Drupal Career Online Scholarship Sponsor Opportunity

DrupalEasy Scholarship Program

Sponsorship Program Overview, Process & Policies

DrupalEasy works with companies and organizations to help build the Drupal talent pool by identifying people who have the requisite skills and enthusiasm to embark on a career in Drupal.  Sponsors underwrite tuition for individuals who have been accepted to enroll in Drupal Career Online training.  Once participants graduate, they are hired as interns or junior developers with the organization that provided the scholarship, or are introduced to other organizations who have the need for fresh Drupal talent. 

Goals

  • Provide a mechanism to help create a reliable, diverse talent pipeline for sponsoring organizations and the Drupal Community in general.
  • Provide qualified, diverse participants with the best possible Drupal career training to achieve success as members of the Drupal Community.

Saybra O'Brien from Four Kitchens shares some insight into their sponsorship.

Overview

DrupalEasy, a small, woman-owned small business focused on Drupal talent development and consulting, has offered its comprehensive Drupal career training program, licensed by the Commission for Independent Education, Florida Department of Education (#4918,) for more than a decade. The DrupalEasy Scholarship Program is designed to be a sustainable program that provides comprehensive Drupal career preparation and hands-on experience for people eager to begin careers in Drupal development, with particular focus on diverse candidates. The purpose of the course is to provide the foundational Drupal and Drupal Community training and confidence to qualified, enthusiastic participants. 

Drupal Career Online, offered two times per year in the Fall and Spring, is a 12-week career technical education certificate program in Drupal consisting of 84 hours of curriculum and additional co-working/office hours, extensive learning resources and mentors available to every student. Students include career-changers; Drupal beginners/ intermediates looking to improve their skills; and employees of organizations who need to train internal developers/teams in Drupal.

Sponsorship

The  DrupalEasy Scholarship Program sponsorship opportunity is open to any companies and organizations within the Drupal Community that seek to populate and diversify the Drupal talent pipeline. Sponsors commit to: 

  • Underwriting the cost of tuition for DrupalEasy vetted, qualified participants.
  • Supplying selected participants with computers, (and optional stipends and other resources.) 
  • Assigning a mentor for their scholarship recipient(s.)
  • Possibly providing an entry-level or internship work experience opportunity for their scholarship recipient(s) upon graduation from the DCO. 

Become a sponsor

How it Works

The sponsored scholarship program and all supporting processes are based on providing qualified participants with the best possible training and support to become successful Drupal developers. The  DrupalEasy Scholarship Program, and indeed Drupal Career Online in general, must ensure that the programs yield graduates that are set up for success in the Drupal Community. 

DrupalEasy assumes the primary responsibility to ensure that:

  • Participants are qualified, capable and motivated to embrace the rigors of Drupal Career Online and ultimately a Drupal career. 
  • DCO curriculum teaches and encourages Drupal best practices.
  • Students have proper guidance to help them learn and master their coursework and assimilate into the Drupal Community.

Step-By-Step

Once a sponsor commits to the program and determines the number of awards and the frequency of their scholarships/fellowships, the organization and DrupalEasy will execute a Memorandum of Understanding that outlines how the organization and DrupalEasy will work together to complete each of the four phases of the program for each session of Drupal Career Online. 

 DrupalEasy Scholarship Program Process

  1. Recruitment
  2. Selection
  3. Training & Mentoring
  4. Work Experience

 

  1. Recruitment

Recruitment includes all outreach efforts and formal applications that specify the applicant’s desire to be considered for scholarships to attend Drupal Career Online.

 

1.1 Outreach

DrupalEasy works individually and collectively with all scholarship sponsors to create an outreach program that promotes the scholarship program to prospective target audiences in an effort to maximize the number of qualified applicants. Strategies include blog posts, social media, promotion of Taste-Of-Drupal course information mini-webinars, sponsored link promotions in The Weekly Drop, materials provided at DrupalCamps and other events, the DrupalEasy Newsletter and website. The DrupalEasy website includes a Scholarship program page that provides an overview and links provided by each sponsor. Sponsors are encouraged to utilize their individual outreach resources and networks to encourage applications. 

 

1.2  Application Process

Candidates complete and submit a DrupalEasy DCO application form, or a DrupalEasy-approved form collected and shared with DrupalEasy by the sponsoring organization. Candidates indicate on the application for which sponsor program(s) they would like to be considered.

