BY KEERTHI CHANDRASHEKAR
LOS ANGELES, CA - UST Global launched its tech job training initiative ‘Step IT Up’ for inner city women March 28 with a social event at the JW Marriot’s Diamond Ballroom here where CEO Sajan Pillai stressed how vital information technology jobs will be in the future. UST Global made its case with a...
LOS ANGELES, CA - UST Global launched its tech job training initiative ‘Step IT Up’ for inner city women March 28 with a social event at the JW Marriot’s Diamond Ballroom here where CEO Sajan Pillai stressed how vital information technology jobs will be in the future. UST Global made its case with a...
grand casino-themed party complete with an ice sculpture bearing the company name. Pillai was outwardly enthusiastic about teaching people, especially those at a disadvantage, skills to become a valuable tech-savvy asset to society. “Information technology is the new oil of the world. Everybody needs it. Corporations need it. Countries need it. Because you hold in your hands the cellphones today, every human being in the planet needs it,” Pillai told the audience. “Nothing, absolutely nothing, not politics, not ideology, not religion, have been able to impact human beings globally this fast, as technology. When ordinary citizens hold a cellphone in their hands, they hold the healthcare for their family, the education for their family, knowledge and the future. And that has leveled the playing field for citizens and countries and businesses like it has never been done before.”
As part of a global effort to create jobs, UST Global began training inner city women in the information technology sector in order to level the gender gap in the IT sector. Programs accepting 100 women have already been implemented in Atlanta, Philadelphia, and Detroit. ‘Step IT Up’ is expected to hit Chicago in April. Pillai hopes to create 5,000 IT jobs for minority women across America.
“This is not a charity program,” Pillai said. “It’s not checkbook philanthropy. That would be too easy to do. It’s because it is sustainable and these women learn skills for life.” California-based UST Global isn’t just focusing on the US -- technology job creation efforts started in Mexico two years ago, and have since spread to countries such as Greece and Spain. UST’s job programs are even hitting several states in India, a country Pillai stresses is still his roots.
“We’re starting a program called ‘Impact India’ (very similar to this ‘Step IT Up’ program) where we are going to train, the severely handicapped, the blind, and the deaf and dumb, who in India, neither have the vision, nor the music,” Pillai told India Journal. The festivities wrapped up with performances by the Poreotics dance crew and hip-hop violinist Damien Escobar.
As part of a global effort to create jobs, UST Global began training inner city women in the information technology sector in order to level the gender gap in the IT sector. Programs accepting 100 women have already been implemented in Atlanta, Philadelphia, and Detroit. ‘Step IT Up’ is expected to hit Chicago in April. Pillai hopes to create 5,000 IT jobs for minority women across America.
“This is not a charity program,” Pillai said. “It’s not checkbook philanthropy. That would be too easy to do. It’s because it is sustainable and these women learn skills for life.” California-based UST Global isn’t just focusing on the US -- technology job creation efforts started in Mexico two years ago, and have since spread to countries such as Greece and Spain. UST’s job programs are even hitting several states in India, a country Pillai stresses is still his roots.
“We’re starting a program called ‘Impact India’ (very similar to this ‘Step IT Up’ program) where we are going to train, the severely handicapped, the blind, and the deaf and dumb, who in India, neither have the vision, nor the music,” Pillai told India Journal. The festivities wrapped up with performances by the Poreotics dance crew and hip-hop violinist Damien Escobar.