Affordability, accessibility, and market-responsive training have always been foundational to BloomTech. Our commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion is deeply embedded in these values. Learn how we are working to increase the diversity of our learner community, our staff, and the technology industry at large.
Affordability, accessibility, and market-responsive training have always been foundational to Bloom Institute of Technology (formerly known as Lambda School). Our commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion is woven throughout these values.
We founded BloomTech to empower people of all backgrounds to pursue a career in technology in order to transform their financial future. In addition, we believe that entering a financially and personally rewarding field can reverse generational patterns of exclusion. We are passionate about increasing opportunity for people from identities underrepresented in the technology sector, which can impact not only their next job but all their jobs to come.
Broader inclusion clearly benefits people from communities that have historically been left out of economic opportunity. It also helps build better businesses. Research consistently shows that companies with greater diversity—in gender, race, and ability, among other factors—out-perform their peers. To cite just a few examples, companies with the greatest racial and gender diversity on executive boards are significantly more likely to earn higher-than-average profits, and companies with more diverse teams are most likely to develop innovative products and services.
We at BloomTech work to break down systemic barriers that make it harder for many people to contribute their skills, ideas, and creativity to the tech industry. We care deeply about leveraging education as a social mobility tool. We are a young company and are still fledgling in our organizational DEI journey, and publishing this report is one way we are striving to improve.
We have never been more committed to increasing the diversity of our learner community, our staff, and the technology industry at large.
-Austen Allred
BloomTech CEO & Cofounder
November 7, 2021
Historically, employment in the technology sector has not reflected our country’s diversity of backgrounds, abilities, and experiences. Systematic barriers have impeded access to the education, training, and connections that enable people to thrive in tech-based careers.
We firmly believe that talent is distributed across races, ethnicities, abilities, language, gender identity, sexual orientation, income, and countless other factors, and we work to ensure that the opportunity to pursue tech jobs is equally accessible.
Many people do not have opportunities that enable them to fulfill their potential. It will take concerted and steady efforts to disrupt systems that put some people at a disadvantage.
Addressing deep-rooted barriers to education and meaningful jobs begins to correct this imbalance. The technology industry has not only the opportunity but the responsibility to seek, recruit, support, and champion people of all backgrounds so that anyone can take advantage of opportunity.
Equity in opportunities to pursue a career in technology is more important than ever. The COVID-19 pandemic both highlighted and exacerbated the gaps between communities. People of color, people who have a disability, those who come from a lower socioeconomic background, women, and many other underrepresented groups were disproportionately affected by both the health-related and economic impacts of the pandemic. For example, Black / African American people have been nearly twice as likely as White people to test positive for COVID-19, according to the CDC. Women in the U.S. have lost nearly 1 million more jobs than men have. Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show that people who identify as Black / African American, Hispanic or Latinx were significantly more likely to be unemployed during the pandemic.
What this means for BloomTech: To do our part to counter inequity, we are committed to expanding access to technology education, regardless of learners’¹ background or identity, to provide a direct path to a rewarding career in tech.
Just like a patented product or trade secret, diversity is an asset to both companies and employees. Research overwhelmingly shows that diverse companies outperform less-diverse peers and competitors. For example, companies in the top quartile for ethnic diversity are 35 percent more likely than the lowest quartile to earn higher-than-average financial returns. And the most gender-diverse companies are 48 percent more likely to financially outperform the least gender-diverse companies.
When people of diverse backgrounds not only have a seat at the table but also drive business decisions, innovations are more likely to lead to business breakthroughs. New ideas, products, services, and solutions are born of a company’s unique combination of employee experience and perspective, so diversity makes organizations more resilient and competitive.
Diversity is not a “nice-to-have.” It is critical to the success of businesses, and it improves the experience of technology for everyone.
What this means for BloomTech: We are closely aligned with partner businesses as well as the market’s hiring needs and goals for growth. To best serve hiring companies, we actively work to provide an alternative, and largely untapped, talent pool of highly qualified graduates that reflects the country’s diversity.
