TechHire Eastern Kentucky Launches Fast-Track IT Training Program September 2016

On September 6, the first cohort of TechHire Eastern Kentucky (TEKY) interns began a 33-week work-based learning internship to gain the skills they need to land information technology jobs. Selected from a pool of 850 applicants from across eastern Kentucky, the 49 interns are participating in an immersive curriculum developed by Eleven Fifty Academy of Indianapolis and taught by Interapt, a technology firm based in Louisville that will offer full-time employment to those who successfully complete the TEKY training program.

Designed to put eastern Kentucky workers on a fast track to gaining the skills needed for IT jobs, TEKY is a public-private partnership between the Eastern Kentucky Concentrated Employment Program, Big Sandy Community and Technical College, Shaping Our Appalachian Region (SOAR), Interapt, and ARC. In August 2016, it was awarded $2.75 million through the Obama administration's POWER Initiative to provide technology workforce development that will help build eastern Kentucky�s tech ecosystem, creating jobs and boosting emerging sectors that rely on a skilled IT workforce. The TEKY internship program will train an estimated 200 technology professionals over the next three years.

In 2015, eastern Kentucky was identified through the administration�s TechHire Initiative as a community committed to creating jobs and opportunity in the technology industry. Since then, about 300 tech jobs have been created in the region, with an estimated $6 million impact on the local economy.

Learn more about the TEKY internship program in its September 6 launch video: