Miami group of Black technologists teams with national training academy for tech bootcamps
Miami’s influential BITE-CON Foundation and national technology bootcamp 4Geeks Academy are teaming to provide Black and brown area residents with necessary training to land promising tech jobs.
The two organization’s share a common goal of educating 1 million men and women of color in South Florida and nationwide to become technologists over the next five years. Although Miami’s tech sector has expanded significantly during the pandemic, a big challenge has been giving minority residents access to the sector’s lucrative career and financial opportunities.
“The partnership has tremendous potential,” said BITE-CON founder and executive director Temanté Leary. “We are working on several initiatives in addition to providing scholarship opportunities for those who want to break into tech by way of bootcamp.”
Three scholarships will be awarded to tech enthusiasts from among those living in Miami-Dade or Broward counties, students at Florida’s historically Black colleges and universities and young people attending such colleges nationwide. The scholarships will help provide recipients with the financial support to enroll in 4Geeks Academy’s full stack development, data science and machine learning programs.
Leary said BITE-CON and 4Geeks will provide additional training and resources to ensure the scholarship recipients and all program participants have the best chance to succeed in their future tech careers.
Since starting in 2015, 4Geeks Academy opened an office in Brickell and has graduated more than 4,000 students across its eight campuses in the United States and Canada and placed 84% of graduates in technology jobs.
In addition to the bootcamps at the tech academy, the two organizations are collaborating on technology education programming such as the Web3 TechTalk series that launched in June in Miami. As part of the series, local community advocate Nandy Martin, better known as Captain Haiti, discussed how blockchain can be leveraged for social impact.
In the next few months, the partnership will begin offering a certificate program in conjunction with Microsoft that will allow participants to earn artificial intelligence certifications in a month. BITE-CON will cover the $99 cost for the course.
In April, BITE-CON held its second annual Black Innovation Technology and Entertainment Conference at Miami Dade College’s North Campus. The event primarily connected local technologists of color with resources and opportunities to bolster their tech careers.
“When we talk about the advancement of minorities in this space, ... we have to address the workforce issue and engagement of the community,” said Howard Jean, BITE-CON’s vice president of development and programming who on the April conference.
For more information on how to apply for the scholarships to attend tech bootcamps at 4Geeks Academy, visit https://www.bite-con.org/copy-of-events.