We published our first Diversity Report in 2020. This report builds on that foundation and reflects demographic data from our learner population and full-time staff in 2021. Additionally, we are eager to share Outcomes data by gender and race for learners who were scheduled to complete or graduated from a BloomTech program between January 1, 2020 and December 31, 2020.
Transparency is important to us, and it helps keep us accountable for our goals. We remain committed to showing not only our growth but also opportunities to improve.
It is no easy task to break down barriers to education and open pathways to financial mobility, and progress requires ongoing effort. Sharing our successes and areas of improvement is an important part of the process.
Our hope is that this and similar reports encourage others, educational organizations and employers alike, to take a hard look at—and work to improve—their own practices related to diversity, equity, and inclusion.
This Diversity Report documents communities that are underrepresented in the technology sector, including people of color, women, people from the LGBTQIA+ community, and those who do not have a bachelor’s degree. For the first time, we also share the Outcomes performance of different groups, highlighting graduation rates and placement rates of BloomTech learners by race and gender.
Representation at BloomTech still exceeds averages of the technology sector, especially on staff diversity. Roughly a quarter of our staff, in positions throughout the company from individual contributors to leadership, are from racially underrepresented communities, and about half our employees identify as women.
Despite our ongoing and growing efforts, we also witnessed slight decreases in some measures of learner diversity. We believe this reflects the disproportionate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and recession on communities that already face multiple barriers, particularly people of color and women.
We remain committed to the sustained work required to empower people of all backgrounds to achieve financial mobility through a career in technology.
This report shares insights we have gained about the diversity of two parts of the BloomTech community: learners and staff.
We have defined DEI commitments for both staff and learners, and we will continue to regularly report on progress.
BloomTech works to close the gap between potential and opportunity by removing barriers that stand in the way of a better education, a better career, and a higher income.
BloomTech was founded with the goal to make technology education available and accessible to people of any background so they can achieve financial mobility. We also recognize that there are continued systemic barriers and challenges that remain outside of BloomTech.
Our commitment to remove obstacles that stand in the way of a better, high paying career will expand opportunity for our current learners and those to come.
BloomTech works to ensure our staff reflect the diversity of our learners and wider community so we are more equipped to make decisions that benefit learners, employers, and the technology industry at large.
Diversity of background and perspective helps us design programs to train and support learners, and we continue to work to expand diversity in BloomTech staff at all levels. As a result, BloomTech is better equipped to enable companies to hire just-right candidates for in-demand roles.
BloomTech also has DEI built into our leadership structure. We formed a DEI Council in 2021 because diversity, equity, and inclusion work is essential to the success of BloomTech. The Council’s role is to add clarity, emphasis, accountability, and support to our work around DEI, and it guides leaders and teams to approach their work through a DEI lens. The DEI Council is made up of senior leaders and team members from across the organization.
The DEI Council's role is also to support our staff-led Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) team. The purpose of this group is to create a productive and educational space for staff to shape BloomTech's culture through the lens of justice, diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging. We believe that we serve learners and each other best when every person feels included and supported at work, and we believe that this is an area where we will always be improving.
The JEDI team supports our Employee Resource Groups (ERGs). ERGs are voluntary, employee-led groups whose aim is to foster a diverse and inclusive workplace. They are usually led and participated in by employees who share a common identity such as race, gender, or sexual orientation. The groups exist to provide support and help in personal and career development, and to create a safe space where employees can more fully express and explore their identities. ERGs are open to all BloomTech employees, inclusive of all identities or affinities.
As you will read in the following pages, BloomTech has made gains in some areas of diversity. We also have room for improvement.
Our DEI efforts fall into four main components, each of which covers specific, targeted interventions.
There is no “finish line” for DEI work. It requires an ongoing commitment and willingness to own mistakes, learn, and do better.
Identity is complex. It is comprised of many overlapping factors, including race, ethnicity, gender identity, ability, sexual orientation, education, and countless others. Our data looks at one factor at a time, but we recognize the intersectional and multifaceted nature of identity.
We are proud that BloomTech’s learners, graduates, and staff bring a wide range of experiences, backgrounds, identities, and perspectives to our community. The following sections share data and insights on diversity, equity, and inclusion at BloomTech.
