A HighPaying HighTech Jobs Solution For Those That Need It The MOST
Sabio will train unemployed, underemployed and underrepresented individuals from LA, via an accelerated learning program, to enter the technology sector so that they can participate in today's high-tech economy. We will utilize an immersive boot camp environment to create a workforce that sets the standard for entry level technologists. Sabio’s training program will simultaneously serve to cure the current imbalance in the existing technology workforce, which suffers from a largely homogeneous make up. This training can be completed in as little as 3 months. Other areas of the country are having great success in producing employable talent in this same time. With Sabio, LA can have a program of its own. Just 7 years from now there will be 1 Million technology jobs that will go unfilled because we do not have a properly trained workforce. This represents $500 Billion in wages that Sabio will bring to LA by training Los Angelinos to fill these jobs. The Bay Area Council Economic Institute’s Local Jobs Multiplier indicates that for every 1 high-tech job created 4.3 other jobs are created. Therefore, developing and strengthening the area’s high-tech sector will have a significant impact in the local economy by promoting growth. However, we do not have to wait 7 years to start taking advantage of the lucrative salaries in the high-tech sector. In fact, we do not even have wait the years it takes colleges and universities to produce this talent. Sabio graduates can fill the many currently available positions. Sabio’s training staff will be seasoned professionals currently exercising their programming skills. More specifically, they will also have a proven history of successfully mentoring entry level programmers. Our training will be conducted in a format that is best described as a “bootcamp.” This format will approximate the intensive nature of a startup and prepare our trainees for the most rigorous environments. Our official training hours will be conducted 5 days a week and over the course of three to four months. Another key differentiating aspect of the Sabio program is its immersive environment. Our training facility will be co-located with other high-tech startups. Throughout the training program the trainees will be deliberately exposed to real world professionals, allowing them to build their network of contacts and be uniquely prepared to enter the tech workforce. By training unemployed, underemployed, and underrepresented individuals that live in LA, Sabio directly impacts all the metrics noted in the LA2050 Report for employment and income. Many careers in technology have starting salaries that are higher than the median income for individuals. This is more pronounced when comparing the median incomes of Latinos and African Americans. In these cases, an entry level tech salary can match that of an entire household of said group. These salaries allow one working adult to earn approximately 164% of the income need to live comfortably in a household of one. This one adult will also be able to support a family of four within 2-3 years of completing the Sabio training program. This is possible because of the unique advancement opportunities in the high-tech sector that place Sabio trainees on a path to earn $100,000 a year within 5 years of completing the program. Another aspect of the high-tech sector that is important to consider is its extremely low unemployment rate. Varying reports indicate that the unemployment rate for the high-tech sector is between 2% and 4%, which is approximately half the national unemployment rate, and 33% of LA County’s. Building an economy whose job base is concentrated in a sector with low unemployment naturally brings the overall unemployment rate down. The nature of the services we will provide will directly decrease the unemployment and underemployment rates in LA. Our strong focus on the bottom quintile of the wealth distribution graph will have a great impact in the area as we will be serving to raise the lowest end of the spectrum. Sabio graduates will enter the high skilled workforce, move off the unemployment rolls and secure an economically advantageous career. Furthermore, a survey from the Kauffman Foundation found that Latinos and African Americans are highly inclined to start new businesses at a rate of 64% and 63% respectively. Therefore, in empowering our trainees with the technical skills necessary to build and execute on their ideas, we will actually be complimenting their already established desires to start new businesses. The technical training that will be provided by Sabio will allow Latinos, African Americans and women to overcome some of the existing barriers that they face in starting a new business. Facilitating their success in building their own businesses will create a synergistic and positive cyclical affect in creating more technology based, minority owned and minority driven companies that create more high quality jobs in LA
What are some of your organization’s most important achievements to date?
Sabio is a brand new organization and has therefore had little opportunity to record many achievements. However, our most noteworthy achievement is that we have already received inquiries from potential candidates for our bootcamp, including actual signups. This has been accomplished through simple messaging on Twitter and with no marketing spend.
In addition, we are happy to report that we have attracted attention from a number of key contacts not only in Los Angeles, but also Silicon Valley and other technology hubs. This includes some high level government agencies.
We have also organized an initial board under our California entity made up of the following individuals:
Christian Sanz: CTO and Founder of geekli.st
Jesse Saucedo: Project Coordinator, Los Angeles Housing Departments
Chantelle Silveira Co-Founder of Stealth Startup
Please identify any partners or collaborators who will work with you on this project.
