Per Scholas expands to the suburbs with new training center in Pittsburgh’s Mon Valley

Residents of the Mon Valley will soon have a free tech training program right in their backyard. 

Per Scholas, a nonprofit organization offering free tech training, is opening a satellite campus of its downtown Pittsburgh location in Glassport Borough. 

Starting in July, the satellite campus will train three cohorts of 15 learners each year, offering nearby residents a better opportunity at entering the tech workforce with the overarching goal of promoting economic mobility, said Todd Derby, regional senior vice president of the Northeast for Per Scholas. It chose the Mon Valley specifically after seeing a dearth of tech training programs nearby. 

“Rather than ask someone to commute into our downtown campus each and every day for training, we thought, let’s bring Per Scholas to the neighborhood,” Derby told Technical.ly.

The effort is a collaboration between Per Scholas, South Allegheny School District and the Richard King Mellon Foundation, which provided a $375,000 donation last fall to make it happen. 

The new satellite campus’ proximity to South Allegheny School District is no accident. Along with wanting to open opportunities for the whole Mon Valley community, including nearby McKeesport and Clairton, the initiative aims to create pathways for graduates of the local school district, South Allegheny Superintendent David McDonald said. 

“We hope it’s the first step of a game-changing pathway for our school community,” McDonald said. “We can start to impact the area of the Mon Valley with trying to give people an opportunity to reboot their career, reboot their life and get into a high occupancy work field.” 

Applications are now open for those interested in Per Scholas cohorts at the Pittsburgh and Mon Valley campuses. Applicants must be 18 years old or older, possess a high school diploma or equivalent education and be authorized to work in the United States. 

An opportunity to ‘break the cycle’ in a whole new region

Per Scholas has trained over 500 learners since it opened operations in Pittsburgh in early 2021, according to Derby. 

The organization started in the Bronx 30 years ago as a program to put computers in the hands of local students but later shifted to offering tech training for software engineering, cybersecurity, cloud and IT support. Now with locations across the country, Per Scholas’ programs have had over 25,000 graduates. 

Along with the tech training, participants also learn about professional development, like interviewing skills, LinkedIn profiles, public speaking, leadership and salary negotiations. Students can also receive two years of continued support after the program, including access to a licensed social worker and financial coach. 

“Even though the program is 13 weeks long, the relationship is years,” Derby said, “and we’re committed not only to helping our graduates secure their first job in tech but perhaps their second and third job in tech, too.”

Participants in the Pittsburgh Per Scholas program tend to be individuals who have traditionally been underrepresented in tech. About 90% of Per Scholas graduates are people of color and 40% are women, according to Derby. 

With 70% of Allegheny South students being economically disadvantaged, said McDonald, the satellite campus and other tech training initiatives present an opportunity to “break the cycle” that McDonald often observes in the kids he works with.

“We have a lot of parents and a lot of kids that have graduated in the past that are working really, really hard and are not having the economic benefit of that hard work,” McDonald said. 

The program aims to place 80% of its learners in a tech job within one year of graduating from the program, and the average salary for graduates is $22 an hour, according to Derby. Since Per Scholas’ programs are full-time, students are also eligible for a $3,000 interest-free loan to compensate for living expenses while studying. 

Tech to connect Mon Valley students to downtown

The building for the satellite campus is currently undergoing renovations, Derby said. The space, which was once a tube manufacturing building, is being designed to connect students at the satellite campus to the main campus downtown. 

By installing television screens and other tech all over the walls, students at the satellite campus will be able to virtually attend the classes that are happening downtown while receiving help from an in-person instructor at the same time. 

“Even though it’s separated by many miles, it will feel as if it’s just one big classroom that is joined together by TVs, cameras and microphones,” Derby said.  

With the opening of the new campus later this year, Per Scholas anticipates it will train 185 technologists in the Pittsburgh region annually, with the possibility of growing that number by 20% each year, according to Derby. And, hopefully, help them all land jobs that grow the local community.

“Our core identity of who we are as an organization,” Derby said, “is removing barriers and creating opportunities for tech careers.”