'Barriers to Entry' program helps turn jobs into careers

It was designed to recruit and train nontraditional tech workers from the ranks of the underemployed, veterans and stay-at-home moms.

Deynn “Dee” Hampton, an IT contractor on assignment at 3M Co., is proof that an opportunity, hard work and a good attitude can be life-changing.

In the fall of 2016, Hampton was among the first graduates of the “Barriers to Entry” program of her employer, IT consulting and placement firm York Solutions. Barriers was designed to recruit and train nontraditional tech workers from the ranks of the underemployed, veterans and stay-at-home moms.

The idea was to create a new pool of trainable workers who had aptitude but who lacked traditional credentials, such as a degree in computer science.

The Barriers to Entry program and a number of other innovative train-and-place initiatives launched collaboratively in recent years by kindred nonprofits, employers and the state university system. They were created under the Minnesota “career pathways” umbrella and aimed at getting more people of color, women, veterans and workforce returnees into good jobs as IT consultants, Metro Transit drivers and mechanics, heath care workers and bank tellers.

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