The workforce initiative designed to aide early career adults from underserved communities in finding transformative career opportunities betwen GE, Workforce Opportunity Services, and the University of Michigan-Dearborn began in March 2015. Under this recruitment and training partnership, WOS pre-certified candidates through an extensive vetting and interview process. Chosen from a pool of 210 applicants, 11 highly motivated young adults took part in an intensive academic training and work-study program in order to go on to full-time jobs at GE as Java developers.
The selected candidates completed a 34-week academic training and part-time work program which was divided into three semesters. This specific Java Development was conducted at the University of Michigan-Dearborn campus by UM-Dearborn faculty while the part-time work at GE began in June 2015.
“This program has grown the future pool of skilled software development workers in the Detroit area,” said Joy Fewell, CIO - GE Capital Advanced Manufacturing and Software Technology Center. “We are so proud of our graduates and what they have accomplished in such a short time.”
Dr. William Grosky, Professor and Chair of the Department of Computer and Information Science at the University of Michigan-Dearborn, commended the graduates for their resiliency and determination throughout the entire program. “We are extremely proud of the 11 graduates of the Java Development Program. These graduates successfully negotiated several disparate courses in the program, which were all quite technical in nature," said Dr. Grosky. "The success of these students is due, in no small part, to the excellent instructors who participated in this program, as well as to the unstinting support of WOS and GE. The special synergy generated by all participants was essential to the success of this program and bodes very well for the continued success of the students in their new careers as software developers.”
Learn more about our partnership with GE by downloading our case study.