By: William Jones
Most companies do not lose ground on technology because the talent does not exist. They lose ground because building it internally takes time nobody has budgeted for.
Before Salman Akorede built Infotech Academy, he ran IRSL Consulting, his Houston, Texas, SAP security firm, and watched companies struggle to find cybersecurity and SAP talent that could actually hold up on the job. That shortage is what pushed him to start training people himself, first for his own consulting projects, later as a formal program open to anyone willing to start from zero.
“It’s about building reputation to revenue,” Akorede says of the philosophy behind both companies.
The idea is straightforward. Rather than competing for a small pool of certified cybersecurity, cloud and SAP specialists, employers can grow that talent from inside their own workforce. The training runs through a Registered Apprenticeship Program supported by the Texas Workforce Commission and the U.S. Department of Labor, and government grant funding covers its cost rather than the company’s own budget.
“You don’t need to worry about the cost of training,” Akorede says, describing the pitch he makes to employer partners. “We, on our own, because we have the backing of the government, we can train your employees for you.”
The arrangement is built for the realities of running a business, not around abstract workforce theory. An employer identifies which employees need development, and Infotech Academy handles the instruction, certification and progress tracking. If an employee is not performing at the level a role requires, the employer flags the gap and the training adjusts around it.
“We will help them acquire stronger skills so they can support you,” Akorede says.
Infotech Academy holds discovery calls with employers who want to talk through whether a Registered Apprenticeship Program partnership fits their technology workforce needs.
Retention matters as much as capability. Akorede describes employers who see a trained employee’s skills grow and begin to think about how to keep that person on the team.
The program model, known internally as Zero to Hero, assumes no prior technology background at all. Participants begin with digital literacy, career skills and small business fundamentals, then move into a chosen specialty, cybersecurity, cloud computing, artificial intelligence or SAP security among them, with hands-on access to live systems rather than coursework alone.
“We take you from zero level where you have no IT experience, no IT knowledge,” Akorede says. “We assume you don’t know anything.”
Texas residents who are currently employed can use the Registered Apprenticeship Program registration page to check their eligibility.
For Akorede, the priority now is not filling more training seats. Enrollment has never been the constraint, since the program costs participants nothing to join. What determines how many people the program can actually place in jobs is the number of employers willing to partner with it.
“B2B is the priority because employability is a stronger priority,” Akorede says.
He has set a public target of placing 200 participants in jobs across the country by 2027, with Infotech Academy currently expanding beyond Texas into Georgia, Maryland, New Jersey, New York and California. Every one of those placements depends on an employer somewhere deciding that developing talent in house costs less than continuing to search for it outside.
