LinkedIn is encouraging its employees to make a difference through a partnership aimed at priming the careers of young adults from communities underrepresented in IT.
For many IT pros, having the opportunity to volunteer their time and skills can be an inspiring perk. Companies have been responding of late by offering volunteer time off and by partnering with organizations that could benefit greatly from the added help of programs and staff time.
LinkedIn is one such company giving IT pros an opportunity to make a difference as part of a longstanding partnership with job training nonprofit Year Up, which began in 2011 when LinkedIn’s first CEO, Jeff Weiner, saw the value in working with the Year Up to open the talent pipeline and to give back.
Since then, LinkedIn has “grown into one of the major enterprise partners for Year Up,” says Audrey Rhodes Market, the Year Up program manager at LinkedIn. So much so that LinkedIn has a dedicated team with employees responsible for maintaining and growing the relationship with Year Up. LinkedIn has hired close to 105 Year Up interns since first partnering with the nonprofit.
Year Up offers young adults a year-long career readiness program in which they spend six months learning hard skills for a new career path and the next six months in an internship where they can put those skills to work and gain experience. Students who complete the program are often offered a position with the company they interned with. Students are typically from communities underrepresented in the tech industry, and the program has proved successful at giving them the opportunity to grow a career in tech.