A decade ago, TEKsystems was like many other U.S. employers: struggling to find talent at the rate and scale needed to meet customer demand. Today, the business and technology services provider, which boasts 6,000 customers and 80,000 employees, cultivates a thriving pipeline of skilled applicants who are eager and equipped to fill crucial job openings.
What ignited this turnaround?
A mindset shift from within TEKsystems — and a partnership with Per Scholas, a nonprofit organization that works with employers to design rigorous, hands-on technical training and professional skills development for high-demand jobs at no cost to learners.
The partnership offers a number of benefits. TEKsystems has a robust talent pool equipped with in-demand skills that has allowed the company to manage the cost and time associated with recruitment and onboarding, and its customers are happily reaping the returns. At the same time, the training programs have launched more than 1,500 careers — many for individuals who’d been looking for work in the technology sector but had been held back by hiring practices that emphasized pedigree over potential.
Customized Training Programs Unlock Human Potential
The partnership between TEKsystems and Per Scholas began organically. TEKsystems Vice President of Human Resources Faith Johnson said they were seeing recruiters “attract really great candidates” from the nonprofit. She and other leaders wanted to explore how Per Scholas was producing top job candidates, so they traveled from Baltimore to the Bronx to witness a Per Scholas training firsthand.
A more holistic partnership blossomed from there.
“We needed a bottom-up solution and when we saw the training, it just clicked,” said Johnson. “They had candidates to fill roles we couldn’t fill, and our values aligned. We knew there was a strategic opportunity.”
Three values form the heart of the partnership: a mindset that elevates capabilities over credentials, an appetite to upskill and reskill, and a devotion to constant evolution.
“As employers, we must understand the importance and the power of investing in human potential, and understand that traditional ways of thinking, hiring, and retaining talent will not work in the current environment,” said John Lullen, managing executive of marketplace inclusion at TEKsystems.
TEKsystems became a formal Per Scholas hiring partner in 2015. After realizing the depth of the pipeline it had at its fingertips, it doubled down in 2018. The company began working directly with Per Scholas to design customized courses and a curriculum that could respond directly to customer needs and market demands.
The results speak for themselves. An impressive 60% of graduates from the first customized training program secured jobs within a month of completing the course. Today, these tailored trainings enable TEKsystems to keep pace with the rapidly changing tech sector and its evolving skill requirements.
Per Scholas now provides training for the company in 12 U.S. cities. It also offers in-person, hybrid, and remote training, and supplies career coaches who offer lessons in professional development alongside the technical training. TEKsystems’ recruiters are embedded in the courses, giving Per Scholas constant feedback about how to refine the offerings.
“Our technical curriculum really infuses this kind of team-based problem solving, critical thinking, self-directed learning from the very beginning,” said Per Scholas President Caitlyn Brazill. “We provide support, we provide resources, we provide scaffolding, we provide knowledgeable instructors. But people thrive because they understand and experience that lifelong learning is going to be critical for technical roles.”
Brazill noted that members and alumni participate on advisory boards in multiple markets and on Per Scholas’ National Board of Directors, donating thousands of hours of expertise and helping Per Scholas sharpen its global offerings.
“For us, TEKsystems is a demand aggregator,” said Brazill. “They’re in every single market, working with thousands of companies. Per Scholas can better see where technology companies are struggling to find talent, and we can use that insight to create training tracks that address very specific needs.”
Per Scholas Graduates Outperform Typical Early-Career Talent
TEKsystems’ customers could not be happier with the company’s partnership with Per Scholas.
“We consistently seek to understand where our customers have talent gaps so we can codevelop solutions with Per Scholas,” said Lullen. “We look at how we can strategically place a program in a certain market because we know the demand is already there, whether it is for AI-specific skillsets or data center technicians.”
Lullen recently worked with Per Scholas and a data center customer to create a two-month customized training program in Phoenix. All graduates except one (an individual headed off to military duty) were hired by the data center upon graduation from the program.
Customers have told Lullen that the employees they get from Per Scholas are innovative and creative, “superior” to other early career talent, and become productive much more quickly than many of their other hires.
