What Happened?
The Obama Administration announced the TechHire Initiative focused on connecting Americans with well-paying jobs in the technology sector. The initiative will provide $100 million in federal grants to local workforce development efforts to rebuild the middle class.
TechHire Breakdown
The TechHire Initiative is a workforce development program working to empower Americans with education and training resources necessary to fill technology roles offering higher wages. The federal government plans to work collaboratively with local communities to launch skill-building programs that will attract technology businesses and boost economic growth and stability.
The TechHire Initiative will take a multi-sector approach to identifying technology skills gaps, developing training resources and connecting local workers with job opportunities in the sector. This includes collaborating with local governments and academic institutions to offer courses and workshops to rapidly train workers in key industries. The key elements of the initiative include:
- 21 communities are working with employers to expand access to tech jobs
- $100 million in federal grants to train and connect workers to tech jobs
- Private sector partnerships to connect underserved communities with tools and resources
Because the average salary in a job that requires IT skills is 50 percent higher than the average private sector job in the U.S., the TechHire project is designed to strengthen the middle class.
Chattanooga
One community onboard with the TechHire Initiative is Chattanooga, Tennessee, where the city has plans to collaborate with local employers to launch technology training to fill local IT jobs. Because many local employers report difficulty filling technology roles, the city and community organizations are designing training programs to specifically fill these gaps.
But Chattanooga is not stopping there. Since acquiring superfast broadband connectivity, the city as experienced a tech-driven innovation boom. To support the growing tech economy, Chattanooga has developed housing strategies that will ensure the city remains a sustainable innovation hub, CityLab reported.
Once Chattanooga introduced its gigabit internet service, the level of housing density in the downtown region proved inadequate for meeting growing demand. Many people continued to work in the city center but were unable to move there permanently, CityLab reported.
To accommodate demand, Chattanooga launched a series of housing projects including a 43-unit microhousing initiative providing a large number of economical units in a small space. These smaller units attached to co-living spaces are ideal for the tech startup community – which the city is looking to attract, CityLab reported.
In fact, The Brookings Institute reported denser downtown housing projects are a key component to successful innovation hubs across the country. Microhousing units are becoming more popular with the Millennial generation, in particular, which values walkability and access to transit and amenities over large living spaces. Attracting this demographic to a city center can help spur economic growth and development.
The Seattle City Council has gone so far as to offer developers of microhousing apartments with a property tax break. Developers in the city must set aside 25 percent of their units to rent for no more than $618 a month and are available to people making less than $25,000 annually, KIRO TV reported.
The goal is to help combat a growing housing crisis in Seattle, where tech companies are blossoming but rents are often outpricing many young professionals from living in the city. Making affordable housing available is expected to sustain the tech-savvy culture and maintain innovation, KIRO TV reported.
Related Stories
Grants Boost Quality of Education w/Access to Tech