LA Tech Talent Pipeline flaunts successful six-month report card

Los Angeles – Bixel Exchange, the Center for Innovation and Technology at the LA Area Chamber of Commerce in partnership with Mayor Eric Garcetti, rolled out a six-month progress report on LA Tech Talent Pipeline, one of two core programs, on February 6, 2018.

Sean Arian, founder of Bixel Exchange, reported 100 people employed during the first launch of the program, a challenge tasked by Mayor Eric Garcetti.

With over 14,000 tech establishments in Los Angeles alone, the need for more tech skills in various fields have only increased. The IT industry is a lucrative one, boasting positive trajectories and current yearly salary averages that could drastically upgrade anyone managing minimum wages. Bixel Exchange realized an opportunity to fill in the need for tech companies by working with promising candidates, despite their resume, to become what top companies were looking for.

Billy Chun, Deputy Mayor of Economic Development, noted that the participants could achieve “economic mobility” in this program. Its six-month report card proved how over 4,000 engaged participants were provided the resources to begin to improve their economic status.

LA Tech Talent Pipeline partnered with over 50 companies, including Riot Games, LinkedIn, Mitú and Snap Inc, to connect underrepresented populations to the Information Technology sector.

Foster youth, formerly incarcerated individuals, students at community colleges and those with low income were trained and selected for hire to fill tech internship positions across the city at no cost to businesses. An impressive 42% of those utilizing the program were female, which LA City and Bixel Exchange representatives note is in stark contrast to the 25% of women who held “computing jobs”, as stated in the Women In Tech study just two years ago.

Bixel Exchange is a pioneer, clarifying technological career paths in a workforce climate that tends to favor administrative, law enforcement and medical fields.

City Councilmembers Monica Rodriguez, 7th District, Marqueece Harris-Dawson, 8th District and Mike Bonin, 11th District, spoke to the diversity of Los Angeles, the need to connect the business sector to talent and how LA has developed a history of investing in the workforce. Also offering praise were some of Bixel’s partners, including Data360, Boingo, and Microsoft.

In 2018, goals for Bixel Exchange are to get 8,000 participants and 200 people employed, which is double the results from the first six months.

The LA Tech Talent Pipeline is currently seeking private sector support to continue their progress. For more information, please visit bixelexchange.com. See us trend on Twitter - #LATechTalent