The following partners have indicated that they are willing to interview our trainees should they have a need for entry level developers:
Crowd Smart – Santa Monica
Security Frameworks – Marina Del Rey
Putnam Recruiting Group – El Segundo
Marsko – Palos Verdes
Stealth Startup - Chantelle Silveira, Co-Founder
In addition, we have a number of local tech community members identified that we will reach out to for mentorship. We have also secured speakers to discuss specific topics that relate to tech start-ups, such as securing venture capital, product development, design, quality assurance, and interview preparation.
Please explain how you will evaluate your project. How will you measure success?
The nature of our project lends itself to a set of simple success metrics.
1) The number of trainees completing our training program: This number will tell us how well our selection and screening process is progressing.
2) The number of trainees receiving offers of employment from companies in the tech industry: This number will reflect the quality of our training.
3) The ability of our trainees to retain employment in the tech industry: This will reflect the quality of our training as well as our post-graduation mentorship.
We are expecting to graduate approximately 90% of the people accepted into the program with 80% of original trainees receiving offers of employment.
At a more detailed and micro level we will:
1)Gather feedback from our trainees at least every week
2)Gauge trainee performance at project milestones to ensure they are actually learning the subject material
How will your project benefit Los Angeles?
Highlights:
Decrease the poverty rate by having more of our citizens not only employed but also employed in high paying careers
Decrease the unemployment & underemployment rate in LA by training the current population to fill existing jobs
Increase the number of companies & investors that choose LA as the home for their business
Increase the number of new tech jobs
Increase the median household income
Wealth distribution is significantly more balanced across households
Wealth distribution & median income increases leads to more revenue & business for other sectors of the economy
More tax dollars are collected
Each high tech jobs creates up to 4 other accompanying jobs
The lines that defined the bifurcated economic system that exists in LA are reduced and diminished
Currently, the greater LA metro area is striving to become the next Silicon Valley. In doing so, it is creating a large demand for high skilled technology workers. This makes it a critical period for the technology industry in LA. This industry cannot thrive unless there is an ample supply of qualified technical talent. Failure to support this industry will not only have a negative result on the number of tech jobs available in the area but also the number of companies that look to staff their tech departments in LA.
As things stand, a variety of tech based positions will go unfilled in the coming years due to the current shortage of qualified workers. This shortage is only expected to get worse.
A large STEM effort has been unleashed in the K-12 class rooms, including community colleges and four year universities. However, technology companies need trained technical staff today, not 4 to 12 years from now. Sabio will meet these demands by training individuals from LA to become entry level web programmers within 4 months.
This approach is practical and feasible and currently in place in other regions of the US. The benefits to the city and area are numerous. Providing a healthy pool of technical candidates for companies will encourage them to stay & at the same time incentivize entrepreneurs and capital, of many different sources, to start their new companies here.
Five years after graduating our target trainees are expected to be earning ~$100K/yr and contributing ~$58K/yr more into local economy and paying ~250% more taxes than in their previous career. Multiplying this number by 45, the number of estimated trainees in year 1, we can estimate that Sabio trainees will contribute close to $2.6M to the local economy.
Finally, the Local Jobs Multiplier chart, produced by the BACEI, captures a measure of the impact any one job has on the local economy by means of supporting other local job creation. High tech jobs have been found to create jobs at a rate of 4.3, meaning that any 1 high tech job will create 4.3 other jobs. Referencing this multiplier we can estimate that Sabio will help fill 45 jobs and create, indirectly, 193 other jobs yearly.
What would success look like in the year 2050 regarding your indicator?
In the year 2050, the economic impact of the high technology sector of Los Angeles dwindles that of the entertainment industry. Los Angeles is now the new center of technology in the United States. It is not only the home of the largest concentration of technologist, it is also the most diverse and therefore most innovative.
Outside business and Venture Capital consider Los Angeles first when starting new endeavors. Meanwhile, a strong entrepreneurial culture pervades the region. The largely Latino and African American population is empowered with the technical skills needed to start and build their small businesses.
After nearly 40 years of stressing technology literacy, Los Angeles now attracts the most talented individuals to the region. The migration of talent, young and old, out of Los Angeles, is a memory. This serves to further solidify our future economic standing in the nation.
Our continued focus on maintaining a well-trained and diverse high-tech workforce has erased most of the bifurcations that existed along ethnic or racial boundaries. The high-tech workforce now strongly mirrors the area’s demographics. The large number of technology jobs has also spurred a growth in supporting sectors, which serve to provide significant employment opportunities for the rest of the population.
This wealth of jobs across all sectors balances wealth distribution and raises the standard of living across the board. This is reflected in the lowest unemployment and poverty rates in the nation.