According to numbers from the 2019 U.S. Census, about 36 percent of the U.S. population self-identifies as a race or ethnicity that is underrepresented⁴ in the technology sector. At 32.5 percent, BloomTech’s learner population roughly mirrors national demographics and is significantly more diverse than the technology industry.
In 2020, people of color were disproportionately impacted by the health-related and economic impacts of the pandemic and recession. BloomTech also saw uneven impacts on our learner community: Enrollment of learners of underrepresented races fell 3.5 percent from 2020 to 2021. Further, we saw inequities in graduation and placement rates for some BloomTech learners. These insights will guide our efforts to not only increase diversity but provide the resources and support to help all learners succeed.
Graduation rate for each race is calculated by dividing the number of learners who graduated as of the Reporting Date for BloomTech’s 2020 Outcomes Report⁷ by the number of Starting Learners⁸ whose Original Expected Graduation Date fell in 2020. Certain groups have been excluded due to small population sizes.
Placement rate for each race is calculated by dividing the number of Placed Learners⁹ by the number of learners who graduated in 2020. Certain groups have been excluded due to small population sizes.
Unlike most other educational organizations and the tech sector at large, we collect gender identity data beyond the male/female binary. Our learners self select how they identify along the gender spectrum. Just over 6 percent of BloomTech learners identify as non-binary, gender queer, gender fluid, transgender, or more than one gender.
Pre-pandemic, our learner community was disproportionately male. The share of female learners dropped further in 2021, to 20 percent. These data mirror troubling trends of the pandemic, when roughly 2 million women left the workforce or scaled back their professional efforts.
We are concerned about gender representation and are working for greater gender equity in BloomTech and beyond. Improvement begins with data and transparency, so we are sharing not only statistics on the gender identity of BloomTech learners but also the outcomes of learners by gender.
Graduation rate for each gender category is calculated by dividing the number of learners who graduated as of the Reporting Date for BloomTech’s 2020 Outcomes Report¹² by the number of Starting Learners¹³ whose Original Expected Graduation Date fell in 2020. Due to small population sizes, non-binary, gender queer, or gender fluid, transgender, and two or more have been combined into the “Other” category.
Placement rate for each gender category is calculated by dividing the number of Placed Learners¹⁴ by the number of learners who graduated in 2020. Due to small population sizes, non-binary, gender queer, or gender fluid, transgender, and two or more have been combined into the “Other” category.
Nationwide data from 2020 show decreased enrollment in four-year colleges, with steepest declines among Black and African American students. We believe that the pressures of the pandemic, including layoffs, underemployment, and loss of caregiving support, have lessened the feasibility of completing a four-year college degree on time for many people.
Our data reveal that an increasing proportion of BloomTech learners are turning to our model as an alternative to traditional education. 54.7 percent of our learners in 2020 had not earned a four-year degree. We believe this demonstrates that learners increasingly see our streamlined model as a more direct, and more attainable, route to a tech job.
When analyzing the previous income of BloomTech learners, we found that a greater proportion of learners in 2021 earned no income before enrolling. This result was not surprising, given the pandemic-related spike in unemployment rates in 2020 and 2021.
We also found that the proportion of our learners who previously earned less than $50,000 annually stayed relatively flat, compared to 2020 data. Of our 2021 learners, 81.4 percent previously earned less than $50,000, compared to 80.3 percent in 2020.
Overall, the composition of previous salary type among our learners has not changed greatly since 2020. The number of people who formerly earned an hourly wage increased slightly, to 63 percent, and those who were salaried decreased slightly, to 27.1 percent.
Surprisingly, the number of learners who were previously unemployed increased only by about one percent. This near-flat rate stood out to us because national unemployment rates skyrocketed at the beginning of the pandemic.
The median age of BloomTech learners decreased in 2021, to 29. A much greater proportion of our learners are 35 or younger than in 2020.
In contrast, the average age for a full-time student enrolled in a four-year college was 21.8. The difference suggests that BloomTech provides a route to a professional career for adult learners. BloomTech also helps learners who want to transition careers, without the time and financial commitment of a four-year degree.
