Looking Back on 7 Years of Elevating People, Companies and Communities
Editor’s note: This article was originally published to Anthony Hughes’ LinkedIn here.
It’s hard to believe that it has already been seven years since Tech Elevator was founded. Back then we couldn’t have imagined how this incredible journey would unfold and how much impact we would have helping transform the lives and careers of our students. It all started in 2015 at our first “campus”, in a 900-square-foot office, with a class of six daring individuals willing to take a chance on their futures. Today we have 8 physical campus locations, an online program serving learners across North America and we’re just getting started!
As the years have passed, Tech Elevator’s commitment to its mission of “elevating people, companies and communities” has only grown stronger, and we are exceedingly grateful for how far we’ve come. Today we’re a team of over 100 passionate and purpose-driven people who have supported more than 2,500 graduates begin their careers in technology. These graduates came to us with no background in technology, little to no experience in the field of computer programming, and they transformed their lives with the help of our program. We couldn’t be more proud of our students; their courage and successful transformation are something that we draw meaning and inspiration from each and every day, and the feeling we get when we see them achieve their goals is unlike any other.
Looking Back: Tech Elevator’s 2022 Achievements
Much like our program’s participants, this past year has seen some incredible achievements. These achievements have been shared by both our students as well as our team at Tech Elevator. Below are a few that we chose to highlight from the past 12 months.
- We’ve grown our Alumni Network to over 2,900. In the past year, we saw our enrollment increase by 22 percent. More and more students are seeking out and finding Tech Elevator because of the reputation that we continue to build and how we stand apart from the broader coding bootcamp industry. And because of the commitment we have to delivering student success, one of every two incoming students is a direct result of a referral.
- We’ve expanded our hiring network to over 700 companies. In the last 12 months, as our existing hiring partners have continued to hire Tech Elevator talent, we continue to add to our hiring network. More hiring companies mean more great career destinations for our grads and we’ve been proud to add the likes of PayPal, Google, Amazon, Visa, Twilio, IBM, Charles Schwab, American Airlines, Capital One, and many more to an already amazing group of companies.
- We’ve been able to maintain the strongest performance outcomes in the industry. Even as our output has grown, we’ve been able to do what no other company in the industry has done before, and that is to maintain our over 90 percent graduation and placement rates. While better-known brands have engaged in deceptive marketing practices to gloss over their true performance, we have stayed true to transparent and audited outcomes through CIRR.org.
- We’ve continued to help companies reskill their employees into technology roles. We’re proud to partner with leading talent organizations who are willing to be bold when it comes to investing in their people. Through our growing enterprise capabilities, last year we reskilled hundreds of employees for leading companies such as KeyBank, JP Morgan Chase and Kohls.
- We launched our Part-Time Program. As part of our commitment to increase accessibility, Tech Elevator launched its part-time program in April 2022. Students unable to attend the full-time program now have access to the Tech Elevator’s program in a more flexible, part-time option conducted over a period of 30 weeks.
- We reopened our campus classrooms and our doors to the communities we call home. While the silver lining of the pandemic was that it proved that we could deliver industry-leading outcomes online, and while we will continue to do so with our National Live Remote program, we’re so excited to support and interact with students who want to learn in-person once more. In May our campuses reopened after more than two years (and a thorough clean!)
- We celebrated the two-year anniversary of Represent Tech. Tech Elevator’s Represent Tech Scholarship furthers our commitment to increase accessibility to underrepresented groups in tech. Since then, we’ve experienced significant growth in the diversity of our student body, and with the help of our partners we’ve awarded over $1.1M in scholarship funds to nearly 100 future leaders in tech.
Looking Ahead: The Best Is Yet to Come
As we look ahead we can be truly excited for what the future holds – our momentum continues to build alongside our reputation and because of that we’ll have even more opportunities to amplify our impact and continue achieving our mission of elevating people, companies and communities. On a personal note, I count myself incredibly lucky to have had the opportunity to help build Tech Elevator from the ground up and to still lead the company today. I won’t deny that the work has been hard, but I’ve never experienced anything near as personally rewarding in my career. None of our success would be possible without our brave students and without the exceptional team we’ve assembled at Tech Elevator – our vision and our sense of what’s possible keep building because of the ideas, innovations and incredible dedication that each new team member brings to elevate what we do.
Together we’ve achieved some extraordinary things, but I’m certain that the best is still to come!
