100,000 tech jobs by 2020, that's the push and promise by the white house's TechHire initiative.
This year, Omaha is part of a few dozen communities building a pipeline for tech workers.
The goal of TechHire is to have students like these folks learn computer-related jobs here and stay in Omaha to work in tech jobs.
It's the first day of class at Interface Web School in downtown Omaha and the students are introducing each other.
They're part of a growing trend now a big push by the White House it's called TechHire.
President Obama announced tech hire two years ago, picking communities to build tech talent pipelines.
The goal is creating 100,000 skilled tech workers by 2020.
This year, Omaha was among 20 communities selected for Tech Hire eligible for millions of dollars in federal grant funding.
Shonna Dorsey with Interface Code School went to the White House to learn about TechHire.
In Omaha, the chamber, nonprofit aim, interface and Omaha code schools will all work together to create a thousand tech jobs over the next few years.
“The employers are getting on board to say they will look at nontraditional talent so that means you don't have a 4 or 2-year degree but you have taken some additional training like with one of the code schools,” Dorsey said.
At aim, that growth starts at a very young age, Victoria Novak with aim says while Omaha’s overall unemployment is very low pockets of north and south Omaha have high unemployment numbers.
“But by getting connected with the tech hire players.
Unemployed or underserved people in those pockets could see big changes,” she said.
Change into possibly making 10-12 dollars an hour to potentially making 43 dollars as they continue to grow their skill set.
“I was having a little bit of trouble finding a job, so I needed to beef up my skills so I could be more marketable...and this offered me the opportunity to do that,” Novak said.
One of the first of those hundreds of tech hires in Omaha.
