The CompTIA Educational Foundation's “Creating Futures” program was initiated to provide underserved populations with access to quality training and employment opportunities in the IT career field. The program also aims to increase the diversity of this workforce. As such, the program has been tailored for four specific groups: transitioning veterans, dislocated workers, youth at risk, and persons with disabilities.

According to Dennis Zimmerman, director of the CompTIA Educational Foundation, as many as 200,000 veterans are leaving the military per year. The size of this group, combined with technical and ethical training they have received, makes them ideal candidates for this program. Creating Futures is also working with many organizations, such as Wounded Warriors (www.woundedwarriors.org), to provide training to disabled veterans. While the G.I. Bill can be applied to any of the services provided by the CompTIA Educational Foundation, the Creating Futures program provides another way to access these services at no cost.

Paul Slomski, CompTIA Educational Foundation business development manager, states the first class to have successfully completed the program was a group of 12 members of the U.S. Navy from the Naval Air Station Jacksonville in Jacksonville, Fla. New Horizons was contracted as part of this pilot program to provide on-site instruction. At the end of the training, each veteran received a diploma for the industry-recognized, vendor-neutral “CompTIA A+” certification. In addition to training and certification, the program helps participants secure internships and full-time employment.

Peter Chatham, participant of the program from the U.S. Navy, stated, “The program is great, because it teaches you the most up-to-date computer information. It also has smaller class sizes, which also helps with the learning process.”

Another program participant from the U.S. Navy, Steve Scrambling, said, “I applied to participate in the Creating Futures program in pursuit of a commercial certification to support my experience in computer applications and networking.” He added, “After 20 years in the U.S. Navy, the Creating Futures program provided me the opportunity to capture my years of military experience while meeting trade needs at the same time.”

To date, 47 veterans have completed the program or are enrolled in online training. For example, a small number of active-duty personnel stationed in Germany are using online training in IT skills in advance of their planned discharge from the service in early 2008. The goal is to expand such programs as the Jacksonville and online training programs to train 200 or more transitioning military personnel a year, and to duplicate the program in other cities with large military presence. For more information, visit www.creatingfutures.us.

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