On Target for Tech Talent

How Virginia's Plan to Double its Tech-Talent Pipeline by Aligning Resources at All Levels Hits the Bull's-Eye

When it comes to building a comprehensive strategy for increasing talent to meet the technology workforce demands of today and tomorrow, there is a nationwide call by employers for talent with skills that include a particular focus on software development, engineering, machine learning, artificial intelligence, user experience design, and user interface design — all competencies with roots in computer science. Virginia has plans to fill that supply-side gap and hit the bull’s-eye of employer demand by increasing and roughly doubling its tech-talent pipeline in the near future.

It’s an approach that was buoyed by the Virginia Economic Development Partnership’s (VEDP) 2017 Strategic Plan for Economic Development of the Commonwealth that identified the tech sector as Virginia’s largest traded-sector employment growth opportunity. And while it is an approach that synced up with the timing of Virginia winning HQ2, it’s also an effort that’s been building momentum at all education levels across the Commonwealth.

Arlington elementary school students

Now that Amazon is looking to Virginia to fill as many as 25,000 highly skilled jobs over the next 12 years, the Commonwealth is primed to produce 25,000 to 35,000 additional degrees in computer science (CS) and related fields statewide, roughly split between bachelor’s and master’s degrees, over the next two decades. While Amazon is in the spotlight today, these are workers who will benefit existing Virginia employers, from Capital One to WillowTree and PowerSchool, to tomorrow’s startups.

Virginia’s plan is a seamless approach, targeting CS and related fields across each phase of the education spectrum — K-12 classrooms, community colleges, undergraduate, and post-graduate programs — with performance-based investments and other funding. 

Tidewater Community College

Similar to other states, Virginia’s current tech-talent pipeline poses a dichotomy of risks and opportunities. While the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) workforce shortage is expected to grow nationally, and two in five Americans say that the shortage of workers in STEM fields is at crisis levels, according to a study from tech and engineering company Emerson, the Commonwealth touts a few advantages in not only bridging the gap, but building for the future.

Virginia State University

First, Virginia has a head start. It has the vision to anticipate this tech-talent need, and with plans accelerated thanks to the Amazon HQ2 project and other tech company expansions, Virginia is poised to be a leader among states working to turn their tech-talent tide. In fact, according to CodeVA, an educational nonprofit created to promote computer science across Virginia, in 2016, Virginia became the first state in the nation to pass sweeping computer science education reform. This law mandates that every Virginia child will receive access to essential computer science literacy — to include coding — from kindergarten through graduation.

From K-12 classrooms to Virginia’s robust community college system, and from four-year university labs to graduate program internships, Virginia is on target to meet the needs of tomorrow’s technology workforce. Chalk it up to an accelerated start, a recognition by tomorrow’s workers of where the jobs will be and the influx of funding and programs designed to ensure Virginia stays at the head of the class when it comes to tech aptitude and workforce readiness moving forward.

George Mason University

The regional public high school uses a lottery system to determine enrollment, weighting enrollment to ensure gender and economic gaps are accounted for.

“So many specialty programs are based on academic performance at a very young age. Some parents don’t even know that they need to get their kids on an accelerated path,” Bolling said. “The industry needs a more diverse workforce, especially women.”

CodeRVA isn’t the only K-12 school that’s pivoted from the traditional lesson plan. In Fairfax County, Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (TJ) has ridden a STEM-focused, highly integrated curriculum to a No. 10 overall ranking and No. 3 Best STEM High School ranking by U.S. News & World Report and is ranked the No. 1 Best High School for STEM in America by Niche. The school, which offers courses including advanced marine biology and automation and robotics, also features 15 specialized research labs.

There is another key differentiator between TJ, which was opened in 1985 as a collaboration between the local business community and Fairfax County schools, and the traditional high school experience: a unique mentorship program. This bridge between academia and the real working world gives students the chance to work with mentors in an applied learning environment. It’s also a novel way in which students can fulfill their senior technology research graduation requirement outside the school’s labs.

Other Virginia high schools boasting top-rated STEM offerings include NOVA’s McLean High School and Richmond’s Maggie Walker Governor’s School. At Newport News’ Denbigh High School, students can attend the Aviation Academy, which is a nationally recognized STEM site, to learn about engineering and more.

Demand for these STEM-focused programs is on the rise. Take CodeRVA, which opens admissions for rising ninth graders, and most recently received 412 applications for 84 open slots.

