SEO Tech Developer

Supporting minority groups to be exceptional candidates for graduate jobs in tech

Technology has enormous relevance in today’s economy, but its workforce does not reflect the diversity of America. The SEO Tech Developer programme aims to increase the numbers of undergraduate students from minority groups effectively competing for graduate roles in the tech world. The Hg Foundation is the seed-funder of the programme and has been heavily involved in its development, which draws on SEO’s greater than forty years of experience of running programmes in other competitive professional sectors, such as law and finance.

Tech Developer is an intensive immersion programme, centred around a six-week virtual summer residency, which includes 300+ hours of industry-critical technical and soft-skills training. The programme focuses on experiential learning, team and projectbased work, along with sustained exposure to tech industry professionals and educators through curriculum delivery, seminars and mentorship. Participants also have exclusive access to tech internships at SEO’s partner organisations. It is targeted at students who identify as Black, LatinX or Native American, and who are enrolled at an accredited US college or university studying Computer Science, Computer Engineering or related STEM subjects.

Progress so far…

  • 240+

    Students recruited so far

  • 87%

    Internship placement rate

  • $2.25m

    Investment leveraged by The Hg Foundation’s support to further scale up

Franklin Maradiaga, student, SEO Tech Developer.

“I’m very grateful that I had the opportunity to participate in the SEO Tech Developer programme because everything we were learning was completely new to me, and I feel more confident in my programming skills now. I also feel like I have some projects that I can add to my resume that I can talk about during interviews. Thank you for providing us with this opportunity because I now feel ready to apply to other internships!”