We prepare motivated and curious adults for successful careers in technology through no-cost customized training courses powered by today’s biggest technology employers. Per Scholas has more than 20 years of expertise in opening doors to transformative technology careers for individuals from often overlooked communities. We accomplish this mission today by: CREATING OPPORTUNITY For people who work hard, we create real opportunities to build better lives for themselves and their families. CLOSING THE SKILLS DIVIDE We prepare smart, dedicated people to work in key technical roles, always designing our courses in response to what employers tell us they need. ACHIEVING DIVERSITY We are building a more diverse technical workforce by creating on-ramps for women and people of color, groups staggeringly underrepresented in IT employment today. Story Per Scholas was created in 1995 to close the digital divide in the South Bronx by refurbishing used computers and providing them to local schools at a fraction of the cost. The easiest way to meet this objective might have been to hire IT professionals to recondition the computers. But we saw talent and tenacity from individuals within our community and realized we could do more. In addition to increasing access to technology we could open doors to transformative tech careers by training community members to fill the positions we were hiring for. And with that, our first IT training course began. Since then, we’ve trained more than 6,000 under- or unemployed community members for in-demand technology careers. Ninety percent of our students are people of color, a third are women and a third are disconnected young adults. On average, Per Scholas’ grads increase their post-training income by 429 percent. Per Scholas was named one of America's top-performing nonprofit organizations by the Social Impact Exchange S&100 Index for its impressive outcomes and results-driven work.