SPRINGFIELD — The STEM — science, technology, engineering and math — workforce in Massachusetts is growing and highly paid. But it’s also 76% white. Only 26% of information technology jobs are held by women.
Jobs in the field are growing mostly in a few Boston-area communities — making a compelling argument, business boosters heard Thursday, for increasing training and outreach in Western Massachusetts to boost minority and women participation in STEM careers.
“We need to diversify our workforce,” Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito said on a visit to the Tech Foundry computer and information technology training program at 1391 Main St. “We all know technology has changed our world. It’s changed how we communicate. How we consume. How we learn.”
Polito said it’s important that all segments of society share in the employment and add diverse voices to the innovations.
She was in Springfield with Assistant Secretary of Technology, Innovation and Entrepreneurship Damon Cox and MassTech Executive Director Carolyn Kirk to announce competitive grants, totaling $469,234, for Tech Foundry of Springfield and the New England Venture Capital Association’s Hack.Diversity program in Boston.
This is the first year for the grants, said Patrick Larkin, director of the Innovation Institute at the MassTech Collaborative.
Caitlin Hodge, director of partnerships and strategic initiatives at Hack.Diversity, said the $375,000 will support a class of 75 for an eight-month fellowship for black and Latinx tech talent.
At TechFoundry, the $94,234 will enable two initiatives.
One is a pilot of a ramp-to-hire program that places students in extended work experiences as part of their IT training. Those placements can transition from paid internships to permanent employment.
The second is a partnership with the Healing Racism Institute of the Pioneer Valley to provide training, support and peer learning related to diversity and inclusion within organizations. Waleska Lugo-DeJesús of the Healing Racism Institute said she’ll organize a task force of employers who will identify and help address barriers to employment faced by minorities and women.
Patrick Streck, president of baytechIT, gave some real-world examples.
His company is a Holyoke-based collaborative involving Baystate Health that provides computer support in health care. One of his employees, a Tech Foundry graduate from Northampton named Maura Kavanah, provides support to a large obstetrics and gynecology practice, among other clients.
Who better to provide computer services, Streck said, than a professional who understands the practice’s employees, and more importantly its patients, in subtle ways that another computer or IT person wouldn’t?
Streck said he has 50 employees, and about 20 of them are Tech Foundry graduates.
"They've proven that they crossed the threshold and picked up many of the skills they need," he said.
Tech Foundry has just graduated its 14th cohort of students, said Natalie Miknaitis, Interim Executive Director. That brings to 275 the number of students who have completed the program since it began in 2014. This two-year grant will help train another 100 students for IT careers.