Full-Time

Manager – Professional Development

Posted on 8/26/2025

Per Scholas

Per Scholas

1,001-5,000 employees

Nonprofit tech training and job placement

Compensation Overview

$55k - $60k/yr

Kansas City, MO, USA

Hybrid

PerScholas hires within the following states: AZ, CA, CO, FL, GA, IL, IN, KS, MD, MA, MI, MO, NC, NJ, NY, OH, PA, TX, WA

Category
Training
Required Skills
Salesforce
Requirements
  • 3-5 years of experience in workforce development with a specific background in job readiness coaching, or education
  • Experience in talent acquisition, organizational development, or adult learning in the tech sector, a plus
  • Demonstrated experience in adult classroom training and understanding of principles of classroom instruction
Responsibilities
  • Lead comprehensive career development training sessions using an approved curriculum to prepare learners for job attainment and entry into mid-level jobs in Information Technology.
  • Provide professional development coaching to learners in a diverse range of complex subjects, encompassing interviewing techniques, crafting resumes and cover letters, optimizing LinkedIn profiles, devising effective job search tactics, fostering workplace success, delivering career advancement training, and various other areas of expertise.
  • Utilize the Professional Development curriculum to prepare each learner to complete the job readiness assessment.
  • Offer remediation workshops and individual coaching sessions for learners needing extra support.
  • Take full ownership of the KPI (Key Performance Indicator) focused on job readiness.
  • Assist the learners with preparing their resumes for the job readiness assessment.
  • Accompany the learners to offsite corporate engagements and offsite events.
  • Manage a class size of up to 40 learners (the local class is connected to a satellite campus)
  • Serve as the primary point of contact for learner questions and issues.
  • Provide ongoing individual career counseling to learners.
  • Ensure accurate data management in our CRM system.
  • Collaborate with technical instructors to prepare learner evaluations.
  • Participate in cross-departmental learner progress meetings with other departments.
  • Oversee learner resume uploads into Salesforce.
  • Manage learner attendance and performance policies, including communication with learners not meeting program compliance requirements.
  • Accompany learners off-site campus to corporate engagement site visits, mock interviews, networking events, and lunch and learn with employer partners.
  • Collaborate with the learner support team to provide wellness and financial support to learners.
  • Assist individuals in identifying and planning their career paths, aligning their skills and aspirations with available opportunities.
  • Offer advice on professional development opportunities, training programs, and skill enhancement to aid in career advancement.
  • Collaborate with Talent Solutions to recommend graduates for specific job requisitions, leveraging insights into individual skills and talents.
  • Conduct one-on-one sessions to address career concerns, strategize career goals, and provide ongoing support throughout their professional journey within the organization.
  • Facilitate connections with relevant stakeholders, mentors, and departments to broaden career prospects and opportunities.
  • Maintain accurate records of career advisement sessions and contribute to reports evaluating the success of career development initiatives.
Desired Qualifications
  • Experience with Salesforce, Google Suite, and Learning Management Systems (LMS) preferred
  • You thrive in a creative, inventive, fast-paced startup environment with people who are passionate about their work and mission.
  • You are not afraid to make tough decisions or have tough conversations with learners.
  • You are data-driven, results-oriented, and a forward-looking catalyst for social change.
  • You are a resourceful thinker.
  • You have a collaborative and flexible work style. You’re excited to work cross-functionally with other departments and independently.
  • You are an effective communicator with strong oral and written skills.
  • You are tech-savvy and can learn quickly.
  • You are strong at managing your time, and you can balance multiple projects and tasks.
  • You stand behind our mission, believing that individuals from any community should have access to well-paying career positions, and that talent should be recognized and recruited from many diverse sources.

Per Scholas is a nonprofit that provides tuition-free technology training and career development services to people from underserved communities. It partners with businesses to address tech talent gaps by delivering customized upskilling and reskilling programs for new entrants and existing employees, across IT, cybersecurity, software development, analytics, and more. The training typically includes interviews prep, resume coaching, and mock interviews to prepare graduates for the job market, and the organization assists with job placement by leveraging corporate partnerships. Unlike for-profit training providers, Per Scholas funds its programs through corporate sponsorships, grants, and donations, and adds value for employers by delivering job-ready graduates and tailored training. Its goal is to expand access to tech careers for diverse candidates while helping companies fill technical skills gaps with qualified hires.

