One of the biggest complaints and concerns of businesses in the channel seems like it’s always been finding the right people to hire. Finding quality talent is a challenge, even in a tight economy, and when you are a small business, every dollar counts and you don’t want to make a mistake.

Managed service provider and IT consulting firm Virteva has found a new way to help solve its hiring challenges. The Minneapolis-based company employs 105 people today and three of those came from an apprenticeship program called IT-Ready offered by Creating IT Futures Foundation, the philanthropic arm of CompTIA. A fourth person from the program is working with the company on a temporary basis.

Hiring for the service desk

Jamey Anderson, VP of delivery and operations at Virteva, told MSPmentor that hiring from the program has been a huge success.

What we’ve seen has been nothing short of amazing from these folks,” he said. “Having a service desk especially lends itself well to this program.”

And just who are these graduates? They are motivated individuals who have applied to the CompTIA program, worked unpaid as they received training, and earned an A+ certification. Many times these are career changers or individuals who are re-entering the workforce after a period of absence.

Who are they?

At Virteva, one of the employees from the Creating IT Futures program was recently a stay-at-home dad who was ready to return to the workforce. Another employee came from the hospitality industry and was looking for a career change.

“Most of these people were career changers,” said Virteva’s HR director Rachel Wittrock. “They’d tried something else and found other employment, but they’d been playing around with computers on the side.”

Wittrock added: “We are fast growing organization, and it’s great to have a pool of prescreened individuals who understand the role.”

These individuals have also already been subject to a background check by the program, have been interviewed, and are motivated. They have showed up on time to the program and have passed CompTIA’s A+ exam.

“We cannot afford to hire people who might fail us,” Wittrock said. “We don't have time to deal with failures to deal with people who are less than excellent. When we do screening of college graduates, we need to weed things out — do they have a way to get to office? Will they be on time. Do they have a great disposition on the telephone? Do they have a want and desire for continuous employment? From a business perspective, hiring graduates from Creating IT futures means that there is a 100 percent success rate.”

Another benefit? Having someone else working on your behalf to find the right fit for your company. Wittrock developed a relationship with a local representative of Creating IT Futures, Kathy Brennan.

“Kathy has learned about everything we need,” Anderson said. “We need people who have an empathetic disposition. Kathy has helped handpick and recommend the graduates who come out of the program."