There’s Something Happening Here

from Valley Business FRONT, Issue 149, February 2021

Reviews

“How do we beat India?” and other questions about growing the talent base

A 9 million dollar-plus grant from the Growth and Opportunity for Virginia fund – GO Virginia – announced late last year includes a Round Three Allotment of $290,000 for the Experiential Learning in Tech Employment (ELITE) internship program. The RoanokeBlacksburg Technology Council will use that grant to provide sponsorship opportunities for students earning a software development degree at a four-year university in the region. Then it will connect those graduates with smaller tech-based companies that do not have the capacity or expertise to manage their own internship programs.

During a Zoom event in December, Kim Mahan with MAXX Potential and Steve Cooper with Exelaration in Blacksburg (at the Corporate Research Center just off the Virginia Tech campus) joined RBTC president John Phillips to talk about what seems to be an age-old problem in the region. That is, growing and retaining the technology base coming out of local colleges and universities – but often then heads elsewhere to find work.

MAXX Potential has offices elsewhere in Virginia and North Carolina, and sees the ELITE program as one way to move into this region. MAXX places paid apprentices just out of school with small business partners, where they work on real projects. Founding partner Kim Mahan posited this question during the Zoom webinar: “How do we beat India on both price and quality [for that technical talent]? We have spent the last eight years cultivating this non-traditional pool.” Mahan says for MAXX Potential, diversity means recruiting people “from all walks of life,” to technical, in-demand fields. In fact, Mahan says the average MAXX apprentice is a career-changer, not right out of school. Some don’t even have degrees, but all “have a passion for technology.”

At Exelaration CEO Steve Cooper uses a different approach (as reported here previously) – they employ current upper-class Virginia Tech students as paid interns, who learn and earn while finishing their degree requirements. There is work out there – and local says Cooper: “the number of tech [companies] looking for someone with one to three years experience … is twenty times larger than [those] with zero to one years.” So, a little time under your belt as a paid intern or an apprentice, working on real-world projects, may go a long way towards getting a real full-time job.

“The ELITE program is designed to increase the pipeline of software developers and technology workers in our region,” adds RBTC’s John Phillips. He says the ELITE model is one typically used more often in Northern Virginia. It’s also about letting local employers know this pipeline exists. Hopefully, that GO Virginia grant is money well spent.