IT leaders turn to HBCUs for future IT talent

Officials at the North Carolina Department of Information Technology found themselves in a position familiar to most IT organizations: aware of the need to do more to attract IT workers given that they — like most employers — faced fierce competition for talent.

They also believed they needed to take more responsibility for increasing the diversity of workers in their IT ranks.

So NCDIT officials took action, creating an internship program for Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) students, a move that would open up for the organization a new pipeline for talent traditionally underrepresented in the IT industry.

“We want students to be aware of us as an employer, and we want to have a diverse workforce,” says NCDIT HR DirectorJoey Harrison.

NCDIT and many other employers in recent years have become more intentional in their efforts to increase the number of workers coming into the IT profession and, more specifically, the diversity of that pipeline.

Those efforts are critical, according to the multiple executives, researchers, and up-and-coming tech professionals interviewed on the topic.

They point to statistics that highlight challenges in IT workforce recruitment and diversity. To start, unemployment in the IT profession in the United States in early 2024 is at 3.3%, below the nation’s overall unemployment rate of 3.7%. Yet, despite strong opportunities in the profession, reports consistently confirm that Black professionals remain underrepresented.

According to The State of the Tech Workforce 2023 report from training and certification organization CompTIA, professionals identifying as Black or African American made up 8% of US tech occupations (compared to 12% across all US occupations). The NAACP cites similar figures, saying that research has found that although “Black people comprise 13% of the US population, they represent only 7% of the computing workforce.”

Meanwhile, the 2022 State of Tech Diversity: The Black Tech Ecosystem report from the NAACP and Kapor Center, a nonprofit addressing racial inequities in STEM education and the tech industry, found that the proportion of Black students receiving bachelor’s degrees in computer science decreased between 2016 and 2020, going from 9% to 8%.

IT leaders say they’re committed to improving those figures, with the 2024 Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in IT report from TEKsystems, a business talent solutions and consulting company, finding that 80% of responding IT execs, HR decision-makers, and IT employees believed “diversity initiatives are crucial for an inclusive IT workplace.”

Such figures, Harrison and others say, are why they’re building connections with HBCUs. “We looked at our diversity and decided to make improvements; internships help support that,” he says.

Partnerships at work

As part of its efforts to diversify its IT talent pipeline, NCDIT created four internship programs two years ago: one for HBCU students; another for individuals without college degrees; the third for members of the neurodiverse community; and the fourth for those who have or are pursuing a tech-related college education or experience.

The HBCU internship program launched in 2023. Students from six HBCUs applied; NCDIT awarded internships to seven students from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University and one North Carolina resident who attended Howard University in Washington, D.C.

Each of the eight students was brought into NCDIT for 40 hours of paid work over eight weeks during the summer. The interns were placed in roles aligned to their education and professional interests, Harrison says, adding that NCDIT managers designed each internship so that the students would have “an opportunity to gain work experience and apply what they’re learning.”

That aligns with the internship’s main objectives, Harrison says.

“It’s important for us as a state agency and as the lead state IT organization to help develop individuals, whether they’re interns or permanent employees, so they can achieve the type of work and employment they want for themselves,” he explains.

More specifically, Harrison says the program is meant to aid NCDIT in recruiting more diverse talent to its own ranks. “We’re hoping that the interns will turn into full-time employees,” he says.

NCDIT has a good shot at succeeding on that point.

Drew Walker worked as a web development intern at NCDIT last summer, between his freshman and sophomore years.

A computer science major at North Carolina A&T, Walker says he appreciated the opportunity to get professional experience in a role he plans to pursue after graduation. He says the experience helped him hone his skills and boost his resume, both of which helped him land an internship with another state agency.

Furthermore, he says the NCDIT internship will help him when it comes to finding work after he graduates — something he had hoped it would do when he applied.

Walker’s experience may benefit NCDIT and its recruitment objectives, too: Walker says he’s open to working for the department as a permanent employee.

“If I graduated today, that would be my No. 1 option,” he says.

Building relationships

The IT department at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina is another employer that has partnered with HBCUs to improve the size and diversity of the IT workforce.

“Understanding the historical lack of diverse representation in IT, we have been very intentional in creating partnerships and strategies to create a pipeline of diversified talent. We do this by engaging students beyond career fairs, through classroom industry presentations, networking, mentorship, externships/co-ops, internships, and strategic investments,” says Blue Cross NC CIO Jo Abernathy.

For example, Abernathy’s IT department partnered with the North Carolina Governor’s HBCU Internship Program to provide high-performing students an immersive professional experience with the IT team. The partnership has brought more than 10 summer interns from North Carolina HBCUs to the IT division since 2022, and it will bring in two HBCU students this coming summer.

Abernathy says her IT department also invests “in building relationships with schools through our HBCU Diversity Recruitment Action Team.” This team is comprised of HBCU alumni and advocates who “share their ideas, connections, and perspectives, acting as an extension of the talent team and represent Blue Cross NC at career events.”

Internships as ‘equalizer’

Jon White likewise sees significant value in building relationships, and in particular providing internships, saying that on-the-job experience for students “is an equalizer.”

