Job Fair, Tech Training Programs Aim to Boost Silicon Valley Diversity - Re/code
The line stretched around the block Thursday as more than 1,000 people showed up to a startup job fair at NextSpace Berkeley, across the Bay Bridge from San Francisco. The event, put on by Localwise and the city of Berkeley, is one of several efforts to boost the less-than-stellar diversity within the Bay Area's tech scene. On Saturday, 130 people graduated from Year Up Bay Area, the local arm of a program that gives tech training to at-risk young adults and then places them in internships at companies including Yelp, Google, Salesforce, eBay and Facebook. Andre Quijada, who worked at GE Software, talked at Saturday's graduation about being born on the wrong side of the opportunity divide, and said taking part in Year Up was part of his effort to cross a chasm that separates jobs and money from "those who would do anything to prove themselves." Before joining the program, Quijada said, he was "gasping for air in the deep en...