For 27 years, the Midwest-based tech boot camp i.c.stars has trained hundreds of people earning at or near poverty-level wages and helped them land higher paying roles. The training provider boasts a 75% placement rate with employers, and in the last 10 cohorts, participants’ salaries increased from an average of $24K annually to more than $53K.

Key to the success of i.c.stars has been its ability to not just teach tech skills, but also durable workplace skills—and to connect participants to a network of employers ready to hire them. But a changing economic landscape and declining entry-level tech jobs are forcing the organization to get more creative about engaging employers and finding ways for its participants to get vital work experience. 

“You’ve got companies laying people off in droves,” says Karin Norington-Reaves, CEO of i.c.stars. “Every company is grappling with ‘how much am I leaning on AI versus real humans, and at what level do I need people?’”

The Big Idea: The market for tech jobs has been tough in recent years, with investments in AI leading to “diamond-shaped” hiring where middle-skill jobs are more in demand than entry-level ones. For tech trainers like i.c.stars, it’s an added challenge in getting people—many of whom don’t have degrees—into well-paid jobs in the industry.

Entry-Level to Middle-Skill

To help participants get work experience, i.c.stars is leaning even more into project-based and gig work. Over the course of the 14-week program, participants are divided into groups to work on a tech solution for a local company. Past project sponsors include Medline Industries, Accenture, United Airlines, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Molson Coors, and Pfizer. While the baseline goal is to get the participants experience, the sponsors have often extended job offers at the end of the program, too. 

“We have had sponsors hire people based on their project, and we have had sponsors ask folks to come back and actually take that concept to market,” Norington-Reaves says. “It’s such a powerful learning tool. It teaches folks about project management, being a scrum master, and teamwork.”

United Airlines is the top employer for graduates of the program, with nearly 50 employed, followed by Accenture, with 24. 

On the Ground: The current cohort in Chicago is working on a solution to optimize the hiring process and create job descriptions for the property investment company Ventas, Inc. Avory Banks, 39, is one of the participants. He has been surprised by how much training he’s receiving on leadership, alongside tech skills, including through the project with Ventas. 

“I’m having to exercise workplace tactics and things I didn’t expect,” Banks says. “Trying to accomplish a goal like this with five people who have different levels of tech knowledge and competencies, different levels of communication—we have two immigrants on our team where English is not their native language—it gives me an opportunity to practice the leadership skills they’re giving us.”

The projects also help participants prepare to take on entrepreneurial ventures when they graduate if full-time jobs are not there. Another participant in the Chicago cohort, Brandon Harris, 40, says starting his own business is his backup plan if he doesn’t land a job. Unlike many participants, Harris has a bachelor’s degree in marketing, but a past incarceration has made it difficult for him to get certain kinds of jobs. He’s hoping to leverage his time at i.c.stars to expand his network. 

The network has been crucial to many participants and alumni who would have otherwise found themselves locked out of tech jobs. Brandies Meva’a, program manager at i.c.stars Chicago, is also an alum, completing the program in 2006. Before she joined the program, she had dropped out of college due to a family emergency. She worked at a telemarketing company and was laid off. She later worked as a receptionist at a nonprofit but didn’t find it fulfilling. 

After completing the program at i.c.stars, she went on to work for a global human resources company. When the company was acquired, she teamed up with another alum from 2008 and they founded a digital marketing agency that grew to $750K in revenue and operated until the pandemic. 

“i.c.stars has found success in finding markets and opportunities where you can be self-trained and build expertise without necessarily having to go the traditional educational path,” Meva’a says.

Leveraging the Network

Meva’a is now back at i.c.stars working with current participants, teaching workplace and durable skills like emotional intelligence. On a recent morning, Meva’a led classes on how to be civic leaders who push for social change and how to regulate emotions in the workplace. Wellness is a new focus for i.c.stars since the pandemic, and participants say it’s helping them understand workplace dynamics better—a crucial skill in landing and staying in a job. 

Regular Meet-and-Greets: Meva’a found her way back to i.c.stars through a well-known networking event the group calls High Tea. Each weekday during a program cycle, business and tech executives are invited to mingle with participants and get to know them. It’s also one of the organization’s most effective ways to engage with employers.

Mark Cribb, a business intelligence architect at Marcus Theatres in Milwaukee, where i.c.stars also operates, first met one of the company’s interns at a High Tea event. Cribb knew about i.c. stars’ work from a previous job at Milwaukee Area Technical College, which was developing a formal partnership to bridge the nonprofit’s training to a degree program. 

At Marcus Theatres, Cribb stayed connected and met a young program alum at a High Tea event and subsequent StarBash, an i.c.stars networking event and fundraiser. Her work with Molson Coors for her cohort project caught his attention and he quickly got his employer on board. “The connection just drew itself,” he says. 

“There’s value in someone who’s taken an alternative path, who’s had some life experience and tried a few things that didn’t work out,” Cribb says. “They’re hungry to change their life and turn things around, and this gives them the opportunity to do that. They demonstrate resilience and drive and ambition.”

The company’s goal is to convert the intern into a full-time salaried role, though that hasn’t happened yet. 

Credential Conundrum: Cribb also hopes Marcus Theatres will become more involved with i.c.stars, perhaps sponsoring a project like the one with Ventas. The company is among a growing number of employers that don’t require degrees for entry-level technology roles. And for higher-level roles, degrees are preferred, but equivalent experience can be considered in their place.

“My perspective has always been that I would look at people’s capability over their credentials,” Cribb says. “But then also there’s a point at which the credentials do become important.”

That challenge—that workers can get on a career ladder, but not move up—has become more pressing even as skills-first hiring and internal training gain ground. i.c.stars provides additional training and covers exam costs for certificates, including Microsoft AI, and various CompTIA certifications that might give alumni an extra edge. Norington-Reaves says the goal is to help participants get on career pathways, not just get the initial job.

Convincing employers that credentials aren’t everything is a challenge. 

“Sometimes it’s just people’s own biases and perceptions about what it means to bring on someone with a non-traditional background,” Norington-Reaves says. “But access matters, and having an internal champion matters.”

The organization just has to find more people like Mark Cribb.