One of Northeast Ohio's hottest industries is in technology, from coding to cyber security.
A recent Team NEO study commissioned by the Cleveland Foundation found our region has more demand in this field than we have people with the training to do the jobs.
But there's a big push to change that, mixing practical hands-on training with traditional college to fill in all the gaps.
Solving Northeast Ohio's tech jobs gap is a big task and it takes approaches on multiple fronts to tackle.
The people at Cuyahoga Community College's Centers for Excellence are part of it. They offer 16-week software coding "boot camps" aimed at changing lives for people looking for a new career.
The group RITE Board, along with several local colleges and tech industry partners, uses its "Passport to IT careers" event to help scout for that farm system.
And with an eye to the future, employers see Northeast Ohio as a key player in the tech world.
It's a long-term investment to get generations set to fill the talent-hungry local tech industry.
But many of the programs and events already in motion are paving the way to make that possibility, a reality.
Jeffrey Butts, an IT Center of Excellence instructor, said, “Seeing the possible, anything is possible. You came in here with zero, zero experience, zero. And now today, 16 weeks later, you can call yourself a software developer.”
The folks at Tech Corps who we hear from in the story also run coding camps over the summer. They even have an entire camp solely dedicated to girls.
Demand is high, and you can learn more at techcorps.org