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SILICON SLOPES, Utah – Pluralsight, Inc. (NASDAQ: PS), the technology skills platform, today announced that the company’s social enterprise, Pluralsight One, is partnering with the national workforce development nonprofit Year Up to close the Opportunity Divide for underserved young adults by building technology skills that strengthen pathways to professional employment.

There are currently 5 million young adults disconnected from stable career pathways while there are 12 million jobs requiring post-secondary education that will go unfilled in the next decade. This creates both an equity problem for millions of young adults that have the talent and motivation but that lack opportunity as well as a business problem for companies that have opportunities but lack the talent to fill them. The Pluralsight One and Year Up partnership meets both these problems head-on, creating an accelerant for opportunity by empowering young adults with technology skills to access careers, grow as contributors and leaders, and in turn support the technology strategies of companies.

“Access to technology skills is one of the most powerful tools we have to create equality of opportunity in our technology-driven world, and by making Pluralsight available to Year Up students and graduates nationally we can ensure they have full agency over their lives and careers,” said Aaron Skonnard, co-founder and CEO of Pluralsight. “Pluralsight One exists to advance Pluralsight’s mission to democratize technology skills and I’m proud to partner with Year Up to increase equal access to technology skills for underserved young adults to close the Opportunity Divide.”

Year Up’s mission is to close the Opportunity Divide by ensuring that young adults gain the skills, experiences, and support that will empower them to reach their potential through careers and higher education. By accessing Pluralsight One’s resources, Year Up participants can develop the technology skills they need to flourish in their internships, move into full-time employment and thrive as they continue to build their careers over the years to come.

“We’re thrilled to partner with Pluralsight One to provide all our students and graduates — as well as our staff members — with free access to thousands of online courses and other tools that will help them hone their skills and stay up-to-date with the latest developments,” said Gerald Chertavian, Year Up Founder and CEO. “Through Pluralsight’s generous support, our young adults will be even better prepared to earn and grow meaningful careers at top companies across the US.”

The multi-year, national partnership with Year Up will support their staff's technology skills development as well as that of the young adults supported by their programming. Pluralsight One is providing a $12.3 million, three-year product grant that includes tech strategy development and access to 6,500 licenses to the Pluralsight platform for staff, students and alumni in year one; with an additional 4,500 licenses each in years two and three to support annual youth cohorts. In addition, Pluralsight One is supplementing the product-based investment with $100,000 in funding in 2019 to support Year Up's tech strategy and development.