Bolling says one of the keys to evolving CodeRVA and similar programs, from growing curriculum and capacity to generating internship opportunities, is finding more business partners who see the value in investing in tomorrow’s workforce.

“We’re trying to create a pipeline that gets to the workforce faster,” he said.

All of this has occurred in advance of Virginia’s fresh investment of $25 million in new K-12 computer science funding, which will serve to provide relevant curriculum, fuel staff development, create meaningful career exposure, and to bring high-quality STEM and computer science teaching and learning to scale.

Laying Deep Roots in Virginia's Community College System

Virginia’s Community College System (VCCS) poses an advantage to growing Virginia’s tech talent — quite simply, it’s everywhere.

As VCCS leaders and faculty at institutions across the Commonwealth prepare to play their role in the doubling down of tech talent, they’re utilizing a number of methods and funding streams to ensure their partners, programs, and curriculum align with the needs of Virginia’s current and future employers.

According to Todd Estes, the Director of Career Education Programs & Workforce Partnerships at VCCS, that work is already occurring. In 2018, the Governor announced the availability of up to $5.1 million of Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) state set-aside funds for the planning and capacity building needed to establish and refine educational pathways aligned with critical industry sectors. Using these funds, Information Technology and Computer Science associate’s degree pathways will be strengthened and expanded in 2019.

There are examples throughout Virginia that show what community college partnerships with employers can look like, such as Tidewater Community College’s partnership to create a registered cybersecurity apprenticeship with Yorktown-based Peregrine Technical Solutions. Another example is at Northern Virginia Community College, where faculty have partnered with Amazon Web Services to develop a cutting-edge cloud computing curriculum, and also established an innovative apprenticeship program designed to train veterans. A number of community colleges have also been designated as Centers of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense or Information Assurance by the NSA/DHS, including Danville Community College, Lord Fairfax Community College, Northern Virginia Community College, Thomas Nelson Community College, and Tidewater Community College.

As part of the tech-talent pipeline plan, state leaders will collaborate with the Virginia Community College System (VCCS) and community college leaders to craft performance-based community college tech-talent programs that will complement bachelor’s- and master’s-level tech-talent education programs.

“With the successful landing of Amazon’s new headquarters in Northern Virginia and the Commonwealth’s goal to develop our workforce anchored to technical fields, increasing the quantity of students completing technical degrees, certificates, and credentialing programs is a challenge the VCCS is addressing comprehensively and aggressively,” Carter offered.

Ramping Up Undergraduate Computer Science Degrees

Here’s a closer look at some of the forward-thinking programs underpinning the schools’ growth and momentum:

At UVA, the Computer Science Department’s Industry Advisory Board counts among its membership several local and regional companies that hire undergraduates, and often provide advisement on curriculum revisions. UVA also recently announced plans to open a School of Data Science. The interdisciplinary school will offer undergraduate and graduate degrees and certificates to help meet the growing demand for data scientists.

The Capital CoLAB (Collaborative of Leaders in Academia and Business) is an action-oriented partnership that brings together the leaders of the region’s top academic institutions and businesses to develop and execute initiatives that support the vision of the Capital Region, spanning Baltimore to Richmond, as a leading global hub for innovation.

UVA’s College at Wise opened the first undergraduate software engineering program in the Commonwealth, and its graduates are regularly placed in software development companies around Virginia, including CGI in Southwest Virginia. Timed with the arrival of Amazon and other tech companies’ growing need for talent, the school is now working to expand its CS and software engineering programs to include additional coursework and faculty with cybersecurity expertise.

At Virginia Tech, technology and digital proficiency are a major focus across the board. According to President Tim Sands, “A graduate today needs to be comfortable with digital technology and have proficiency. And these days, that means some exposure to fields like machine learning, artificial intelligence, data visualization, data analytics. But they also need to be able, in the end, to reduce data to actionable information.”

Throughout the Commonwealth, similar programs and initiatives are working together to boost tomorrow’s workforce in these key areas of CS, cybersecurity, and other tech-related fields.

Now this effort will receive a sizable boost, with Virginia’s institutions of higher education set to receive funding through a performance-based tech-talent fund. These funds can go toward investments in higher education instiutions throughout Virginia that can be used for recruiting faculty, enrollment funding, and other measures designed to expand the Commonwealth’s tally of bachelor’s degrees. These new grads would help meet HQ2’s talent needs while also strengthening the overall tech talent market in Virginia.