“When I explain this partnership to prospective customers, they often say it’s too good to be true,” said Lullen. “Then we invite them to a training or a graduation, and they see they’d be getting people with technical training, professional development, and soft skills coaching. Even though some of these folks don’t have that traditional pedigree, they’re extremely well-rounded.”
This solution is available to all employers.
“This exact partnership is available to any company,” Brazill said. “And today, especially in moments of shrinking budgets, lots of uncertainty, it’s such an advantage to have a partner who can help you create new and evolving talent pipelines.”
Like Brazill, Lullen believes in the power of this partnership and the benefits of championing a unique mindset and perspective on talent.
“I meet with a lot of executives who want to build a future-ready, resilient workforce,” he explained. “What I say to them is that this is the era to encourage and support unique skills and capabilities, and to be very intentional when you look at your strategic partnerships. Move beyond purely focusing on funding and grants and find an organization that’s mission aligned that can help you address your skills shortage.”
A Mom, a Cop, and a Musician: TEKsystems Finds Talent In Unexpected Places
To meet its appetite for driven, creative talent, the tech sector needs to look in unexpected places. Per Scholas has helped TEKsystems identify and engage motivated individuals who, after spending years in other industries, show the ambition and personal qualities needed to thrive in innovative environments. It’s also opened the door for those new to the industry, helping them learn about opportunities they may not have known existed.
Zobaria Ashraf graduated from the first customized course TEKsystems and Per Scholas launched in Baltimore back in 2018. Ashraf was a mother of four who had left the traditional workforce years earlier to raise her children. She wanted to break into the tech sector — but first, she knew she’d need to build skills that would make her stand out.
“I was struggling to find a job as an at-home mother,” Ashraf told Per Scholas. “Because of this partnership, within a few months, I went from being a person with the least-desired skills to one of the most sought-after employees.”
After graduation, a global law firm and customer of TEKsystems hired Ashraf as a desktop analyst. Within a year, she was promoted to team lead.
The economic benefits are significant. Every dollar TEKsystems invests in its partnership with Per Scholas yields $14 in wage gains for individuals who complete the training. The 1,500 individuals whose careers have been launched by the TEKsystems/Per Scholas partnership have amassed $375 million in earnings.
Law enforcement officer Craig Curry had been plotting a jump from his 17-year career in law enforcement to the tech sector when he discovered the TEKsystems/Per Scholas training program. After completing his course, Curry landed an internship with TEKsystems at a Microsoft data center in Arizona. Within six months, he was promoted from a contractor role to a higher position in Microsoft’s data center. Two months later, he became a full-time Microsoft employee, and within a year, he was a manager.
“One word sticks out to me: current,” said Johnson. “These graduates are right in line with what the current real-time market needs are in technology. They’re job-ready, and they’re also aligned with evolving markets.”
A third graduate, Akintunde Akinwande, was a Grammy-nominated producer and songwriter when he began entertaining the idea of leaving his music career for the tech industry. The transition was daunting, however.
“Entering the tech field without a traditional background felt like standing at the base of a mountain without a map,” he told Per Scholas.
Like Curry, he eventually found his solution at the TEKsystems/Per Scholas training site in Phoenix. He said the course perfectly prepared him to make the leap into technology.
“The training was immersive and practical,” Akinwande said. “Rather than passively absorbing information, we engaged directly with real-world scenarios — troubleshooting live environments, configuring networks, and physically racking and stacking equipment. These experiences mirrored the responsibilities found in actual tech roles, which gave me the confidence to walk into interviews and, later, into my current position.”
Akinwande now works for TEKsystems as a data center technician.
“Our partnership with Per Scholas has allowed us to open up the IT industry and IT opportunities to people who may not have had the chance before,” said Johnson. “We’ve built a set of loyal individuals who are coming in with exactly the skills our customers are asking us for. While our competitors are struggling with traditional technology recruitment, we’ve got this pipeline of trained — certified in many cases — individuals. My message: take the chance. Take the chance on these candidates because it will pay off exponentially for your business.”
Per Scholas is supported by the Charles Koch Foundation, which as part of the Stand Together community funds cutting-edge research and helps expand postsecondary educational options.
Learn more about Stand Together’s efforts to transform the future of work and explore ways you can partner with us.