Through Impact Projects learners and completers of the Colorado Community College System’s Rapid IT Training and Employment Initiative are granted the unique opportunity to engage in real-world, paid employer-led projects By combining data analytics and IT certificate programs with hands-on projects, learners attain both the technical and professional skills as well as valuable work experience needed for today’s tech careers. Powered by Riipen, the leading work-based learning platform, Impact Projects supports Denver based employers to access top talent and meet their IT and data project needs.

Impact Projects allows learners looking to explore the tech sector to benefit from paid work-based learning experiences through 40 hour projects. Learners are able to enhance and showcase their skills, form employer networks and create a virtual portfolio to take forward in their career journey. Completed remotely over 4 weeks, employer projects provide authentic experience and support career clarity to pave the way for success in the dynamic job market.

Employers must be located in Denver metro area and considered as one of the following:

Employer organizations must also be an Equal Opportunity Employer.

Employers may not be:

You will be asked to verify your company information when joining the Impact Projects program. You can find out more about our employer verification process here.

To sign up for Impact Projects you will first need to join the Impact Projects portal where you can post your projects to be matched to the program. If you are new to Riipen, you will be prompted to create an employer account and populate your company’s portal profile. On joining the program, you will be asked to verify that you meet the Impact Projects eligibility criteria, as outlined in our Terms and Conditions here. For more info on the verification process, view this article here.

Employers can post a range of digital tech projects in the core program areas of entry level IT Support and Data Analytics. Projects should provide 40 hours of work per participant and each project must be completed over 4 weeks. For more information on how to create and submit a project for Impact Projects, you can consult this article.

There’s no limit to how many projects an employer can submit to the Impact Projects program. The learners will be assigned in teams of 5, directly to the project through the program. That being said, we ask that you be mindful of the amount of learners you accept to work on your project, to ensure you can dedicate appropriate time to each participant.

Projects are assigned teams of up to 5 learners, which means your project should be able to be completed over 200 hours in total. If you think you will need more than this we recommend splitting the work and posting multiple projects to work with more than one Impact Projects team.

All Impact Projects projects must be completed over 4 weeks and in line with the cohorts below.

Each participant is expected to contribute 40 hours to the project. A project timeline can be adjusted, as long it still meets those requirements and if both the employer and the participant team are in agreement to do so. To adjust the project timeline that is recorded on the Riipen platform, the employer can make a request from the settings page on the match. Instructions for how to do this can be found here. The Impact Projects team will review and approve new date change requests within 2 business days.

In an effort to create a good Impact Projects experience for all parties, we have Terms and Conditions, which can be found here. Please take a moment to read through them. You will be asked to sign the T&Cs agreement when you post your project. We've also created a three strike system. This means that if any Impact Projects user goes against the Terms and Conditions, they will receive a strike. You will be notified via e-mail when/if you've received a strike. If you receive three strikes, you will be removed from the program and will no longer be able to participate.

Learners will be placed into a team of 5 and will be matched to your project by the Impact Projects team. Learners must start and complete the project work through the Riipen platform in order to receive their honorarium payment. You are welcome to communicate with them outside of the platform as well. Learners will need a dedicated contact to answer questions and provide access to any resources they need throughout the project.

These learners are currently enrolled in an IT career readiness program and receiving career and success coaching.

No, Impact Projects is a fully subsidized program. On successfully completing an employer project, each participant is paid a $800 honorarium by Riipen. For more information on confirming and completing an Impact Projects project please consult this article.

Impact Projects is different from traditional wage subsidy or grant funding programs that you might be used to. Riipen pays learners directly, which means that funding is attached to learners, not projects. Honorariums are not locked in until a participant team has been matched to and started your project. Honorariums are sent to learners as a one-time payment, which means that learners only receive payment upon successful completion of projects. Learners who do not fully complete the project will not be paid. Learners will not be permitted to take on more than one project.

No. Learners are neither employees of the organization they do a project for, nor of Riipen (who will pay their honorarium). As such, learners do not qualify for any benefits and will not obtain any record of employment from either organizations. Upon joining the Impact Projects program, Riipen will require learners to submit their legal name, social security number, and mailing address so that we can issue the appropriate tax form(s).

No. While you are welcome to submit your project(s) to other courses and internship programs on Riipen, connections that you make outside of the Impact Projects program would not have the honorarium attached, even if the learners are eligible. Learners will only receive a honorarium if they have applied and been accepted to your project through the Impact Projects portal.