School named in honor of famous rapper is ‘cleaning up’ the streets of Wilmington with tech

The Reginald Noble School of Technology Methodologies Training (better known as Reginald Noble Tech) — named in honor of Reginald “Redman” Noble, the Grammy-nominated, best-selling rapper — is a nonprofit with a major initiative to transform the lives of Black men in urban areas by creating new opportunities to inspire, educate and prepare.

The innovative school is addressing the growing need to provide underserved Black men in mainly urban communities, who are 18-25 years old, the opportunity and access to careers in technology, particularly software. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that careers in software development over the next 10 years are growing 22% faster than average. Reginald Noble Tech wants to change the narrative; bucking trends that show that only 2% to 5% of tech executives are Black.

Reginald Noble Tech is offering young African American males access to free, eight-week classes offered in such areas as network testing, UAT/GUI testing, security testing and mobile application testing.

To kick off the school’s fall session in mid-September, Mike Purzycki, mayor of Wilmington and Delaware Governor John Carney offered opening remarks, inspiring the young men and celebrating the program’s contributions to the community. The classes were filled to capacity on the first day of the announcement.

With the support of 100 Black Men of Philadelphia-Manhood 101 Program, Cait Brown, a veteran business executive and founder, worked with numerous members of the community to establish the school.

In addition, Noble has been nominated for the prestigious Computer History Museum Fellows Awards, recognizing him as the first Black male with a standalone software technology school rebranded to be named in his honor, as well as for inspiring young African-American men to pursue careers in technology. This nomination is historic, and serves as a powerful tribute to Noble and his commitment to the community.

While initially launching in Wilmington,  Reginald Noble Tech is planning to expand the programs in urban areas around the country over the next few years, offering training in other disciplines along with software testing. The school’s mission is to “clean the streets” by providing these young men training in areas whereas they are able to make living wages.

The school’s goal is to train 30 young men per year during four annual sessions in each urban area where the school has been established. Based on the success of their current class (the first class), the school’s founder sees no problems with achieving that goal. The school plans to raise at least 50k by the spring semester.

The young men of the current class are already establishing the foundations of an LLC. They intend to use their training in technology to form a recruiting firm which places technology on job sites per the needs of clients.