Pluralsight One Relaunches with a Simple Vision: Make Tech Skills Accessible for Everyone

When my co-founders and I started Pluralsight in 2004, we were focused on catering to “The One.” The One refers to a single individual who wants to access a better future through tech. Perhaps that person was just starting their career journey, looking to transition to a new professional field, or simply trying to build a better life for their family. Whatever the reason, we wanted to help them get there.

As our business grew and evolved, it became increasingly important to me that we preserve our focus on The One. That’s why, in 2017, we launched Pluralsight One, a charitable organization committed to driving significant, lasting social impact by improving equal access to technology skills for individuals.

A lot has changed in our business and the world since then and we find it only fitting to evolve the goals of Pluralsight One as well. Today, I’m excited to share with you Pluralsight One’s new mission and focus which is designed to ensure we continue bridging the opportunity gap in tech.?

Pluralsight One: A New Mission

At Pluralsight, our mission is to advance the world’s technology workforce and we want Pluralsight One to support this mission as well. While “advancing” the workforce certainly means upskilling individuals and teams to help them reach their full potential, which we do through our commercial business, it also means diversifying the tech workforce. This happens by actively helping underserved communities attain and sustain successful tech careers.?

We need a tech workforce that represents the diverse world we live in. Today, women only make up 25% of the tech workforce. Only 7% of STEM jobs are held by BIPOC members of society, which is half the rate of other industries. This radical imbalance in the tech workforce makes one thing clear: we need to do our part to diversify access to tech skills.?

Pluralsight One’s mission is to unlock technology career opportunities for underserved communities and, in the process, increase diversity in the technology workforce. With that in mind, we will focus our Pluralsight One efforts on:

• Increasing the representation of women, LGBTQ+, racial, and ethnic groups in STEM
• Educating young adults with employable tech skills
• Making tech upskilling affordable for nonprofits or K-12 organizations
• Helping talent build connections, confidence, and modern tech skills
• Expanding access to computer science education in schools
• Building a diverse talent pool for the tech industry

What Does This Mean in Practice??

Pluralsight One has implemented several programs to address the tech opportunity gap. We are leveraging a powerful combination of our Skills and Cloud learning solutions, a growing roster of non-profit partners, and our 23,000 customers to create opportunities for underserved communities.?

First, we invest in early education and awareness of technology skills. Pluralsight One provides lower-cost access to the Pluralsight Skills platform to support educators’ technology skills development and provide access to computer science education for K-12 students.

Second, we focus on upskilling and reskilling. Through what we call Opportunity Academies, Pluralsight One collaborates with businesses and organizations to educate underrepresented talent and prepare them for long-term careers. Opportunity Academies build an on-ramp for diverse talent to funnel directly into organizations, training individuals to be job-ready. The academies are immersive, blended learning experiences that equip small groups of people from non-technical backgrounds for introductory roles in software, data, or IT.?

Finally, we enable employment pathways through our enterprise customers and partnerships with nonprofits who are playing a key role in transforming the lives of individuals and boosting diversity in the workforce. Not only do these programs provide individuals with access to the latest, most in-demand technology skills, but it also gives our business customers access to exciting new tech talent pools that will change the face of their business.?

The Future of Pluralsight One?

Pluralsight One is committed to making tech skills accessible to everyone both now and in the future. This means that we’ll continue to expand the number of K12s, foundations and nonprofits who are granted lower-cost access to the Pluralsight platform. Today, roughly 900 customers receive discounted access to the Pluralsight platform through Pluralsight One and that number will continue to grow.?

Additionally, we’ll continue to identify and support mission-aligned partners—through our programs, licenses, and grants—around the world who have a demonstrated track record of providing access to technology to diverse communities. Finally, we will introduce the individuals that Pluralsight One supports to our existing Pluralsight customers looking for diverse tech talent.?

I couldn’t be more excited for how we are evolving Pluralsight One. Everyone deserves the opportunity to pursue a meaningful career in technology and it’s my hope that Pluralsight One serves as a launch pad for the tech workforce of the future.??