Students at Blue Ridge Community and Technical College prepare for careers in software development thanks to a partnership with local IT company

Technology Solutions Provider, Inc. (TSPi) has invested in an incubator program through Blue Ridge Community and Technical College (BRCTC) at its Morgan County Center location at the Pines Opportunity Center in Berkeley Springs, West Virginia. The program will prepare students for a career in software development through internships and on-the-job training. The investment by TSPi will create a pipeline of qualified candidates for employment and improve the area economy in the process. Funding also comes from a state-level grant program. An initial group of seven students was in the first cohort to complete the program and all have been hired by TSPi.

The partnership began in 2019 with three primary goals. First, to create a local incubator program where TSPi and BRCTC work together to train students in software development. Second, to provide those students with job opportunities, and third, to foster economic growth in local communities. Two top executives at TSPi, both of whom grew up in small towns, were motivated by the desire to improve the economic prospects in the area and show that not all tech companies need to be based in large urban centers. As Brad Wintermute, Vice President at TSPi explained in a release from BRCTC, "The idea to partner with BRCTC largely came from the backgrounds of the senior leadership at TSPi...It's no secret that many small towns in the US have lost local employers in recent years and the new digital-economy jobs have been primarily created in the larger metropolitan areas. But, we also knew that smart people aren't only found in the cities. Because of this we decided to work with BRCTC to create a partnership where the school, the students, and our company could all benefit together."

The first cohort of seven students to participate in the program recently graduated and all were hired as junior developers with TSPi. The students were selected based on their enrollment at BRCTC in Cyber Security, Mobile Application, or Software Development programs. Students also had to be able to work at least 32 hours weekly at TSPi. The company provided on-the-job training and flexible schedules allowing the students to complete their degree programs. West Virginia Learn and Earn provided a grant to help fund the collaboration. Cynthia Miller-Hull, BRCTC associate dean of career advancement, spoke about the mutually beneficial arrangement between TSPi, the college, and the state in an article published by The Journal, "That was a grant that was part of the glue that cemented this. It's been a real win-win for everybody. It's been a great success story, and it's been a lot of teamwork."

The CEO and President of TSPi, Vishal Suri, also spoke with The Journal, explaining how he personally benefited from the value that community colleges bring to small communities. Suri attended a community college in a small Virginia town where he earned an associate degree in IT, so he knows first-hand what small communities need, and what they have to offer. Suri said, "You can find good talent out of places like Blue Ridge or even smaller communities. We felt like Berkeley Springs was a more economically depressed area than Martinsburg. Something just clicked at that point. It's been fantastic."

In the release from BRTCT, Wintermute lauds the success of the program, "By creating opportunities for bright, hard-working people to learn, live, and work in a small-town environment we are making a positive impact on local lives, the local economy, and deliver results to our clients across the country every day. This program has been a tremendous success for TSPi, and we have gained several fantastic employees as a result. We deeply appreciate our partnership with BRCTC and the support from the state of West Virginia that has made this program possible. We look forward to further work together for years to come."