SV Academy, a tuition-free online vocational program for tech sales, recently partnered with two universities, Florida International University and Arizona State University. The school’s goal is to diversify its student pool – and Silicon Valley.
The new collegiate program will enable students and alumni from both universities to leave SV Academy’s 12-week training with a co-branded certificate from the online school and their university. The program promises students instructors from companies like Google, Facebook and LinkedIn, a full-time job at a median starting salary of $79,000 and job preparation with a year of on-the-job mentorship.
The online program is designed to have a communal feel with video coaching sessions with mentors, both one-on-one and in groups, collective assignments and events where students can meet in person. At the end, students receive job placements with companies in the program’s network like SurveyMonkey or Cloudfare.
Joseph Riquelme, assistant vice president of Florida International University online, called the partnership a “win-win,” a symbiotic relationship between employers and higher education institutions.
He sees the free program as part of a trend where universities can work on “building the relationship with the corporate sector,” he said, so industries will sponsor programs that train students in skills that make them hireable. “It creates opportunity without additional hurdles for our students.”
The way SV Academy works is it’s funded by corporate investors, including actor Ashton Kutcher and talent manager Guy Oseary, co-founders of the venture capital firm Sound Ventures.
In a statement, Kutcher described SV Academy as a “team that’s democratizing access to life-changing careers and economic opportunity with a truly unique approach.”
