For the one in four Philadelphians living below the poverty line, a jump into the technology sector — a high-opportunity area thought to be key to reducing levels of poverty — could be transformative.
And despite Philly’s rise among national rankings of startup towns and the growth tech-sector employment has enjoyed, hiring managers still say they struggle to fill the jobs they need.
Enter a group of some 30 Philly tech stakeholders who, since June 4, have been meeting with the City of Philadelphia’s Office of Workforce Development. They’re a key element of the city’s Tech Industry Partnership, the first of its kind to come together, and they’re tasked with raising a bridge between those two groups: potential staffers who might have their lives uplifted by a career change and the tech employers who are looking to hire them.