Career Paths for Entry-Level IT Workers: Findings from the Per Scholas WorkAdvance Program

Publication Date: April 1, 2022
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  • Published: 2022

Introduction

Research Questions

  1. What are the requirements and prospects for help desk technician and IT field technician jobs?
  2. What are the characteristics and outcomes for individuals who started a training program targeting entry-level IT jobs?
  3. What are the potential benefits of offering training to prepare individuals for help desk technician and IT field technician jobs?

The information technology (IT) industry is one of the largest and fastest-growing industries in the country and the median annual wage for jobs in the field is higher than the median annual wage for all jobs described by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.[1] Given the generally promising industry outlook, it is important to understand whether it offers employment opportunities that could improve the economic mobility of workers with low incomes. This paper highlights a program targeted at such a population: IT training offered by Per Scholas, a nonprofit training and employment services provider in the Bronx, New York, as part of the WorkAdvance evaluation.[2]

The WorkAdvance model provides career readiness and occupational skills training, job placement, and retention and advancement services to unemployed and working adults earning low wages. Per Scholas’s WorkAdvance program was designed to prepare participants for entry-level IT jobs, including help desk technicians and IT field technician positions, helping them enter and advance in this career field. The Per Scholas WorkAdvance program led to large earnings gains over a roughly six- to eight-year follow-up period, according to MDRC’s evaluation.

These findings from the WorkAdvance evaluation suggest that Per Scholas’s WorkAdvance program resulted in substantial job and career advancement. This paper investigates this question further by describing the opportunities for advancement in two of the IT occupations targeted by the program. The included analyses look at potential advancement opportunities within the IT sector and show how much job advancement (measured by earnings) happened among program participants. The paper was completed as part of the Building Evidence on Employment Strategies (BEES) project.

 

[1]   Bureau of Labor Statistics, Computer and Information Technology Occupations: Occupational Outlook Handbook (Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Labor, 2020).

[2] WorkAdvance was originally implemented as part of a 2010 Social Innovation Fund Grant to the Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City and the Mayor’s Office for Economic Opportunity (NYC Opportunity). The model was implemented by four providers in New York, Ohio, and Oklahoma.

Purpose

The promising outlook for the IT field as a sector projected to add jobs makes it important to understand whether there are employment opportunities in IT that could improve the economic mobility of adults who are unemployed or looking for higher-wage jobs. Policymakers and practitioners looking to implement sector programs may learn from this analysis as they consider whether their programs should also target entry-level IT jobs.

Key Findings and Highlights

Findings from this analysis show:

  • Most help desk technician and IT field technician jobs require some training beyond a high school diploma or GED, but not a college degree. These education requirements may make these jobs accessible to a wider pool of individuals than other jobs that require more education.
  • Most participants completed Per Scholas’s WorkAdvance IT training and obtained an industry-recognized certification. These are necessary first steps to finding an IT job.
  • However, some participants did not obtain IT jobs. A little over a third of participants who started Per Scholas’s WorkAdvance IT training did not obtain an IT job, including some participants who completed the training and obtained an industry-recognized certification.
  • The IT sector offers many opportunities for advancement. Workers can follow many different career paths. Additional certifications are typically required to advance into higher-level jobs.
  • Many participants who started Per Scholas’s WorkAdvance IT training increased their earnings over time. These earnings increases were due to participants transitioning from not working to working, working more consistently, or working jobs with more hours or higher earnings.

Methods

This paper draws on publicly available labor market data and information about IT career requirements and paths. It also utilizes several sources of data from the WorkAdvance evaluation, including a baseline survey, program tracking data, a two-year follow-up survey, unemployment insurance wage data provided by the New York State Department of Labor, and data from the National Directory of New Hires (a national database of wage and employment information overseen by the federal Office of Child Support Enforcement within the Administration for Children and Families). All of the analyses in this paper are considered descriptive and do not represent the causal effects of Per Scholas’s WorkAdvance program.

Citation

Schaberg, Kelsey and Affiong Ibok 2022. Career Paths for Entry-Level IT Workers: Findings from the Per Scholas WorkAdvance Program. OPRE Report 2022-25. Washington, DC: Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Glossary

Career Paths:
Career paths are a sequence of jobs within a given industry or sector that rely on similar skills. Each sequential job in a career path has higher skill requirements and is associated with a higher average salary.