Company Size

1,001-5,000

Company Stage

Grant

Total Funding

$5.4M

Headquarters

New York City, New York

Founded

1994

Simplify Jobs

Simplify's Take

What believers are saying

  • Bell Techlogix hired seven graduates since 2024, advancing faster than other talent.
  • Ascendium partnership aligns curriculum to AI, cybersecurity, cloud by March 2026.
  • New board members Charles Song, Paul Bajus boost fundraising for 25,000 trainees by 2030.

What critics are saying

  • Rapid expansion to Kansas City, Orlando dilutes quality, drops employment below 80%.
  • Short-term grants like $375,000 Mellon create funding cliffs in 18-36 months.
  • YearUp, Generation steal partnerships with faster 6-10 week programs in 6-12 months.

What makes Per Scholas unique

  • Per Scholas offers tuition-free tech training solely for underserved communities since 1995.
  • Satellite campuses like Pittsburgh Mon Valley target suburban gaps with local partnerships.
  • Zero Percent Loans from Social Finance cover living expenses during 12-15 week programs.

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Benefits

Hybrid Work Options

Company News

Per Scholas
Mar 10th, 2026
Per Scholas Announces Partnership with Ascendium Education Group to Advance Economic Mobility

Per Scholas announces partnership with Ascendium Education Group to advance economic mobility. March 10, 2026 Per Scholas is proud to announce a continuation of its partnership with Ascendium Education Group, a nonprofit committed to helping learners from low-income backgrounds achieve their career goals. Through this investment, Ascendium is supporting Per Scholas as Per Scholas, Inc scale its proven tech workforce training model nationwide. The partnership will expand immersive training programs, strengthen work-based learning opportunities, and help ensure long-term sustainability, enabling more learners to access high-growth careers in technology. As demand for talent accelerates in areas such as Artificial Intelligence, Cybersecurity, Cloud Computing, and Data Center operations, employers are seeking candidates with both technical proficiency and applied experience. Ascendium's support will help Per Scholas keep its curriculum aligned to evolving industry needs while deepening hands-on learning through employer-led projects, apprenticeships, and other experiential models that prepare learners to contribute from day one. "Scale requires more than resources - it requires shared belief in what is possible," said Plinio Ayala, Chief Executive Officer of Per Scholas. "Ascendium's partnership strengthens our ability to expand access to high-quality, no-cost training while maintaining the strong outcomes that define our model." With this investment, Per Scholas will increase enrollment in immersive training and Career Accelerator upskilling programs, launch new industry-aligned pathways, and continue building partnerships with employers and postsecondary institutions. The initiative also includes exploring public funding collaborations to support sustainable growth and broaden access to no-cost training. Its partnership with Ascendium reflects a shared commitment to expanding pathways into thriving tech careers and strengthening long-term economic mobility for individuals, families, and communities nationwide. About Ascendium: Ascendium Education Group(R) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization driven by the belief that learning after high school gives people the power to build better futures. Its national philanthropy focuses on increasing opportunities for learners from low-income backgrounds to achieve upward mobility through postsecondary education and workforce training. Per Scholas, Inc partner with organizations whose objectives align with its core strategies to expand opportunity, support learner success, and connect and align systems. Its grantees include postsecondary education and workforce training providers, intermediaries, researchers, and media organizations from across the U.S. To learn more, visit ascendiumphilanthropy.org. About Per Scholas: As Per Scholas celebrates 30 years of impact, Per Scholas, Inc is charting an ambitious path forward - aiming to train and upskill 25,000 technologists annually by 2030, expanding access to high-growth tech careers and fostering economic mobility nationwide. Since 1995, Per Scholas, Inc has offered no-cost tech training to more than 30,000 technologists in the most sought-after tech skills, generating over $35 billion in increased personal earnings. On average, its learners earn 3x their pre-training wage in their first role after Per Scholas. With 25 campuses and remote programs, Per Scholas, Inc partner with employers - from Fortune 500 companies to startups - to create inclusive talent pipelines in fields like Cloud, Cybersecurity, Data Engineering, IT Support, and Software Engineering. More than half of its learners hold a high school diploma as their highest educational credential. Per Scholas, Inc is building a future where successful careers in tech are accessible to everyone across urban, suburban, and rural communities, empowering individuals to unlock their potential and drive transformative economic change nationwide.

Per Scholas
May 9th, 2025
Closing the Skills Gap: How Per Scholas and Social Finance Are Transforming Workforce Access with Living Expense Support

In partnership with Social Finance, Per Scholas launched an innovative Zero Percent Loan initiative, offering learners interest-free loans to help cover living costs during their training.

