The tech industry is one of the fastest growing industries with an immeasurable amount of opportunities to get involved. For the numbers-oriented accountants, tech can be an exciting and simple transition offering different ways of applying skills you already have. With the growth of fintech as an industry and the transformation of traditional banks as well, there are ample opportunities to put newly developed tech skills to use, particularly in building finance and accounting-related software products. 

We sat down with one of our students, Thays Ribeiro, to share more about her journey into a tech job. We want to give you an idea of the depth and breadth of who is in our learning community. This interview is a part of ongoing learner interviews of our Qwasar students.

We sat down with one of our students, Bryan Aguilera, to share more about his journey into a tech job. We wanted to give you an idea of the depth and breadth of who is in our learning community. This interview is a part of ongoing learner interviews of our Qwasar students.

Qwasar Silicon Valley, a leader in training advanced technical talent in software-related roles, is partnering with JFN Institute of Technology in Cameroon to drive groundbreaking programs to grow digital talent in Africa. The partnership sees the launch of programs focused on skills-based programs training talent to Silicon Valley standards in software engineering, full stack development, and data science, with opportunities to expand into Cloud/DevOps and AI/machine learning.

Finding diverse, skilled technical talent is difficult. Having a consistent pipeline of good skilled talent year round is difficult, especially for more junior positions. Industry is shifting to new training models that turn traditional models upside down and that work better for companies, recruiters, and learners. Pre-apprenticeships are a great way for companies and training providers to work together to provide real opportunities to learners and develop a strong, skilled, talent pipeline.

Qwasar Silicon Valley specializes in tech talent training, particularly programs that are affordable and high quality. We have a long-standing relationship with Claris, an Apple subsidiary, to help train and develop tech talent specialized in using their FileMaker app development platform. Qwasar and Claris developed a focused training track to learn and use the FileMaker platform. Cohorts go through the training track 2-3 times per year, and each cohort concludes with a hiring event or recruitment day. Claris Business Partners are invited to attend the recruitment event and find it a significant source of quality young talent trained in FileMaker.

Competency-based education (CBE) generally enables all learners to succeed in a learning or training program, especially when it comes to technical subjects such as software engineering. Good software development engineering programs incorporating CBE allow students to develop core technical competencies that match with on-the-job demands for software jobs. The emphasis on competencies as a measurement of learning also enables equity in education and means education providers can offer programs with significant flexibility.

By increasing equity in education, more and more learners can succeed and become software developers. The barriers to a quality education are broken down in competency-based education as students from all backgrounds can participate and succeed. The flexibility of this method of education enables better learning outcomes for non-traditional learners as well as those that learn by doing. Competency-based education encourages learners to develop the core competencies that will make them successful candidates for future careers.

Qualified diverse candidates who meet job criteria with their resume is the number one way to help fill the millions of open jobs in tech. Community colleges are uniquely situated to produce these candidates and diversify the workforce, addressing the real pipeline problem around diversity in tech. Not just any kind of program will succeed, however, at changing the demographics of the tech workforce, due to the demands of employers and how employers hire.

Employers are seeking candidates that are critical thinkers, think outside the box, well-rounded individuals and talented. The demand for tech talent is larger than ever and employers want the best of the best. Recruiters are gatekeepers to careers in technology at companies, but finding out the ways to impress a recruiter and have the competencies needed by today’s employers is the way to get ahead. There are four major things employers are seeking in candidates and if you check these boxes, you will advance in interviews. Our programs have four main elements that align exactly with what employers are looking for. The process is rigorous but the checklist is the same across the board:

• Depth and breadth of technical skills
• Software development experience
• Strong technical portfolio
• Technical interview preparation

We'll look at each of these elements that help to drive our strong employment rates among our programs.

There are a lot of tech talent training programs out there, ranging from very short courses on Coursera to 6-year Master’s degree programs at universities. In today’s world, any tech talent training program should be competency-based, because the working world and on-the-job skills are about competency and performance. To simply get into an entry-level job in tech, applicants are required to show competency on their resume and further prove it in technical interviews.