Our programs and services consist of four foundational strategic goals underpinning our overall operations
Goal #1 – Knowledge/Job Skills Initiative: Upskilling
The goal here is to provide participants with the expansion of knowledge needed to gain access to specific professional career tracts by providing them access to trainings organized by Vocational Scholars or through partner organizations. If need be, we would pay for our participants to take courses that we may not offer if it is deemed to be the better option.
We have a number of specific areas available now and plan on adding additional ones. Currently, our participants can receive career counseling, training for certifications/upskilling, and mentoring in these areas (some of them would be outsourced and some would be provided in-house by Vocational Scholars):
Information Technology
- Entry-level IT staff (IT boot-camp – introduction to basic concepts and practices)
- IT helpdesk admin (A+ certification)
- Network admin (Network+ certification)
- Network engineer (Cisco certifications)
- DBA (database administrator certifications)
- AI engineer
- Cloud computing engineer
- And more
Cybersecurity and IT Audit
- Security engineer (CISSP))
- IT auditor (CISA)
- Information security manager (CISM)
- PCI DSS assessor (PCIP)
- Cloud security engineer (CCSP, CCSK)
- Cybersecurity analyst
- Cybersecurity architect
- Cybersecurity GRC specialist
- And More
Project Management
- Project manager (Project Management Institute certification: PMP)
- Scrum Master
- And more
Goal #2 – Hands-On Experience
The goal here is to provide participants with critical job skills and on-the-job practical experience in specific professional career specialities. The offering here includes the following, among others;
External Placements with Partners
- Internships
- Apprenticeships
- On-the-job training sessions
Vocational Scholars ‘Work-Outlets’
- Internal operations of the organization
- Vocational Scholars websites (underdevelopment)
- Vocational/business networking website – modeled after LinkedIn (under development)
- Business news website (under development)
- Paid internships (internally and with participating organizations as clients)
Goal #3 – Support Services for Participants
Our support services for participants are intended to help them navigate the difficulties / challenges of workplace activities to emerge with highly successful careers and become mentors to others;
Mentoring
- Involves pairing Program Participants with mentors in specific career areas / about one year commitment from volunteer mentors.
- Also getting advanced participants to mentor others.
Career counseling/guidance
- Features one-on-one sessions to help participants decide on their specific career choices.
- Making the various options available to participants so they can make informed decisions on career pathways and advancements.
Legal services for participants
- This would involve assistance for job related legal needs, advice and routine legal issues that may hamper the participant’s ability to function effectively in the workplace.
- The legal assistance, for example, would help participants with any of the following (and more): review employment contracts, obtain labor rights protection, review real estate contracts, help with business registration for upcoming entrepreneurs / incorporation, tax preparations, etc
Grants/scholarships
- With the help of our donors, we plan to provide grants and scholarships to participants to enable access to career or business opportunities that may not be available to them because of their background.
Consolidated Resources Centers
- This group of services would be aimed at providing information to participants to help in finding opportunities. We would deploy resources for researching, finding and publishing a database of job-related / skill-based opportunities and providing participants with:
- Resume assistance
- Job placements
- Interviewing skills practice
- Budgeting and financial advice / financial stability Workshops
- Business clothing / attire
- Miscellaneous: any other relevant job-related issues not covered above
Goal #4 – Professional Services
We offer professional and staffing services to various clients. While providing world-class value for our customers, these services would enable our participants to gain access to a wide range of opportunities. They would then be able to get into roles and obtain the requisite job skills and experience to pursue successful professional careers. The service offerings include the following:
Tech support to non-profits:
- Involves offering free support / staff-augmentation services to selected non-profit.
- Theses services would be sponsored by donations so the Program Participants (Vocational Scholars) can get paid
IT and cybersecurity consulting and contracting:
- Would involve various roles, such as
- IT auditors
- Cybersecurity analysts
- Systems administrators
- Database administrators
- PCI DSS assessors
- IT managers
- Information security managers
- IT project managers
Office and administrative support services
- In roles performing various critical administrative functions in an organizations daily operations.
Other areas
- As defined by partnerships with employers and business leaders.
Examples of job opportunities we prepare participants for include: systems administrator, security analyst, IT Helpdesk, cloud engineer, AI engineer, cybersecurity engineer, IT project manager, scrum master, marketing officer, business administrator (human resources, payroll), social media experts, data storage specialist, data analyst, security assessor, IT auditor, vendor risk manager, and more.