DrupalEasy encourages all organizations to utilize the standard Drupal Career Online application as the starting point for all applicants so that the candidates are assured that their qualifications can be determined according to the standards that all course applicants are measured against. It is important that all candidates who are put forth to scholarship providers are vetted by DrupalEasy for prerequisite knowledge and ability to be successful in the course, and in turn, a career in Drupal. 

1.2.1 All candidates for all sponsored scholarship programs submit a DrupalEasy application or an organization application that includes all information required to apply for the DCO. On DrupalEasy applications, students have the opportunity to indicate the organization(s) scholarships for which they would like to be considered. 

1.2.2 DrupalEasy vets and processes all candidate applications as they are submitted. Organizations that utilize their own DrupalEasy-approved applications present them to DrupalEasy as soon as they are received. 

1.2.3 Once applications are received, DrupalEasy screens each application to ensure that every scholarship candidate put forth to sponsors has the ability to be successful in the course. Applicants who are not qualified are provided with information and resources to work on their own to learn prerequisite skills and knowledge to perhaps apply for a subsequent session of the DCO.

1.2.4 DrupalEasy interviews screened prospective candidates one-on-one and/or at one of the Taste-of-Drupal Information webinars.

1.2.5 DrupalEasy determines acceptance status:

  • Applicants who are accepted are notified and presented to sponsors.
  • Applicants who have a few areas that they need to learn before the course begins are accepted by DrupalEasy contingent on completion of pre-work provided by DrupalEasy, notified and presented to sponsors as contingent. 
  • Applicants who are not qualified are provided with information and resources to work on their own to learn prerequisite skills and knowledge to perhaps apply for a subsequent session of the DCO.

1.2.6 DrupalEasy forwards applications and interview notes of each accepted (either confirmed or contingent) candidate to the sponsors selected by the applicant. DrupalEasy informs each un-accepted applicant, and in most cases provides information and resources so that the candidate can work on prerequisite requirements and apply for a subsequent session of the course. 

  1. Selection

Candidates who are accepted to the DCO, either confirmed or contingent, are presented to the sponsoring organization(s) specified by each candidate. Each sponsor conducts their own selection process from the vetted pool of participants based on the organizations’ needs and hiring parameters. 

  1. DrupalEasy provides scholarship sponsorships with the applications and interview notes of all relevant vetted, qualified candidates. Candidates are presented as confirmed accepted, or accepted once they have completed the Drupal-Easy provided pre-work. In the case of contingent candidates, pre-work and sponsor selection processes run concurrently to ensure enough time for both before the course begins. 
  2. Sponsors utilize their own selection process for candidates after reviewing DCO application and interview notes.  
  3. Sponsors select and rank candidates, and make scholarship offers. (If a candidate does not accept, sponsors may, time permitting, make offers to other candidates or choose to not participate in the current session of the DCO.) Final acceptance to the DCO by DrupalEasy for contingent candidates must be assured before candidates are offered scholarships. 
  4. Candidates accept/select scholarship offers.
  5. Sponsors inform DrupalEasy who they will be sponsoring for the session.
  6. DrupalEasy provides Scholarship recipients with enrollment materials. 
  7. Scholarship recipients enroll in the DCO. (includes signing an enrollment form with contact information and providing proof of age.)
  8. Sponsors are invoiced for the tuition of their Sponsored participants.

3. Training and Mentoring

DrupalEasy is committed to providing the most comprehensive training, access to enriching learning resources and career professional & technical support to every participant in Drupal Career Online to ensure every student can reach their potential as a member of the Drupal Community.

3.1 Drupal Career Online

DrupalEasy provides the training and affiliated resources to all scholarship recipients through its Spring and Fall session of Drupal Career Online every year. DrupalEasy provided periodic updates to keep sponsors informed of the progress of their scholarship recipients.  In addition, if participants are having any issues, DrupalEasy is happy to work with the student, the sponsor and in some cases the student’s mentor to overcome the challenges and provide input and, as possible, also offers additional help to the student. 

3.2 Mentoring

Each scholarship sponsor provides a mentor for each participant that they sponsor, unless other arrangements are coordinated with DrupalEasy. 

4.0 Work Experience

It is the option of the scholarship provider to offer their sponsored participants with work experience opportunities. DrupalEasy encourages all sponsors to create a process and ongoing program to ensure graduates of the program are able to gain the valuable work experience that is key to success.

For those sponsored participants that do not have an opportunity to work with/for their sponsoring organizations, DrupalEasy does our best to provide introductions to other organizations who may have internship or junior developer opportunities available.