How Cloud for Good Cultivated a Skilled and Future-Ready Tech Workforce

Asheville, North Carolina | Small business
Apprenticeship established 2022

Cloud for Good is a leading global cloud consultancy, empowering mission-driven organizations with transformative tech solutions. Their services support nonprofit organizations, higher education institutions, and the public sector in raising funds, delivering better programs and services, and communicating more effectively with their constituents.

Focusing on how technology can help mission-driven organizations, Cloud for Good found that many of its clients lacked the skilled workers to manage and maintain the technology solutions it delivered. Clients faced the following challenges:

• limited pool of candidates with appropriate training, experience, or certifications
• lack of diverse candidates
• lengthy hiring processes
• increased recruiting costs
• difficulty retaining skilled talent
• candidates with little to no industry experience

To better meet clients’ needs and help create pathways into careers in tech, Cloud for Good launched their Talent for Good registered apprenticeship initiative. The initiative first hires and trains apprentices to have all the skills and experience needed to manage Salesforce technology solutions, and then places them with clients.

Cloud for Good’s apprenticeship journey began in 2022 with support from the Urban Institute to design and register its Salesforce Administrator apprenticeship program. The roughly two-year program consists of three phases: 400 hours of technical instruction, certification, and 4,000 hours of on-the-job experience.

During the apprenticeship program, apprentices spend three months learning technical industry skills before taking the certification exam. Once certified, apprentices then get assigned to work on real-world projects internally for Cloud for Good or as consultants for clients, gaining hands-on experience until they’ve mastered the job and completed 4,000 hours of training.

With the right kind of training and mentorship, individuals with no previous tech experience started contributing to projects and adding value for the company and clients within three months, explained founder and CEO Tal Frankfurt during an Urban Institute event.

Since launching their first cohort in 2022, Cloud for Good has hired and trained over 50 apprentices, with a retention rate of 88 percent among apprentices placed into client work. At the end of their training, 70 percent of apprentices are hired by clients—proof that apprentices graduate with both the skills and knowledge to excel in a real work environment.

Originally, the program only recruited candidates with bachelor's degrees, but has since evolved to eliminate degree requirements without sacrificing candidate quality. Today, most of Cloud for Good’s apprentices come from groups underrepresented in tech. About 63 percent are women and 69 percent identify as Black, Indigenous, Latine, or a person of color. 

As a small business, Cloud for Good’s apprenticeship program is making a big impact on their business and their clients. The program has not only helped Cloud for Good expand their business, but it has also cultivated a skilled and future-ready tech workforce for them and their clients by creating new pathways into good tech jobs.

Apprentice Spotlight: Lia Burt

Lia Burt thought her future after college was in health care, but pandemic disruptions to the health care system prompted her to reevaluate. She had a strong foundation in data from her postsecondary studies, and after tracking client outcomes at a nonprofit job, Lia discovered a new passion: data analytics.

Cloud for Good’s Registered Apprenticeship Program was pivotal to turning that passion into a career change. Through the program, Burt gained hands-on experience as a Salesforce administrator, tackling real-life challenges in data integrity and automation that expanded her technical capabilities.

After three months of technical training at Cloud for Good, Burt was deployed as an apprentice embedded with an employer partner. She worked as a consultant analyst and applied her technical skills to manage accounts and streamline processes.

“[The program] gave me the confidence to be able to step into [the tech industry] in a professional Salesforce role.”

—Lia Burt
 

Recognizing her talent and impact, the employer partner offered Burt a full-time position upon the completion of her apprenticeship. Today, Burt leads data integrity, import, and automation efforts, driving efficiency and insights across the organization.

Burt is recognized by the US Department of Labor as a certified journey worker—a credential that indicates completion of an apprenticeship program—and holds industry certifications, allowing her to take her talents anywhere she wants to in her career.