TechMeUp creates opportunities for new tech talent

Equality of opportunity, diversity and inclusivity

"We launched TechMeUp in November 2020, but that was of course the culmination of a lot of preparatory work," says Nikky. "It really troubles me that some people don't have access to training. At the same time, it's really important for the economy that the shortage of IT professionals is addressed. Especially with so many people having lost their jobs in the pandemic. I believe that a solution depends on reaching out to people who don't currently have access to IT training, but do want to retrain. So, at the start of last year, I got together with six public training centres, Codam, Growth Tribe, Ironhack, Techgrounds, Techionista and Winc Academy, , and started development of TechMeUp. A little later, the training organisation Make IT work joined the consortium as well."

"All the training providers were facing the same problem: a lack of diversity. Apparently, women were often enrolling for tech courses, but not following through for financial reasons. On top of the course fees, many were deterred by the associated expenses and the fact that they would lose earnings or social security benefits. Another problem is that the state doesn't provide support to people who want to follow training courses offered by the private sector. We've therefore been working to bring about change, by investing in the creation of opportunities. The first phase of our initiative involved talking to students and potential students to find out what the problems were. We also discussed the situation with donors. Another thing we did was sit down with lawyers to explore the legal scope for getting student loans. In the end, we got Kredietbank Nederland onboard. It's a not-for-profit bank that's willing to provide student loans to our target group. Students who go on to get jobs repay the loans by means of a 10 per cent deduction from their gross salary."

Participation enabled by student loans

"In principle, anyone can enrol with TechMeUp. If you want our support to achieve your ambitions in the tech sector, all you have to do is fill in our online enrolment form. When we get an application, we begin by checking that the applicant is over eighteen and genuinely motivated to follow this pathway. If we're happy on that score, we send them a motivational video and invite them to choose a course offered by one of our training partners. When reviewing applications, we consider the person's intrinsic motivation, their financial circumstances and what IT skills they already have. That last part is mainly down to the organisation that provides the training the person wants to take. It's important to make sure that the training provider is willing to take a prospective student, before we start thinking about financial support. If the training provider is happy and so are we, we invite the candidate for a familiarisation interview. After that, Kredietbank Nederland does a credit check and we apply for a loan for the student." "At the moment, our students are all training online. However, as we come out of lockdown, we're expecting our training providers to go over to a hybrid training model. Because all the study materials are suitable for online use, people in remote parts of the country can take courses offered by providers in the big urban centres. TechMeUp therefore enables people from all over the country to train or retrain for jobs in IT. So far, nearly thirty people have started training with our support. One of our graduates managed to get a job within two weeks, and five more who have very recently completed their training are currently looking for work. We help them with that as well, by putting them in touch with our partners and networks."

Support from SIDN Fund

"SIDN Fund made us a grant, which will enable us to study the effects of our initiative. We plan to look at things such as which training courses offer the fastest route into employment, what student groups tend to find training most challenging, and what skills and background enable people to thrive in the tech sector. We gather information about what happens not only to students we've supported, but also to people who applied to us but weren't given financial support. Do people in the second group give up on a career in IT, or do they still manage to get on a course? We'll use the findings to learn lessons and improve what we're doing. We want our activities to be evidence-based."

Anne Valkering, Project Coordinator at SIDN Fund: "Lack of diversity and the underrepresentation of women in the tech sector is a focus issue for SIDN too. TechMeUp offers underrepresented groups the opportunity to get extra training or to retrain. They're also studying what impact training and retraining have and which participant groups get the most opportunities in the tech world. That kind of information can help us understand what barriers exist to careers in IT, and what we can do to improve things."

Invest differently; invest in others

"At the moment, only 10 per cent of the people who apply to us are approved for student loans. So we've got an appeal running under the slogan Invest differently; invest in others with the aim of generating enough income to support 250 students this year. However, people seem to have much less money available to support good causes than they did at the end of last year. The public and private sectors have a shared responsibility to act," argues Nikky. "My ambition is to support thousands of students in the years ahead. Regardless of who you are or what your background is, you should have access to IT training. We aim to make that possible by generating more income, scaling up and getting more training providers on board. We also anticipate that we can get a chain reaction going, where people become inspired and then inspire others to retrain as tech professionals," concludes Nikky. Want to help more people get tech training with TechMeUp support? Visit https://www.techmeup.nl/doneren or schedule a coffee with Nikky Hofland via Calendly.