ST. LOUIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Perficient, Inc. (Nasdaq: PRFT) (“Perficient”), the leading global digital consultancy transforming the world’s largest enterprises and biggest brands, today announced the launch of Bright Paths, a program designed to advance STEM education and career opportunities for underrepresented constituencies and communities. Perficient’s Bright Paths program will partner with Strategic Education, Inc., an education services company focused on advancing economic mobility for working adults, to create relevant learning experiences that prepare students for the workforce, and further drive innovation and growth in the technology industry.
“As a global digital consulting firm with nearly 4,500 employees, Perficient is a company full of diverse and immensely capable colleagues, and we understand the importance of supporting the professional development of our global community,” said Jeff Davis, Chairman and CEO. “Yet there remains a gap in opportunities for STEM careers and education across our communities, especially among women in the field. We recognize the need to drive inclusion and equity, and we’re committed to pursuing progress in this critical area.”
Research shows that the number of women serving as computing professionals has experienced a long period of decline. Perficient is committed to focusing on advancing women in technology to facilitate STEM career growth, and building a technology community dedicated to supporting diversity.
The first Bright Paths training program will be a partnership between Perficient and Strategic Education’s Hackbright Academy, an all-women’s coding bootcamp and software engineering program.
Set to launch in March 2021 at an online pop-up campus in Detroit, the Perficient-sponsored Hackbright Academy cohort will include up to 25 women who will attend a fully-paid, customized coding bootcamp for between 10 – 14 weeks. Perficient’s goal is to extend a number of qualified cohort graduates a full-time job in the software engineering and development field, where they will partner with one of the world’s biggest brands in the Detroit metro region.
“We believe Perficient colleagues are the best and brightest in the industry, and we’re thrilled to be able to provide an opportunity for women to not only grow their STEM careers, but to join our highly skilled and innovative workforce,” said Tom Hogan, Perficient’s chief operating officer. “Together with Strategic Education and Hackbright Academy, we’re taking action to pursue progress centered on diversity and enhancing the communities in which we live and work.”
“We look forward to launching this cohort in Detroit to further our mission of changing the ratio of women in engineering and technology by preparing more women for job opportunities in these fields. Perficient is a great partner to help us achieve those goals,” said Ashley Trinh, Program Director for Hackbright Academy. “Like us, they believe that diversity and inclusion not only results in better teams and outcomes, but is a commitment to integrity, collaboration, and people that defines you as an organization.”
To learn more about Bright Paths and the Perficient-sponsored Hackbright Academy cohort, or to apply, visit the program landing page. For more information about Perficient’s digital consulting expertise, subscribe to our blog and follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn.
About Perficient
Perficient is a leading global digital consultancy. We imagine, create, engineer, and run digital transformation solutions that help our clients exceed customers’ expectations, outpace competition, and grow their business. With unparalleled strategy, creative, and technology capabilities, we bring big thinking and innovative ideas, along with a practical approach to help the world’s largest enterprises and biggest brands succeed. Traded on the Nasdaq Global Select Market, Perficient is a member of the Russell 2000 index and the S&P SmallCap 600 index. Perficient is an award-winning Adobe Platinum Partner, Platinum Level IBM business partner, a Microsoft National Service Provider and Gold Certified Partner, an Oracle Platinum Partner, a Gold Salesforce Consulting Partner, and a Sitecore Platinum Partner. For more information, visit www.perficient.com.
About Strategic Education
Strategic Education, Inc. (NASDAQ: STRA) (www.strategiceducation.com) is dedicated to helping advance economic mobility through higher education. We serve working adult students all over the globe through our core focus areas: 1) U.S. Higher Education, through Strayer University and Capella University, each institutionally accredited, and collectively offer flexible and affordable associate, bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral programs including the Jack Welch Management Institute at Strayer University; 2) Alternative Learning, encompassing Sophia Learning, self-paced general education courses that are ACE-recommended for college credit; Workforce Edge, a full service, online employee education management portal; Digital Enablement Partnerships, helping advance capabilities in course development, online delivery and student support; and non-degree web and mobile application development courses through Hackbright Academy and Strayer University’s DevMountain; and 3) Australia/New Zealand, comprised of Torrens University, Think Education and Media Design School operations in Australia and New Zealand. This portfolio of high quality, innovative, relevant, and affordable programs and institutions helps our students prepare for success in today’s workforce and find a path to bettering their lives.
Safe Harbor Statement
Some of the statements contained in this news release that are not purely historical statements discuss future expectations or state other forward-looking information related to financial results and business outlook for 2020. Those statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors that could cause the actual results to differ materially from those contemplated by the statements. The forward-looking information is based on management’s current intent, belief, expectations, estimates, and projections regarding our company and our industry. You should be aware that those statements only reflect our predictions. Actual events or results may differ substantially. Important factors that could cause our actual results to be materially different from the forward-looking statements include (but are not limited to) those disclosed under the heading “Risk Factors” in our annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2019, as supplemented by the risk factor contained under the heading “Risk Factors” in our quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the quarterly period ended September 30, 2020.
