Stanford—basically what you know is some mechanics about coding,”

    Really? Someone with a degree from MIT or Stanford is no more qualified for a software development engineer or technical project manager role than an apprentice who just finished a 16 month internship? He really thinks that?

    • When your looking for slave labor your not looking at mit etc. They guys go to MS etc but it's mostly a stepping stone MS gets a few years before they get scoffed up by a startup etc. They want drones that will toil away doing customer customization etc not the big sexy projects.

      • This sort of attitude is why so many websites and devices are full of security holes. If these people took a class that helped them read through Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs, they would be well on their way to writing more secure software.
    • It's not true, either......Stanford graduates don't seem to have any trouble being productive quickly in their first job after graduating. It's not just "mechanics about coding," whatever those are.
  • Pronounced: "Ass-Enter"
  • Who wants to work for "Microsoft, Accenture, F5 Networks"???? Accenture is right down the street from me, but screw that.
  • I thought we were past giving advantages based on race or gender. Is the government OK with racism and sexism again? WTF

  • All these people paying 5'000-10'000 USD for 3 months only to be told afterwards that they do not have what it takes? Excellent. And in addition, the few ones that are really good can be exploited at low "apprentice" wages for years afterwards. A big win, except for all those participating in this.

    This is an excellent scam! Impressive. Of course, any halfway ethical person would not participate in the establishment of something like this, ever.

  • Apprenticeship programs are exactly what is needed as the tech industry matures, for the following reasons:
    - Companies have an insatiable appetite for lower labor costs. Apprentices could provide this while being trained and staffing low level positions. Right now, the preferred method to get cheap labor is abuse of visa programs, where companies take advantage of foreign workers.
    - As a result of offshoring and outsourcing, a lot of low level positions in IT aren't as abundant as they once were, meaning tha

    • I disagree. Autodidacts should be allowed NOT to have to pay for those 3-4 months and take an evaluation test to enter the apprenticeship if they have the skills but not the experience. This is yet another attempt at taking money from those who dont have it or dont need to give it.

      • The problem with exempting "autodidacts" from basic education requirements is that you can get people who claimed them learned everything themselves, but have huge holes in their fundamentals. How many "web architects" don't understand basic security? How many "systems engineers" leave huge holes open in infrastructure they build? The Anthem breach was caused by someone leaving anonymous FTP open to the Internet on a bunch of servers, for example. You can argue it was an oversight, but my opinion is that a

  • This does not take into consideration autodidacts. Those 3-4 months are WASTED. They need to have a KLEP test for those who believe they have the necessary skills to enter the program as is but do not have a degree OR the experience.

  • The plan is to spend $3.5M to train 600 people over 5 years. So that's roughly $1,167/person/year. These tech companies can't spend that per year to do their own talent search, the US Department of Labor has to subsidize their hiring practices in their HR departments? Honestly, this sounds like the cost of finding good candidates that fit your organization.

    Spending the money up front to find the right person to fit the company, means you train them up, apprentice them if you will, and because they're the

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