Long-term unemployed are targets for IT training

SKILLED LABOR: Lisa Shorr, co-owner of Secure Future Tech Solutions, works with remote support engineer Ben Lyopns. Her husband and company co-owner, Eric Shorr, says finding qualified employees is the firm’s No. 1 hurdle. / PBN PHOTO/RUPERT WHITELEY
SKILLED LABOR: Lisa Shorr, co-owner of Secure Future Tech Solutions, works with remote support engineer Ben Lyopns. Her husband and company co-owner, Eric Shorr, says finding qualified employees is the firm’s No. 1 hurdle. / PBN PHOTO/RUPERT WHITELEY

The number of information technology professionals employed in Rhode Island is at an all-time high, but advertised jobs are left vacant as employers struggle to find candidates with applicable skills in a fast-evolving industry.
Local workforce partners, both private and public, are trying to address the skills gap in the local IT industry and recently awarded a $7.5 million federal grant slated to provide IT training for unemployed Rhode Islanders over the next four years.
Brent Ouellette is vice president of vendor operations at Envision Technology Advisors LLC, which is one of 15 Rhode Island businesses that have committed to participate in the training. Ouellette says the skills gap is absolutely real and that there’s no shortage of applications whenever his firm posts a job, but finding qualified candidates is challenging.
“You sit there and pull one after another [applications] off the pile trying to find those potential golden nuggets,” Ouellette said. “A lot of people are building a base of experience and trying to build their qualifications, which makes it hard. We can’t hire them because they don’t have the experience, but they won’t have the experience unless we hire them.”
With offices in Pawtucket and Waltham, Mass., Envision had about $10 million in annual sales in 2014. The company makes up about 40 of the roughly 13,500 IT professionals in Rhode Island, which is predicted to grow. The company had $7.6 million in sales in 2013.
More than 75 percent of IT employers say they anticipate expanding within the next five years, according to a “Skill Study” report done by Tech Collective. Employers are constantly trying to stay relevant in a field filled with innovation.
“Training is a big part of it,” Ouellette said. “Regardless of the resources that might be available, we’re making an investment every year … for our employees at a base level.” Workforce Solutions of Providence/Cranston and the Workforce Partnership of Greater Rhode Island received the $7.5 million grant and will collaborate with Tech Collective to develop job training for middle- and high-skill job placement in the IT industry.
Funds for the grant come from a federal H1-B visa fund. The nonimmigrant visa H1-B is granted to a worker who gains entry into the United States because of technical expertise in a specialized field. Whenever a U.S. company employs an H1-B worker, it must pay into a federal fund designed to invest back into local professional development. The system was created with a goal to create more local professionalism, which would in turn deter U.S. companies from hiring outside the country.
“We chose the IT field because in Rhode Island, many H1-B visas are given in the IT [industry],” said Robert Ricci, administrator of Workforce Solutions of Providence/Cranston. “In Rhode Island, there are about 1.6 people seeking every vacant position, but when you look at IT, it’s actually only 0.2 [applicants for each position]. … because they lack the skills to apply to them.”
Eric Shorr and his wife, Lisa, own and operate Secure Future Tech Solutions in Warwick. The company, employing 15 people and generating $2.4 million in annual sales, recently changed its name from PC Troubleshooters
Shorr agrees with Ouellette and says finding qualified employees is his No. 1 challenge. The Shorrs have participated with Tech Collective in prior projects and hopes to reap the benefits of what the grant might produce whether it be acquired skills, interns or new employees. “There is plenty of demand out there,” Shorr said. “We need to create great-paying jobs here in Rhode Island, and that’s why we’re involved.”
The project, beginning this month and lasting four years, targets long-term unemployed Rhode Islanders. The November unemployment rate in Rhode Island was 7.1 percent, according to the R.I. Department of Labor and Training.
Tech Collective will hold open recruitment throughout the duration of the grant. Candidates must be unemployed, eligible to work in the U.S., at least 18 years old and hold a high school diploma or GED.
“The long-term unemployed are those who’re not collecting and are lost out there,” said Nancy Olson, executive director of Workforce Partnership of Greater Rhode Island. “We will be working with those who are not in our system and have fallen off.”
After a six-month implementation period, the participating organizations want to train 476 people, with a goal of re-employing 337 participants.
The program will use three rapid re-employment strategies, including “intensive coaching and other services leading directly to job placement; short or long-term skills training; and IT on Demand, a training program that combines soft skills with technical training,” according to the grant.
Ouellette is heartened by the program strategy and says it’s not just a quick fix to a big problem.
Rhode Island was one of 21 states to submit a successful application and Ricci, who is motivated by the public-private collaboration on the grant, says it’s a real step forward toward addressing a quantitative issue.
“We wrote the grant to fulfill a demand,” Ricci said. •

No posts to display