From Bus Driver To Program Manager: How This Remote EdTech Is Teaching Minorities Tech Skills
Joshua Mundy and Quawn Clark founded Pivot Technology School, a fast-growing Tennessee-based EdTech startup and Isaac Y. Addae, an assistant professor at Tennessee State University, joined the duo as chief strategy officer shortly after.
The tech training school is a “Black-owned, fully remote technology education hub that supports minorities interested in technology careers.”
Its mission is to “empower minority students with in-demand technical skills, in an industry that historically lacks racial diversity, and build a 100 million dollar business.”
The company trains “minorities to get into tech roles and are working with corporate partners to upskill their talent.”
Based in Nashville, Pivot offers cybersecurity, data analytics, web development, full-stack engineering, and other coursework, in a 20-week, virtual, boot-camp-style program.
Nicholas Oldham first worked as a bus driver for WeGo Public Transit in Nashville. After a 20-week bootcamp at Pivot, he gained the knowledge to become a senior safety program manager for the company. “I learned how to take a data set, clean the data up and then massage it so that I could help the company make better business decisions,” Oldham told Forbes.
Speaking on its business plan, the founders said the EdTech startup seeks out corporate partners that want and need to upskill their current workforce to gain the knowledge and tools to succeed in this new era of rapid change and innovation.
The academy has partnerships with Shipt, which sponsored around 32 individuals who participated in a 20-week program, where they will learn core competencies—ranging from backend development to data analytics and a division of Target, and Amazon.
All 32 students enrolled in the program received a full scholarship from Shipt. Of the 32 students selected, 19 are current Shipt employees and 13 are external candidates that were selected from the applicant pool to participate alongside internal Shipt team members.
