OfferUp and Ironhack Debut $250,000 Career Empowerment Scholarship to Improve Diversity in Tech

The partnership will make coding and UX/UI design education more accessible to women and professionals of color

OfferUp, the largest mobile marketplace in the U.S. for local buyers and sellers with more than 100M downloads, announced it has launched a diversity scholarship and partnership with Ironhack, a globally ranked tech school that offers intensive courses in Web Development and UX/UI Design.

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The OfferUp Tech Career Empowerment Scholarship will improve access to coding education by providing $250,000 towards enrollment at Ironhack for women and underrepresented professionals who want to expand their tech industry careers. Applications for the scholarship open today and close on November 20, 2020. Classes for the first cohort of students will begin in January 2021.

“Our vision at OfferUp is to empower people to connect and prosper,” said Natalie Angelillo, vice president of community at OfferUp. “We’ve made strides by building an incredible community of buyers and sellers, but we recognize that we also need to take a holistic approach to the concept of community, and that includes diversifying the workforce and opportunities for those in our company and industry. Our partnership with Ironhack gives us the ability to take an active role in reducing digital skills and access gaps in America’s tech industry.”

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Ironhack, a coding bootcamp headquartered in Miami with campuses throughout Europe and Latin America, is paving the way for the coding industry to fill the industry’s employment gap for underrepresented groups and women. Ironhack’s educational programs provide students with the technical training and industry introductions they need to be employable after graduation. Every student gets access to the most in-demand digital skills through live and hands-on training and can build the foundation to transform their career and become a developer or UX/UI designers, regardless of their previous experience.

Since 2017, the company has partnered with top-tier tech companies to award more than $1.5M in scholarships to those in need or underrepresented groups. More than 7,000 of its graduates now have careers at Fortune 500 companies like Google, Facebook, Twitter, Uber, and more. Of their US graduates, 34 percent are women, and 62 percent identify as Black or Hispanic.

“Ironhack has helped thousands of students change careers and land their dream job in tech,” said Lisa Nuessle, Ironhack general manager. “Our premise has always been that employability is not determined exclusively by your level of hard skills or background. Building your professional network and gaining access to opportunities to show your experience plays a huge role in achieving a successful outcome. Through this scholarship, Ironhack is committed to increasing diverse representation within the tech industry.”

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