While the tech industry has made significant strides in closing the gender gap, there is still much work to be done as we kick off Women’s History Month this March. Women only hold 28% of computing and mathematical jobs in the US as of 2022, and make up just 34.4% of the workforce of the largest tech companies.
This month at General Assembly, we’re shining a light on an often overlooked segment of potential women in tech: veterans and military spouses.
Continue readingDear GA NYC Community,
If you’ve ever had the opportunity to walk through the doors of our NYC campus, you know how special it is. There is a vibrancy that you’d be hard-pressed to find anywhere else. That’s because, for many, our space represents a new beginning and a chance for something better. Over the years, I have watched hundreds of students transform their careers and take the leap into new jobs shortly after graduating.
I can’t believe it has been a year since we reopened the NYC campus after closing our doors during COVID-19. This year also marks the first anniversary of unveiling our remodeled space. During the pandemic, we renovated to enhance the learning experience for those students who wish to learn in person.
Continue readingEnvisioning A New Campus in Japan
The collaboration will enable GA to provide digital skills training to Mori Building employees, residents, and partners, fueling crucial digital transformation in Japan. NEW YORK, NY – 2/14/23– Today, global education provider and career transformation company General Assembly (GA) announced a new strategic partnership with Mori Building Co., Ltd – Japan’s leading urban landscape developer – to expand digital skills training to Mori Building workers, residents, and company tenants with the goal of enhancing Tokyo’s overall digital transformation.
The partnership comes at a crucial time as Japan faces a tightening labor market, with some projections estimating the country will be short close to a million digital talent by 2030. Reskilling programs, such as those being offered by General Assembly, will serve as an invaluable tool for companies in need of talent and eager to respond to the rapid innovations underway in automation and digitization.
Continue readingThe tech space is constantly changing and evolving. This is why it is such an exciting, challenging, and rewarding industry to work in. In this day and age, the key to a successful career in tech is to be equipped with the most relevant tech skills and to embrace lifelong learning, and be as curious and inquisitive as possible.
According to the Tech Council of Australia, the Australian Government and the Australian tech sector have a shared commitment to create 1.2 million tech jobs in Australia by 2030. It is then forecasted that Australia will need to employ an additional 653,000 tech workers to meet this goal by the end of the decade. This is great news for those who want to transition into a tech career. It also means that the demand for tech courses has increased as people are looking for efficient modes of learning to be a part of this transformation.
However, financial constraints can often get in the way of people receiving a quality education in their desired field, thus, limiting their potential to excel. In an economy where knowledge is power, how then can we make this knowledge more accessible to aspiring students?
Continue readingIf 2020 taught us anything, it’s that the world changes— fast. Back then, we faced a global pandemic with no real sense of when things would get back to “normal”. Workers and employers brought new meaning to the word resiliency. Fast forward to today and we’re in the midst of a once-in-a-generation economic downturn that’s hard to ignore.
If you’ve logged in to LinkedIn lately, you’ve probably noticed post after post from friends, family, and strangers announcing that they too have been impacted by a downsizing. In the US alone more than 73,000 workers have been let go in mass job cuts so far in 2022, according to Crunchbase, with more predicted. While recent layoffs have happened en masse, one thing remains true— there is still a shortage of technical workers and skills. A recent Korn Ferry study found that by 2030, more than 85 million jobs could go unfilled because there aren’t enough skilled people to take them.
Starting today, Giving Tuesday, we want to help by offering our On Demand content for free to those who have been impacted by a recent layoff. Our hope is that this will give laid-off workers the opportunity to learn a digital skill or test a new career path and get a leg-up in their job hunt.
So, if your job has recently been lost, keep reading to learn how you can access our On Demand content—at no cost to you.
Waiting for a sign to get started on your career change? You’re in luck because this is it. If you caught our social media presence on Black Friday, you may have noticed a glitch. Thanks to that glitch, we’re excited to offer $1,000 off an immersive program* for residents in the United States and Canada.
It can be tempting to wait until the new year to start thinking about actioning on a career change, but there’s no time like the present to get started on the next chapter of your career.
Continue reading
It’s hard to believe that more than two years have passed since GA made the decision to close its campus doors and go fully remote in the wake of COVID-19. Despite all of the hurdles our students, faculty, and staff have faced, we are incredibly grateful that our community has remained as strong as it has – and that demand for GA’s programs, particularly outside of our urban hubs and in markets outside of the United States, has continued to grow rapidly.
Data analysis is a driving force for businesses taking the challenge of digital transformation head-on. Data analytics skills are some of the most sought after in candidates today. There’s a wealth of data available for companies to access, but without trained talent, they can’t leverage this data to make smarter, faster decisions.
As a new year begins and the pandemic wears on, the country is grappling with the latest incarnation of an increasingly familiar paradox: millions of open positions but not enough talent to fill those roles. The many complex forces driving this new normal include the accelerating integration of technology into all facets of the enterprise; a wave of resignations and retirements; shifting policies and priorities around remote work; and a mass rejection of jobs that do not provide a living wage, health care benefits, and other quality of life supports core to the vision of the “new social contract.”
Our work at the intersection of education and economic mobility gives us a unique perspective on the roles of education and workforce development when addressing challenges brought on by the pandemic. These challenges — accelerated technological change, deepened inequity, and systemic injustices — have renewed urgency as the world strives to move forward.
In the spirit of collaboration and our commitment to positive change, we were honored to join Social Finance and the Federal Reserve Banks of Atlanta and Philadelphia to contribute to “Workforce Realigned: How New Partnerships are Advancing Economic Mobility.” This new book, recently released in this summer of 2021, draws on the insights of federal and state policy leaders, researchers, and workforce development experts to highlight not just the aforementioned issues themselves but the ways that organizations are collaborating to create new solutions in this ever-shifting world.
Our chapter, “Access to Opportunity: The General Assembly Career Impact Bond,” offers a deep dive into a first-of-its-kind program we launched with Social Finance. To put it simply and clearly, the GA Career Impact Bond is rooted in our shared belief that individuals with fewer resources can, with the appropriate support, succeed at the same level as those with more. In addition to an income-share agreement (ISA) program in which students pay zero up-front tuition, our initiative also provides access to full-time social service professionals who directly support student needs and an emergency fund that offers ready financial assistance for students to cover unexpected costs.
The chapter also features insights and lessons learned from our work with the Career Impact Bond, including these testimonials from Career Impact Bond participants:
“I spent decades in prison and was able to learn about coding as a member of the Last Mile Program. After my release, I didn’t have a job or credit and was starting over, but wanted to continue what I learned with The Last Mile. This ISA helped me enroll in General Assembly’s immersive software engineering program and continue my journey.”
“I didn’t have a lot of money or options and was making $20K a year. I have a son and needed to find something that would improve our lives. This ISA has put me on track for a new career, a new salary, with new skills. The emergency fund helped me during the pandemic to pay my bills when I could no longer work.”
We hope our contribution — and the book as a whole — provide leaders across business and government with concrete examples of the ways that collaboration between the public, private, and nonprofit sectors is creating new pathways to economic mobility. Curious to dive in and explore all the details? You can get your own copy of “Workforce Realigned: How New Partnerships are Advancing Economic Mobility” by downloading it here.
We look forward to hearing your thoughts once you’ve had a chance to read it and to continuing the conversation about how we can best help and support workers from all underserved backgrounds in navigating the rapidly changing world of work.
Want to chat more about anything you’ve read here? Reach out to us via cheers@ga.co.