The proportion of our learners who identify as LGBTQIA+ slightly decreased between 2020 and 2021, to 12.6 percent. While sexual orientation is not accounted for in the U.S. Census, an estimated 4.5 percent of adults in the US identify as LGBTQIA+. That estimate means that the proportion of BloomTech learners who identify as LGBTQIA+ is nearly three times higher than estimated national averages.
Staff diversity is important in part because a variety of experiences and perspectives helps us as a company make better decisions for all our learners.
Staff diversity has been an organizational priority, and we are proud of our gains. These trends carry throughout the company: Individual contributor, management, leadership, technical, and non-technical jobs generally became more diverse in terms of race / ethnicity as well as gender.
We believe that increasing staff diversity will have a positive impact on the experience of learning at and working for BloomTech. We will continue to strive for greater diversity within our staff and a more inclusive workplace.
Despite a smaller overall workforce, the proportion of underrepresented groups (Black or African American, Hispanic or Latinx, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander) nearly doubled among staff, increasing from 13 percent to 24 percent. While increases in representation varied, our staff became more diverse in all types of roles.
We see opportunities to increase the diversity of our staff, particularly in leadership and technical positions. BloomTech will continue to offer advancement opportunities to employees of all backgrounds and hire from diverse pools of candidates. We also provide many pathways for internal mobility, encouraging hiring managers to post roles internally that enable lateral and upward career advancement.
BloomTech is close to achieving gender representation parity, with 49 percent of our staff identifying as female. While females are still significantly underrepresented in technical roles at our company, the 14 percent increase from 2020 represents significant progress. We are proud to report that at least 50 percent of BloomTech leadership and management are female.
The report you just read reflects a company-wide commitment: We are working to further increase diversity of all kinds in our learner community and staff. It is critical to expand access and opportunity to communities underrepresented in technology education and careers—but that is not all. Our hope is to demonstrate that we can make consistent progress and fuel change across our industry. The field of technology as a whole has work to do to enable talent from all backgrounds to contribute their skills, ideas, passion, and point of view.
We invite you to join us, whether that involves signing up for a program, investigating your company’s reporting of diversity data, or sharing your talents and skills with our active learner and alumni communities. Our commitment to diversity is an ongoing conversation and work in progress. There is no “finish line,” and we are all-in for the long haul.
-Austen Allred
BloomTech CEO & Cofounder
For clarity, we’re including a few definitions of terms used in the report above.
BloomTech collects demographic data from learners through an optional-to-complete Diversity Survey. A snapshot of BloomTech’s learner population was taken on August 17, 2021 for use in this report. As of that date there were 778 active learners enrolled in BloomTech programs who had completed the survey. Each question in the survey is optional, so response rates to each question varied. Distributions of responses are provided based on the number of learners who responded to each question; non-responses were excluded.
The language that we use and the categories offered in questions on gender and sexual identity come from the best practices and guidelines of The Consortium of Higher Education LGBTQ Resource Professionals and The Human Rights Campaign Guidelines, both known for their strong community advocacy. Language on ethnicity follows the terminology recommended by the National Center For Education Statistics.
Gender Identity: If an individual selected two or more gender identities, they were included in the “Two or More” category.
Sexual Orientation: “Gay,” “Lesbian” responses were grouped into the “Gay or Lesbian” category. “Bisexual,” “Pansexual,” and “Queer” were included in the “Bisexual, Pansexual or Queer” category. If a learner selected more than one option or “Questioning or unsure,” they were included in the “Questioning or unsure” category.
Underrepresented minority (URM): To report on the underrepresented minority category, we utilized guidelines from the EEOC and the NSF. We used the NSF’s breakdown of the labor market particular to science and engineering fields to define this group. In our report, “Underrepresented Minority” includes:
• Black or African American
• Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander
• Hispanic or Latinx
• American Indian, Alaskan Native or Indigenous
• Two or More Races - URM
Two or More Races - URM: Learners were included in the “Two or More Races – URM” category when one of the selected races falls into an aforementioned URM category.
