Six months ago, Kyle McCleery was working for the Oregon Department of Human Services in Portland and looking for a new career.

Through a technology apprenticeship program launched in Lane County last year, McCleery is now a network security administrator apprentice with Eugene-based internet service provider XS Media — and part of the area's growing, high-wage tech sector.

Now local technology and employment advocates are trying to spread awareness of the "Apprenti" program that helped McCleery change his career.

"In my previous job I felt like there was no room for growth," McCleery, 30, said. "It seemed like a great program to make that jump."

Through Apprenti, Eugene tech employers can find interested workers to sign on as apprentices in fields like network security, IT support, web and software development.

The program launched jointly in Oregon by Lane Workforce Partnership and Technology Association of Oregon mirrors a similar program in place in Washington state. Local officials hope to place 45 apprentices with local companies over the next three years.

"It's completely employer driven," said Jessica McCormick, workforce project manager for the Lane Workforce Partnership. "As the employers need someone, we can go ahead and put that (apprenticeship opportunity) together quickly."

The Apprenti program is designed to help fill immediate openings in the local tech industry, McCormick said. But it also seeks to draw more women, minorities and military veterans into the industry, and to give workers an opportunity to get into the tech field while bypassing the two- or four-year degree path.

A bright future



Income data for employees in the tech field underscore the need for local workforce advocates to expand the industry.

The average annual Lane County wage in the tech sector was $74,279 last year, according to Oregon Employment Department figures. That's 74 percent higher than the $42,644 average annual wage in all Lane County sectors.

A recent Lane Workforce Partnership report, using Employment Department data, projected a 23 percent rise in tech employment across Lane County over the next decade. That amounts to about 5,300 jobs. And it doesn't include job growth from employers in other fields hiring IT and other positions.

"Nearly every tech company (in Lane County) is hiring at this point," Technology Association of Oregon Vice President Matt Sayre said. He said local tech employers have hundreds of job openings across the greater Eugene area.

Employment experts say the tech sector has a bright future as automation influences more industries. Eugene, Springfield and Lane County economic development officials have long sought to boost the job market, especially as Symantec — long the region's largest tech employer — has shed hundreds of jobs in recent years.

The Apprenti program is one of 15 workforce topics that employment officials and business leaders from across Oregon will discuss at the "WORKing Together 2018 — The Future of Work" conference on Wednesday and Thursday in Eugene.

Rolling out the program locally hasn't come without challenges. Lane Workforce Partnership hoped to place 12 employees into local apprenticeships in its pilot year, but has matched just two in the Eugene area so far, including McCleery.

McCormick said the workforce partnership struggled at first to balance apprenticeship programs for various job titles and the hiring schedules of employers.

"A few of the employers thinking they would participate in the first round ended up having some changes as far as when they would forecast having a new employee," she said.

A third employee is slated to begin training in October for an IT support position.

Seeking local talent



But Apprenti is far from the only local tech employment recruiting program. The Technology Association of Oregon has ramped up its efforts in the past three years to lure companies to the Eugene area, and to connect the University of Oregon and Lane Community College to local firms with job openings, Sayre said.

Those efforts include the technology association's annual Eugene Tech Tour, which gives hundreds of potential employees a chance to tour local technology companies; the Talent Match job fair, held jointly with the cities of Eugene and Springfield, Lane County and the Lane Workforce Partnership; and an Experience Oregon Technology initiative that takes students from the UO, LCC, other Willamette Valley universities and local high schools on bus tours to meet local tech CEOs, administrators, interns and other employees to get an up-close look at working in the industry.

"It's part of a strategy of working to create high-wage jobs and get local talent into those occupations," Sayre said.

Under the Apprenti program, workers across Oregon seeking to gain employment in a tech field can take a career aptitude test through the Apprenti website. Candidates who score well get an opportunity to interview with local Apprenti program staff members and finally with the employer offering the apprenticeship.

Successful applicants can then enroll in extensive, full-time pre-employment training programs before starting work for a company. The training is typically between 14 and 20 weeks, but can be as short as three weeks or as long as 22 weeks.

McCleery was searching online for tech job opportunities earlier this year when he stumbled upon the Apprenti program.

"I had a completely unrelated background, but for a long time I had an underlying interest in IT," McCleery said.

The program was only operating in Eugene at the time — it's now being expanded to Bend — so McCleery applied. Once he cleared the interview process with Apprenti staffers and XS Media, he quit his Portland job and moved to Eugene, sleeping in his van during the week so he could complete a 15-week apprenticeship program through Lane Community College and heading back to Portland on weekends.

The program has just started to pay off for McCleery, who received his first paycheck from XS Media last week. Apprentices in the program earn 70 percent of the journey level wage for workers in that occupation. The pay increases to 80 percent of journey level after six months. After a year, they can gain full employment with the company or look for another job with a year of tech experience under their belt.

XS Media was initially hesitant to get involved and bring on a new employee who didn't take the formal route to employment in the tech field, XS Chief Operating Officer Stephen Parac said.

Employers interviewing Apprenti applicants can't ask them technical questions about the job since candidates lack the proper background to answer them.

"I was a bit apprehensive because we were hiring for a technical position, and this program is not a technical program," Parac said. "But it forced us to ask questions and perform our interview in a different way than we'd ever done before. And the end product is we're really happy with the person we hired."

Follow Elon Glucklich on Twitter @EGlucklich. Email elon.glucklich@registerguard.com.