The Year Up program is a workforce development program that offers 6 months of workforce development training on top of completing college courses fully paid by the program as well as a 6 month internship period at a fortune 500 company. Where you end up interning has a lot to do with how well you perform in the first 6 months of training and classes. Year Up is committed to ensuring equitable access to economic opportunity, education, and justice for all young adults—no matter their background, income, or zip code. Employers face a growing need for talent while millions are left disconnected from the economic mainstream. These inequities only further perpetuate the Opportunity Divide that exists in our country—a divide that Year Up is determined and positioned to close. The fields they offer are Cyber Security, Data Analytics, Business, and help desk.
Year Up Benefits Include:
- Free Year Up tuition
- Eligible for college credit
- Student Services support
- Access to an alumni network
- Potential to be converted to a full time worker in a field of your interest
Personally, I heard about Year Up from a relative and she told me how it helped her son find a full time job working in cyber security. That was enough to interest me so I decided to apply. This program is only available in very few select colleges around the country and it just happens that the community college I went to (Northern Virginia Community College) was one of them.
Year Up has a points system where every week you could lose points for things like showing up late to classes or seminars, not dressing appropriately (work formal), or disorderly conduct. Every week you also get a stipend of around $100, money is money. The best thing about the program is that it gives you the potential to intern at a fortune 500 company and that is exactly what happened to me. I was selected to intern at GE and was very excited to start working for their digital sector. After interning at GE for 6 months I was converted full time just a day before graduating the program. GE is where I currently work as an Enterprise Application Engineer and I absolutely love it.