Staff demographic data represents 103 full-time employees as of August 17, 2021 and was collected via self-identification in BloomTech’s people management software.
Leadership team: BloomTech currently defines leadership as any individual listed on our company website. This group of individuals contribute to material decisions that influence the direction of our business. Leadership is a mix of our C-Suite, VPs, and Directors, although not all Directors are considered leadership.
Underrepresented minority: Similar to our learner data, we used the NSF’s breakdown of the labor market particular to science and engineering fields to define this group, with one exception. Our staff data is not as granular as our learner data, so we’re not able to parse out those who identify as “Two or More Races” into URM or non-URM subgroups. As a result, we chose to exclude all those who identify as “Two or More Races” in our calculation of underrepresented minorities.
Technical: In this breakdown of staff data, technical roles include those in engineering, product, and product design.
Non-Technical: This includes all roles not in engineering, product, or product design.
¹BloomTech defines a learner as a student or alumnus of a BloomTech program
²A snapshot of BloomTech’s active learner population was taken on August 17, 2021. During their BloomTech experience, learners are asked to complete an optional diversity survey. The total addressable population for all measures of demographic representation is the 778 learners who completed the survey. Each question in the survey is optional, so response rates to each question varied.
³In our diversity surveys, learners have the opportunity to self-identify. When reporting on outcomes - graduation rates and placement rates - by race or gender, we have excluded or combined certain groups due to small population sizes so as to avoid presenting potentially misleading data.
⁴Underrepresented populations include Black or African American, American Indian, Native Alaskan, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander, Hispanic or Latinx, and two or more races (at least one of which is underrepresented)
⁵Learners who did not answer this survey question have been excluded. 56 learners, or 6.4% of the total addressable population did not answer this question.
⁶Learner Outcomes are provided for the addressable population covered in BloomTech’s 2020 Outcomes Report: learners who were scheduled to complete or graduated from a BloomTech program between January 1, 2020 and December 31, 2020. Certain groups have been excluded due to small population sizes.
⁷The Reporting Date for BloomTech’s 2020 Outcomes Report is August 10, 2021.
⁸A learner who attended day 1 of Unit 2 of the coursework
⁹A learner whose Actual Graduation Date was in 2020 and who was subsequently placed in a job as of the Reporting Date
¹⁰Learners who did not answer this survey question have been excluded. 79 learners, or 10.2% of the total addressable population did not answer this question.
¹¹Learner Outcomes are provided for the addressable population covered in BloomTech’s 2020 Outcomes Report: learners who were scheduled to complete or graduated from a BloomTech program between January 1, 2020 and December 31, 2020. Due to small population sizes, non-binary, gender queer, or gender fluid, transgender, and two or more have been combined into the “Other” category
¹²The Reporting Date for BloomTech’s 2020 Outcomes Report is August 10, 2021.
¹³A learner who attended day 1 of Unit 2 of the coursework
¹⁴A learner whose Actual Graduation Date was in 2020 and who was subsequently placed in a job as of the Reporting Date
¹⁵Learners who did not answer this survey question have been excluded. 102 learners, or 13.1% of the total addressable population did not answer this question.
¹⁶Learners who did not answer this survey question have been excluded. 102 learners, or 13.1% of the total addressable population did not answer this question.
¹⁷Learners who did not answer this survey question have been excluded. 99 learners, or 12.7% of the total addressable population did not answer this question.
¹⁸Learners who did not answer this survey question have been excluded. 102 learners, or 13.1% of the total addressable population did not answer this question.
¹⁹Learners who did not answer this survey question have been excluded. Since ‘Prefer Not to Disclose’ is an answer to this question, we included those who responded in this manner. 100 learners, or 12.9% of the total addressable population did not answer this question.
²⁰Staff demographic data represents 103 full-time employees as of August 17, 2021 and was collected via self-identification in BloomTech’s people management software.
Download a PDF of the report by clicking below.
Please note: The 2020 Diversity Report was released when Bloom Institute of Technology was its former name, Lambda School. Therefore the report below uses the name Lambda School instead of BloomTech.
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