PMF Awarded $2.4 Million Grant From The US Department Of Education

The Purple Maiʻa Foundation, a non-profit technology education organization, has announced the launch of the Hiapo Program, a new workforce development initiative. The program aims to upskill, train, and credentialize Native Hawaiians and other under-represented groups in the tech industry with in-demand Salesforce Administrator training to become employable, culturally and community grounded knowledge workers.

The inaugural cohort, named Papa ʻAʻaliʻi to emphasize resilience to challenges, took their first steps of the 14-week journey on Tuesday, September 8, 2020. Papa ʻAʻaliʻi will learn the basics of the cloud-based Salesforce customer relationship management (CRM) platform and aim to achieve their Salesforce Administrator certifications by the end of the training. The cohort carries the kuleana of creating a path for subsequent cohorts to achieve success.

"We have a vision of Native Hawaiian excellence in contemporary digital technologies," said Kelsey Amos, Purple Maiʻa Foundation Co-founder. "Skills like Salesforce are in high demand. Training and certification can translate into a career that supports a family, regardless of a person's educational background or experience."

The Hiapo Program's Salesforce Administrator training, as well as training and work-based learning in other in-demand technology and IT skills, got started with the support of Nakupuna Foundation for planning and early piloting in 2019 and 2020. The program will run from fall 2020 to fall 2021 with the support of a grant of $829,807 from the Native Hawaiian Education program of the U.S. Department of Education. Grant funds cover 100% of the program in year one, with similar funding amounts likely to be awarded for years two and three if program outcomes are good.

According to IDC's White Paper report, from 2019 to 2024, worldwide spending on public cloud computing will grow 19% a year and during this six-year period, Salesforce and its ecosystem are expected to create 4.2 million jobs worldwide.

Salesforce can be applied to automate and personalize customer service and marketing and has powerful support for analytics and application development.

The Purple Maiʻa Foundation's other programs focus on teaching coding and computer science to Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander youth across the state of Hawaiʻi. But Purple Maiʻa has experience with adult programming with the Purple Prize, a technology innovation competition and social impact incubator. The foundation is ready to apply its experience to the up-skilling adult workforce demographic that the Hiapo Program serves.