Initiative offers free professional development courses for job seekers

Nashville is losing valuable tech talent

It’s no secret that it has been a difficult job market in tech for the past 18+ months. In particular, job openings for junior-level talent have been much harder to come by than at any time in at least 15 years. While our grads continue to find opportunities, we’re witnessing a massive leak in Middle Tennessee’s tech talent pipeline that risks negatively impacting the tech talent supply for years into the future. 

There are many factors that have contributed to the slowdown in tech hiring and uncertainty remains regarding the timing of a recovery in the job market. Each month, promising tech job seekers, not just NSS grads, abandon their job searches due to frustration over extended job searches and the need to support themselves and their families. And many of those who don’t abandon their job searches find it difficult to keep their skills sharp enough to compete and stand out in today’s highly competitive job market. The loss of this talent isn’t just a loss when the job market restarts, it’s a gap that will impact the community for years to come due to the smaller numbers of juniors available to grow into the senior talent of tomorrow.

NSS has played an important role in building Middle Tennessee’s tech talent pipeline. In anticipation of the upcoming recovery, we want to do our part to preserve the supply of available tech talent through our Protect The Tech Talent Pipeline (ProTech) initiative.

“NSS graduates contribute significantly to the local economy by filling critical roles in companies of all sizes, from startups to established enterprises. The skills and knowledge they gain at NSS empower them to contribute meaningfully to the success of their employers and, by extension, to the growth of our region's technology sector,” states Chris Cochran, CEO of Freightwise. “ProTech not only benefits job seekers who have already invested time and money into starting a career in tech, it benefits employers who had to pause hiring of junior-level talent.”

ProTech offers free classes to job seekers

ProTech is designed to support junior and intermediate tech job seekers in maintaining their competitive edge in the job market and sustain engagement in their job search. The first offerings from ProTech are free professional development courses for job seekers. Through these courses, seekers can learn new skills to differentiate themselves in the job market and stay connected to a supportive community until the job market recovers—all while keeping their existing skills sharp. 

ProTech classes will be free to qualified individuals who have existing entry-level tech skills in software development, data analytics, or data science. The new professional development classes will provide advanced technical skill training for job-ready adults, with existing entry-level tech skills, who are searching for their first tech job or are unemployed due to layoffs in the tech industry. Students must reside in Middle Tennessee, but do not need to be a graduate of NSS. More details on eligibility for free classes and how to apply will be shared on our website in early 2025.

Free continuing ed classes are not a new thing for NSS - this year we were able to provide free additional training to 95 of our own seekers. One example is our creation of a new front-end development class for graduates of the server-side only Software Engineering with Java/AWS Specialization (SE) course. The shifts in the job market favor junior developers with full stack skills - in fact we’d seen that SE graduates who added front-end skills were being more successful in their job searches. So last month we launched a free front-end class for our SE  Seekers. The free class was well received by our Seekers and over 20 SE graduates enrolled in the class.

What’s new with ProTech is that we have the resources to expand our program significantly both in terms of the number of job seekers we can support as well as the range of classes available. Our goal with ProTech is to help over 300 seekers in 2025-2026. New classes will focus on in-demand skills based on our job market research and input from job seekers and local employers.

Grants help make new programs free

ProTech is made possible by a grant from a Tennessee foundation and a two-year grant from the Tennessee Department of Economic & Community Development (ECD) as part of the Digital Skills, Education, and Workforce Development grants program. The foundation grant is providing the funds to complete the research into the competencies and skills that will be the most valuable based on needs identified by local employers as well as fund curriculum development. The ECD grant will reimburse us for the costs associated with delivering the professional development classes to job seekers - both NSS graduates as well as others with existing tech skills.  (You can learn more about the grant from Tennessee ECD here.) 

The support from these organizations could not have come at a better time for NSS. We’re excited about the impact these grants will have on those just starting their tech career and those trying to stay in tech and honored that Nashville Software School remains a trusted partner on that journey by our students, alumni, and the community. 

The research work to identify the most valuable skills and competencies has already started. Course development for new professional development classes addressing these skills and competencies will follow. We expect to announce the initial new classes during first quarter 2025 and start delivering the first of the new classes in the second and third quarters of 2025. Existing NSS professional development classes will also be offered under the terms of the ProTech program starting in the first quarter of 2025. 

While we wait for tech job hiring to pick up, we will continue to do what NSS does best - provide opportunities to learn the skills needed for a career in tech and support our graduates during their job search. 

Want to join us in Protecting the Tech Talent Pipeline? Join our year-end giving campaign campaign and help us keep DataCamp free for our students. Learn more and give here.