February 9, 2022

The Baltimore Based Organisation Training, Paying And Hiring Underrepresented Tech Talent

Participants study programming and problem-solving for four months, earn $250 a week, and become paid apprentices with partner employers.

The initiative came during the pandemic when millions were left jobless and this predicament spurred millions more to reconsider their careers, Catalyte and vocational training nonprofit Baltimore Corps saw a heightened need — and an opportunity — for tech programs.

Lily Tilden, since hired by the city health department as a full-time employee, was among a dozen rookie software developers who worked for the city in what would become the inaugural fellowship cohort of Retrain America, an initiative launched by Catalyte and Baltimore Corps in the pandemic’s wake. 

Tilden, whose last job was working as a ski-lift operator in Colorado, completed a 20-week developer training with Baltimore software firm Catalyte and by fall of 2020, she was working with the Baltimore City Health Department to improve its apps to track and administer vaccinations.

Catalyte and Baltimore Corps created Retrain America as its own nonprofit in early 2021. It says that working with Baltimore Corps could help them more actively target outreach to underserved, low-income communities, rather than passively waiting for people from those places to apply.

Catalyte tweaked its model by accelerating training from 20 to 16 weeks for the Retrain America program, and with Baltimore Corps the company assembled a roster of funding, administrative and employer partners who could commit to taking on apprentices sight unseen.

Across two cohorts so far — one completed last fall and another that launched Jan. 30 — totaling about two dozen people, participants’ prior careers included working as teachers and in foodservice, retail and construction roles.

Apart from Tilden – the fellows who apprenticed with Baltimore’s health and IT departments are now working as full-time developers at Catalyte.

Eliot Pearson, Catalyte’s chief strategy officer, says Retrain America has so far developed its talent pipeline with focused community engagement, having its leaders speak on panels and at Baltimore neighborhood organizations’ Zoom meetings, and recruiting apprentices via blurbs in community newsletters.

Eventually, the program plans to spread out into other markets, but so far it’s remained focused on Baltimore.

Abbianca Makoni

Abbianca Makoni is a content executive and writer at POCIT! She has years of experience reporting on critical issues affecting diverse communities around the globe.