Technical.ly
Feb 20th, 2025
Per Scholas Expands To The Suburbs With New Training Center In Pittsburgh'S Mon Valley

Residents of the Mon Valley will soon have a free tech training program right in their backyard.Per Scholas, a nonprofit organization offering free tech training, is opening a satellite campus of its downtown Pittsburgh location in Glassport Borough.Starting in July, the satellite campus will train three cohorts of 15 learners each year, offering nearby residents a better opportunity at entering the tech workforce with the overarching goal of promoting economic mobility, said Todd Derby, regional senior vice president of the Northeast for Per Scholas. It chose the Mon Valley specifically after seeing a dearth of tech training programs nearby.“Rather than ask someone to commute into our downtown campus each and every day for training, we thought, let’s bring Per Scholas to the neighborhood,” Derby told Technical.ly.The effort is a collaboration between Per Scholas, South Allegheny School District and the Richard King Mellon Foundation, which provided a $375,000 donation last fall to make it happen.The new satellite campus’ proximity to South Allegheny School District is no accident. Along with wanting to open opportunities for the whole Mon Valley community, including nearby McKeesport and Clairton, the initiative aims to create pathways for graduates of the local school district, South Allegheny Superintendent David McDonald said.“We hope it’s the first step of a game-changing pathway for our school community,” McDonald said. “We can start to impact the area of the Mon Valley with trying to give people an opportunity to reboot their career, reboot their life and get into a high occupancy work field.”Applications are now open for those interested in Per Scholas cohorts at the Pittsburgh and Mon Valley campuses. Applicants must be 18 years old or older, possess a high school diploma or equivalent education and be authorized to work in the United States.An opportunity to ‘break the cycle’ in a whole new regionPer Scholas has trained over 500 learners since it opened operations in Pittsburgh in early 2021, according to Derby.The organization started in the Bronx 30 years ago as a program to put computers in the hands of local students but later shifted to offering tech training for software engineering, cybersecurity, cloud and IT support. Now with locations across the country, Per Scholas’ programs have had over 25,000 graduates.Along with the tech training, participants also learn about professional development, like interviewing skills, LinkedIn profiles, public speaking, leadership and salary negotiations

Technical.ly
Feb 20th, 2025
Per Scholas Expands To The Suburbs With New Training Center In Pittsburgh’S Mon Valley

Residents of the Mon Valley will soon have a free tech training program right in their backyard.Per Scholas, a nonprofit organization offering free tech training, is opening a satellite campus of its downtown Pittsburgh location in Glassport Borough.Starting in July, the satellite campus will train three cohorts of 15 learners each year, offering nearby residents a better opportunity at entering the tech workforce with the overarching goal of promoting economic mobility, said Todd Derby, regional senior vice president of the Northeast for Per Scholas. It chose the Mon Valley specifically after seeing a dearth of tech training programs nearby.“Rather than ask someone to commute into our downtown campus each and every day for training, we thought, let’s bring Per Scholas to the neighborhood,” Derby told Technical.ly.The effort is a collaboration between Per Scholas, South Allegheny School District and the Richard King Mellon Foundation, which provided a $375,000 donation last fall to make it happen.The new satellite campus’ proximity to South Allegheny School District is no accident. Along with wanting to open opportunities for the whole Mon Valley community, including nearby McKeesport and Clairton, the initiative aims to create pathways for graduates of the local school district, South Allegheny Superintendent David McDonald said.“We hope it’s the first step of a game-changing pathway for our school community,” McDonald said. “We can start to impact the area of the Mon Valley with trying to give people an opportunity to reboot their career, reboot their life and get into a high occupancy work field.”Applications are now open for those interested in Per Scholas cohorts at the Pittsburgh and Mon Valley campuses. Applicants must be 18 years old or older, possess a high school diploma or equivalent education and be authorized to work in the United States.An opportunity to ‘break the cycle’ in a whole new regionPer Scholas has trained over 500 learners since it opened operations in Pittsburgh in early 2021, according to Derby.The organization started in the Bronx 30 years ago as a program to put computers in the hands of local students but later shifted to offering tech training for software engineering, cybersecurity, cloud and IT support. Now with locations across the country, Per Scholas’ programs have had over 25,000 graduates.Along with the tech training, participants also learn about professional development, like interviewing skills, LinkedIn profiles, public speaking, leadership and salary negotiations

Per Scholas
Dec 16th, 2024
Social Finance Partners with Per Scholas to Offer Living Expense Loans to Learners

Social Finance partners with Per Scholas to offer living expense loans to learners.

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