Ivy Tech to roll out new Ivy+ tech training program this month

Ivy Tech Community College has high hopes that its Ivy+ IT Academy, a tech training initiative that launches this month, will produce thousands of graduates within the next two years who can help ease Indiana’s talent crunch.

Ivy+, which the college first announced last fall, launches March 13 at Ivy Tech’s Muncie campus. By the end of this month, Ivy Tech expects to roll out the program statewide with online classes in data analytics, project management and IT support.

The school will continue to expand its roster of classes after that, with in-person, hybrid and online classes available at all 19 of its campuses around the state, said Ivy Tech’s Chief Information Officer, Matthew Etchison.

Ivy+ will also offer customizable training classes in response to employers’ needs, including on-site instruction at work sites, Etchison said.

As compared with Ivy Tech’s existing technology programs, Ivy+ will offer non-credit certificates that can be completed in as little as a day or two or as long as a few months. Instruction will be provided at little or no cost to the student.

“The goal will really be accelerated learning so you can get in and learn a skill relatively quickly,” Etchison said.

The Ivy+ website lists industry partners representing some of the biggest names in tech, including Microsoft, Oracle, AWS, Salesforce and Cisco, and students will be able to earn skills certifications from these companies, Ivy Tech says.

Ivy Tech’s goal is to have its corporate partners subsidize the training so that students pay little or nothing out of pocket. And if students do have to pay, Etchison said, the cost will be less than students might pay for similar training elsewhere. “Our goal is to have this for a fraction of the cost of any other provider.”

As an example, Ivy Tech might charge from a few hundred dollars to a few thousand dollars for an immersive boot camp-style class that might cost thousands more from another provider, Etchison said. “So many boot camps are $10,000 or more. We’re not going there. That’s not our goal.”

Ivy Tech’s hope is to have 1,000 students enrolled in Ivy+ by summertime, with a cumulative 2,000 by this fall and 6,000 by the end of next year.

For perspective, Ivy Tech currently has more than 6,000 students enrolled in its existing IT programs, which offer certificates and associate degrees.

This week, Ivy Tech and Indianapolis-based not-for-profit organization TechPoint announced a partnership in which TechPoint will help promote Ivy+.

Last year TechPoint launched Mission 41K, an initiative aimed at enlarging Indiana’s tech workforce by 41,000 jobs by 2030.

“We’re really excited and hopeful for the potential impact that Ivy Tech can make in helping us reach our Mission 41K goals,” said Dennis Trinkle, TechPoint’s senior vice president of talent, strategy and partnerships.

Trinkle said Ivy Tech’s statewide reach is significant because it means Ivy+ can potentially reach Hoosiers in communities where other tech training opportunities might be limited.

Trinkle also said Ivy+’s association with a college also has psychological benefits. Completing an Ivy+ course, he said, might give students the confidence they need to pursue an academic degree down the road.

Ivy+’s target students, Etchison said, will include everyone from recent high-school graduates to career changers or current IT professionals who need to pick up new skills.

The first class in Muncie is already full, Etchison said, and he is confident that Ivy+ will have no problem attracting students as the program rolls out statewide. “We’ve done very little PR at all, and the demand’s been massive.”