By Suzanne Hilker
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Best Buy recently set a lofty goal: to prepare 1 million teens from underserved communities for tech-reliant jobs each year by 2020.

We know this work is key, not only to help solve a skills gap, but to build a diverse talent pipeline for Best Buy and our partner companies. However, we can’t accomplish it alone. That’s why we’re partnering with nonprofits focused on tech education who can help us make a greater collective impact.

This year, we are investing nearly $1.5 million in our National Grants Program, funding nine strategic partners who provide curriculum and programming for our new Career Pathways program. Career Pathways is a program piloted in our Teen Tech Centers that offers teens a bridge to success through mentoring, career readiness preparation and internships. It’s a deeper investment we are making in these teens by not only preparing them for jobs, but by helping them gain real-world job experience.    

Our 2018 National Grant recipients include:

• Cyber Seniors
• Fresh Films (Dreaming Tree)
• The GRAMMY Museum
• Hispanic Heritage Foundation
• Jobs for the Future
• Mouse
• Per Scholas
• The Clubhouse Network
• Youth Radio

We look forward to partnering with these organizations in order to reach our goal to prepare 1 million teens each year for tech reliant jobs. 

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