Originally published by CIO

The importance of creating opportunity

Despite reported skills gaps, there is no shortage of talented, smart, and eager candidates to fill IT roles. Many just need the chance to gain the right training to build relevant skills for the industry. IBM’s SkillsBuild creates this opportunity by being accessible — it’s free and digital — and through partnerships such as HHF, which encourages its members to gain IT certifications through the platform.

“It’s creating direct pathways to tech jobs. Certifications go a long way when you are looking for a job — that’s the obvious way — but it also goes a long way to giving you confidence that you belong in this industry, and that gets left out a lot,” says Tijerino.

Tijerno says that it was also important to the HHF that the courses offered through the SkillsBuild platform were accessible to a range of professionals, as well as students.

“We wanted to provide these opportunities and trainings for our community to make an impact and we’re really grateful to IBM for allowing us to leverage their expertise and pathways in preparing our community for these jobs that America desperately needs to fill, and Latinos have always been ready to do it,” says Tijerino.

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