President Obama visited downtown Louisville Thursday in an effort to bring light to a federal grant program that will help cities train more people for tech jobs. The president praised Louisville officials for their efforts to make these jobs more accessible to the city’s residents.
Obama told a group of supporters and employees at Indatus that there are about two thousand vacant IT positions in Louisville. He says it’s mostly because there aren’t enough people with tech skills to fill them.
Indatus is a data technology downtown that is among a handful of companies committed to hiring people who finish a local online coding workshop called Code Louisville.
Obama said Code Louisville—which involves city government, local businesses and grants from the federal government-- is a proven way to close that gap. "And my administration is proud to be investing in Code Louisville because we want more places to follow Kentucky’s example." he said.
In an effort to replicate Code Louisville throughout the country, the White House is offering one hundred million dollars in grants to cities interested in training their residents for the tech industry.
