Building a Black Tech Workforce in St. Louis

The present moment, with its global focus on racial justice along with a regional recognition of the need for a bigger tech workforce, provides a powerful opportunity for BDPA (formerly Black Data Processing Associates) and LaunchCode to make real progress on growing the number of Black technologists in St. Louis. Join us in cooperative outreach to employers to advocate for hiring Black tech apprentices; 150+ vetted Black graduates or enrollees of LaunchCode's free tech training programs are ready to put their skills to work.

The BDPA / LaunchCode pipeline of Black technologists ready for work far exceeds that of Missouri's higher education institutions.

40 Black candidates are skilled and pre-vetted as job ready today. These are people who successfully completed one of LaunchCode's technical skilling programs and another job-readiness component that develops interview skills, live coding skills and a finished application or project.

52 Black learners are presently enrolled in ongoing St. Louis job-focused training programs. These people are learning tech skills in LaunchCode's flagship LC101 program or our women-focused CoderGirl program and will soon be ready for job placement.

While applications are still open and numbers have not been finalized, two programs that begin in Q3 2020 are likely to add another 80 Black learners at minimum to the pipeline.