Black Data Processing Associates Is Where Black Technologists Find Certifications, Recruiters and a Path into Management

If you work in tech, or you are trying to get in, you should check out Black Data Processing Associates.

Earl A. Pace Jr. and David Wimberly started it in Philadelphia in 1975 with 35 members and a complaint they could name precisely: almost no Black people held middle or upper management roles in data processing, recruiting was thin, preparation for those jobs was thinner, and career mobility barely existed. Fifty years on, that management gap is still what the organization works on.

Members can get certified on BDPA’s dime. The Cloud Academy is a twelve-week program that pays for Google Cloud certifications, and the Data Science Academy runs Saturday workshops in Excel, SQL, R and Python. In a field where the next job usually requires a certificate you do not have yet, someone else covering it changes the math.

The other half of the problem is who you know, and BDPA’s 30 chapters come with professional coaching, mentoring and the regular contact with hiring managers that turns into referrals. A career center runs year-round, the national conference pairs sessions with a two-day career fair, and an Executive Protégé Program exists for members aiming at the management jobs the founders were shut out of.

BDPA starts recruiting people into the field long before they graduate. Its National High School Computer Competition has run since 1986, now fields more than 20 teams from chapters nationwide, and BDPA says it trains 800 to 1,200 high school students a year and awards over $50,000 annually in cash awards through scholarships including the BETF Corporate Scholarship Program, the BDPA Oracle Scholars Program and the Dr. Jesse Bemley Scholarship.

Student membership is $25 a year, adults pay $100, and a lifetime membership is $1,000.

Membership details are at bdpa.org/membership.