Apprenticeship program to expand into Las Cruces

Bitwise Industries has announced a nationwide expansion that includes Las Cruces.

The California-based company, which was founded in 2013, teaches technology skills and hires trainees for Bitwise Technology Consulting.

In addition to Las Cruces, Bitwise is adding locations in 10 cities in New York, Colorado and Wyoming, the company said in a news release. It also has sites in El Paso and other cities across the country.

“Bitwise operates one of the largest federally accredited apprenticeship programs in the country, which enables it to pay Bitwise apprentices to learn,” the news release said. “It has trained over 8,000 non-traditional tech students in its workforce training program, with 80 percent of job seekers going on to earn technical employment. This accounts for $295M in aggregate wages being paid to mostly women and people of color. The average student enters our program making less than $20,000 a year and upon exit goes on to positions that make more than $60,000 a year.”

“As we expand across the country we look forward to supercharging our efforts with the cities we currently serve and getting started in new communities,” said Bitwise CEO and co-founder Irma Olguin Jr. “Bitwise is a vehicle that has transformed lives, and cities. We look forward to helping more people left out of the digital economy to find financial independence and stability through increased employment opportunities, while bringing government digital infrastructure into the modern era with world-class software developed by the overlooked people we train and hire.”

In the cities it services, Bitwise “renovates blighted historical buildings, creates a technology hub and houses its operations at the city’s urban core to bring back life to the area,” the news release said. “The company has already transformed a combined total of nearly a million square feet of downtown commercial space and will continue to do the same in new cities.”

Visit www.bitwiseindustries.com.