“There’s nothing like gametime experience,” he adds.

White, a 2001 Morgan State University graduate with a bachelor’s in computer science, speaks from experience: He had two pivotal internships that propelled his professional career.

White worked on a NASA-funded research project on computing technology that was a precursor to cloud computing. And he interned with Lockheed Martin, a global security and aerospace company, a role that gave him automation experience and helped him earn his security clearance (a critical credential for much of the technology work with the US government).

White is now a principal architect at Red Alpha, a Maryland-based software technology and consulting firm bringing digital transformation to commercial and government clients, including the US Department of Defense.

In this role, he is working to bring internship opportunities to his alma mater.

White says he hopes such internships will create career-boosting opportunities for current and future Morgan students as well as recruit talent to his company.

“Morgan has excellent talent, and we’d like to leverage that talent,” he adds. “I have no doubt we can staff up by going to Morgan, where there are students doing top-level software engineering. We want to make sure our company is not missing out on that talent.”

Multiple benefits to employers

Other employers make similar remarks, saying that they are working to strengthen their ties with HBCUs to ensure their recruitment efforts create a pipeline of diverse talent.

Jon Allen, director of professional services for industrials at AWS, which has a host of programs with HBCUs (including Morgan) and other minority-serving institutions (MCIs), says AWS has found that such efforts have benefits for students and employers.

Such programs do, indeed, help students develop real-world skills and cultivate professional contacts, he says.

Employers, including AWS, likewise expand their list of potential employees, Allen says. In fact, AWS has found that its partnerships with HBCUs and MCIs expands its recruitment and retention efforts in several ways.

First, the programs help AWS reach the students themselves.

The programs, which include the HBCU Business Case Competition, also draw interest (and resumes) from alumni who learn about such programs and decide AWS could be a good place to bring their mid- to senior-level experience.

At the same time, AWS has found that its existing employees are encouraged by the company’s diversity efforts, so they’re energized and more likely to stay.

Expanding opportunities

Paul Wang, a professor and chairperson of computer science at Morgan, says the university has seen employer interest in partnering with HBCUs grow, giving students more opportunities for internships, mentorships, other professional experiences, and ultimately job offers.

JP Morgan, Zillow, and AWS are among the employers that have established ties to Morgan as part of their outreach efforts to HBCUs.

“These open opportunities for students,” Wang says, explaining that they build students’ confidence and their professional networks (which then tip them off to job openings or offer introductions to hiring managers).

Students share that perspective.

Teqwon Norman, a Morgan senior majoring in computer science, in spring 2022 took part in the Google Tech Exchange program, a semester-long virtual academic program for students from HBCUs and Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs).

“It was extremely challenging, it was taught by Google engineers, it had mentorship. Google gave you resources, they helped you when you struggled. There was a lot of things to keep you pushing ahead,” he says.

The experience helped him land a summer 2023 paid internship with Google, which has turned into a job with the company when he graduates this May.

Norman says he and other Morgan students now spread the word about these opportunities, helping expand the pipeline of people interested in connecting with Google.

Kyla Abraham, a Morgan junior also majoring in computer science, has a similar take on the value of her internships, saying they boosted her skills and connected her with employers.

Abraham interned as a software engineer at Lincoln Financial Group, after first interacting with the company on the Morgan campus through a college-affiliated mentor and hackathon called codeLinc.

That internship then helped her land other positions, including her current job as a research assistant working on a robot. Still, she sees returning to Lincoln Financial as a possibility.

“I’m still figuring out my path, but I know it’s going to be in computer science, and while I want to consider more [professional options] before I make my financial decision, it would also be great if I stay with Lincoln Financial,” she says.

Citing her own positive experience, Abraham now helps her peers make such connections: She is program manager for Morgan TechFest, a student-led event that includes bringing companies to campus to connect with students.

Making internships impactful

Although Abraham and Norman had positive experiences, Wang says internship programs are not all of equal value.

He has seen some that offer little to no pay or that don’t offer the learning, mentoring, and networking components that boost the students’ professional readiness. Internships with such deficits, Wang says, don’t help students land jobs nor help companies recruit.

Franklin Reed, TEKsystems’s executive director of global DEI, agrees that the quality of programs matter for both student and employer success.

When done well, he says “these programs and partnerships between employers and colleges and universities, particularly HBCUs, can create this bridge and this pipeline of more diverse talent.”

Officials at NCDIT agree, saying they thought through what they could offer students and how those efforts could bring returns to them in terms of improved workforce diversity.

“It’s a great opportunity for the intern and for us,” says Veena V. Shanmugham, a database and middleware manager at NCDIT.

Shanmugham worked with her team and HR last spring to design an eight-week full-time job for the agency’s HBCU internship program.

“We wanted to give the intern a real-world experience, and we wanted to make sure we spend time with them,” Shanmugham says.

That meant setting up a technical environment where the intern could work with the team’s technology but not access protected data, she explains. It also meant training staff to engage with and mentor the intern, ensuring that the intern had a positive growth experience that would leave a good impression.

As Shanmugham says: “We want interns to be interested in coming back.”