A tornado knocking out your building, followed by the Covid-19 outbreak is not a good way to start a business. Despite some early challenges, Joshua Mundy and Quawn Clark founded Pivot Technology School, a fast-growing Tennessee-based EdTech startup. Isaac Y. Addae, an assistant professor at Tennessee State University, joined the duo as Chief Strategy Officer.
The tech training school is a “Black-owned, fully remote technology education hub that supports minorities interested in technology careers.” Its mission is to “empower minority students with in-demand technical skills, in an industry that historically lacks racial diversity, and build a 100 million dollar business.” The company trains “minorities to get into tech roles and are working with corporate partners to upskill their talent.”
“There are less than 3% of minorities that have tech careers and we want to change that paradigm and create pipelines of highly trained talent to these organizations. We want to expose as many adults as possible to coding and data analytics,” said Mundy.
Clark said about the team’s ambitious goals, “Our mission is to create and grow incentive-aligned avenues that empower a highly diverse demographic to break into the technology industry.”
Based in Nashville, it strives to empower an underserved, diverse demographic by providing industry-leading training in high-demand technology skills. Pivot offers cybersecurity, data analytics, web development, full-stack engineering and other coursework, in a 20-week, virtual, boot-camp-style program.
The tech-teaching company has a unique business plan. The EdTech startup seeks out corporate partners that want and need to upskill their current workforce to gain the knowledge and tools to succeed in this new era of rapid change and innovation. The business taps into the Great Resignation trend and war-for-talent, tight job market, as empathetic employers recognize they need to continually train their employees and offer them the ability to grow within the organization; otherwise, they’ll lose their best and brightest talent.
Corporations that are interested in upskilling and retraining employees and offer diversity and inclusion in the workplace turn to Pivot. The school has partnerships with Shipt, a division of Target, and Amazon. Shipt sponsored around 32 individuals who participated in a 20-week program, where they will learn core competencies—ranging from backend development to data analytics.
Shipt removes financial barriers, which is all too common. All 32 students enrolled in the program received a full scholarship from Shipt. Of the 32 students selected, 19 are current Shipt employees and 13 are external candidates that were selected from the applicant pool to participate alongside internal Shipt team members.
Shipt says that it is “committed to fostering diversity, equity and inclusion in all that [it does] and that includes recruiting, hiring and retention efforts.” The company said, “We’ve long engaged, and continue to invest, in a variety of initiatives that help ensure our workforce reflects the communities where we live and work and gives everyone access to the same opportunities.” The partnership with Pivot reflects this agenda.
Mike Calvo, the chief technology officer at Shipt, said, “We’re an agile team with a great culture and have plans to expand by adding the very best talent to help impact our growth, which is why we invest in programs, like Pivot, to help creative individuals motivated to move into tech careers gain the skills and experience needed to move our company forward.”
Pivot has had some wonderful success stories. Nicholas Oldham worked as a bus driver for WeGo Public Transit in Nashville. After a 20-week bootcamp at Pivot, he gained the knowledge to become a senior safety program manager for the company. “I learned how to take a data set, clean the data up and then massage it so that I could help the company make better business decisions,” Oldham said.
Pivot Tech grads will start their first jobs earning at least $65,000 a year. This is the first step into reinventing their careers. Oldham said about the program, “Pivot Tech was very, very, very involved, allowing me to really double my salary.” Mundy added, “As soon as the people can acquire the skills that are in demand, they’re going to immediately increase their income.”
Bianca J., another happy alumni, said about her experience, “This partnership was extremely important to me because I have always believed Shipt was invested in my growth. But, somewhere deep within, I didn’t feel as if I had the right skin tone to benefit from this type of support. Boy, did Shipt prove me wrong! As a Black woman, the feeling is indescribable. I now have the opportunity to pursue something that I’m capable of but wasn’t exposed to as a child. I’m super excited to see what the opportunity will yield.”
Source: Forbes
