IT staff crunch prompts program to train homeless

By Christine McGeever
Computerworld, 02/11/00

In an effort to address a Silicon Valley staffing crisis, Cisco Systems Inc. is extending a company-run training program from its usual venue of high schools and vocational colleges into a homeless shelter.

The 26-week-long program began this week in the James F. Boccardo Regional Reception Center, a facility that has 250 beds and provides three-month housing for single adults as well as families. The center provides services to 10,000 people per year in San Jose, where Cisco is based.

"The skills shortage in the area is profound," said Cisco spokesman Steve Langdon, adding that where a worker comes from "may be almost irrelevant" to potential employers if the person is trained and has the right skills.

Maury Kendall, spokesman at the Emergency Housing Consortium in San Jose, said the program's recipients "don't reflect the national stereotype" of the homeless population. Generally, he said, they are younger and educated at least to an eighth-grade level, and many have working knowledge or an exposure to computers when they come to the shelter.

The program's 24 participants will earn a certification equal to that of graduates of Cisco's Networking Academy, according to Langdon. The academy is a four-semester program on the principles and practice of designing, building and maintaining networks capable of supporting national and global organizations.

Graduates of the shelter program will get job-placement assistance from San Jose's Redevelopment Agency, which is sponsoring the project with Cisco and the Santa Clara County Office of Education. Target employers include Santa Clara County businesses-virtually any company in Silicon Valley that needs network technicians, according to Maury Kendall, spokesman at the Emergency Housing Consortium in San Jose.

John Weis, director of neighborhood and industrial development at the Redevelopment Agency, said scores on the aptitude tests given as a prerequisite to attending the program were "extremely high."

National recruiters and educators seemed impressed with the plan.

"They're saying 'Let's grow our own,' " said Bob Sopko, vice president at Cleveland-based 1-jobs.com, an Internet-based recruiter and job-fair organizer with 300 localized Web sites. Sopko said graduates of the program are likely to be attractive candidates for starting-level information technology jobs. "We'd like to get more involved in such community outreach programs," he added.

Carolyn Wells-Kramer, northwest area manager of computer education at Computer Horizons in Seattle, said the shelter program was "definitely feasible." She added that the concept is no different from "boot camps" that her recruiting and education company runs for new hires in high-tech corporations. Wells-Kramer said that in both cases, technical training and social training are important components.

In Santa Clara County, economic factors make housing extraordinarily expensive, and according to Kendall, some of the homeless people currently relying on shelter resources are displaced or laid-off high-tech workers.

Santa Clara County, which makes up the majority of the region known as Silicon Valley, had a 2.1% unemployment rate in December, compared with a national rate of 4.0%.