Per Scholas has launched a new Salesforce AI Fellowship designed to close a growing gap in technology hiring: the distance between completing AI-related training and having enough workplace experience to land a job. The eight-month paid program will place selected graduates with New York City nonprofits, where they will apply Salesforce administration, data governance and AI workflow skills to real operational projects.
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For technology workers entering an AI-shaped labor market, completing a training program is increasingly only the first step. Employers want candidates who can demonstrate that they can apply technical knowledge inside real organizations, work with existing systems and make technology useful to business teams.
Per Scholas is attempting to address that experience gap with the launch of its Salesforce AI Fellowship, an eight-month paid work-based learning program for graduates of its Salesforce Administrator training.
The initiative will place selected graduates with nonprofit organizations across New York City, giving fellows the opportunity to work on Salesforce modernization, data quality, workflow improvement and responsible AI adoption.
The model represents an evolution of Per Scholas’ existing learn-and-earn approach. Instead of ending when classroom training is completed, the program extends the learning journey into a paid workplace environment where participants can build a track record of applied technology work.
That distinction matters as AI changes the skills expected of entry-level technology workers.
Per Scholas’ four-month, no-cost Salesforce Administrator training covers Salesforce administration alongside newer capabilities including Agentforce, Prompt Builder and AI-enabled workflow design. Graduates selected for the fellowship will then spend eight months applying those skills within nonprofit environments.
The program is intended to benefit both sides of the talent equation.
For fellows, the value is practical experience, coaching, mentorship and continued career-placement support. For participating nonprofits, the fellowship provides access to trained technology talent that can work on systems and data projects that organizations may not otherwise have the capacity to prioritize.
The inaugural cohort will include nonprofit organizations such as the Workforce Professionals Training Institute (WPTI), JobsFirstNYC, COOP Careers, Opportunities for a Better Tomorrow, Phipps Neighborhoods and New Immigrant Community Empowerment (NICE).
Before fellows begin their projects, participating nonprofits complete an AI Readiness Assessment designed to identify areas where Salesforce and AI capabilities could deliver useful operational improvements.
That assessment is an important component of the model. AI adoption in smaller organizations is rarely just a question of having access to a model or software license. Data quality, workflow design, governance, employee readiness and change management can determine whether a technology deployment produces measurable value.
For nonprofits, these constraints can be particularly significant because technology teams and budgets are often limited.
The fellowship therefore positions emerging technology talent as part of the capacity-building process. Fellows can gain experience working with imperfect real-world systems while nonprofits receive support for projects involving Salesforce, data and AI.
Salesforce’s involvement also gives the program a direct connection to one of the larger enterprise software ecosystems undergoing an AI transition. Salesforce has been integrating generative and agentic AI capabilities into its platform, including Agentforce, while organizations increasingly need administrators who understand both conventional CRM operations and AI-enabled workflows.
That is changing the profile of the Salesforce administrator.
Historically, Salesforce administration has centered on configuring applications, managing users, maintaining data and building workflows. AI adds another layer involving prompt design, automated agents, governance, data quality and decisions about where human oversight remains necessary.
The fellowship’s emphasis on applied experience could consequently become as important as the technical curriculum itself.
The broader workforce market supports that direction. The World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2025 found that 63% of employers consider skills gaps a major barrier to business transformation. It also projects that 39% of workers’ existing skill sets will be transformed or become outdated by 2030. At the same time, 77% of surveyed employers expect upskilling and reskilling to be a major response to AI-driven workforce change.
Those figures point to a problem that conventional education credentials cannot solve on their own.
Employers need people who can combine technical skills with analytical thinking, collaboration and the ability to operate in changing environments. The WEF also identifies AI and big data, technological literacy, analytical thinking, creative thinking and adaptability among skills expected to remain increasingly important.
Work-based learning programs can potentially address that intersection by allowing workers to develop skills while producing tangible organizational outcomes.
There is also an HR technology implication.
As AI becomes embedded in CRM, HR, finance and productivity platforms, companies may increasingly recruit for platform-plus-AI skills rather than standalone software expertise. The Salesforce administrator of the future may need to understand not only how to configure a system but also how AI agents access organizational data, how automated workflows should be governed and when human intervention is required.
That creates opportunities for workforce-development providers to redesign curricula around actual enterprise workflows rather than technology certifications alone.
Per Scholas is not claiming that the fellowship represents a complete answer to the AI skills gap. It is a pilot, and its eventual impact will depend on factors such as fellowship completion, employment after the program, employer demand and the measurable value delivered to participating nonprofits.
But the structure highlights an increasingly relevant principle for workforce technology: AI readiness is difficult to demonstrate through coursework alone.
Paid experience gives workers an opportunity to build evidence that they can use AI responsibly in a real organizational setting. It also gives employers a lower-risk way to evaluate emerging talent.
The program is backed by early philanthropic and corporate partners including Barclays and Accenture. Per Scholas also has an established relationship with Salesforce, while the initiative connects with New York City’s broader workforce-development efforts.
For HR and talent leaders, the experiment offers a useful model as entry-level technology roles evolve. Instead of treating training, employment and AI adoption as separate programs, organizations can increasingly connect the three.
The larger question is whether this type of model can scale beyond a single city or technology ecosystem.
If it can, paid fellowships could become a more important bridge between AI education and employment—particularly for workers who have the technical foundation but lack the professional experience employers use to assess job readiness.
For now, Per Scholas is testing that proposition in New York’s nonprofit sector. Its Salesforce AI Fellowship effectively turns AI training into a longer workforce journey: learn the technology, apply it to real problems, build experience and then take that experience into the broader labor market.
Market Landscape
The Salesforce AI Fellowship arrives as employers face a dual challenge: adopting AI while finding workers with the technical and human skills required to implement it effectively. The World Economic Forum reports that skills gaps are the biggest barrier to business transformation for 63% of employers, while 85% plan to prioritize workforce upskilling through 2030.
The emerging workforce-development market is consequently shifting from short-form credentialing toward applied AI skills, apprenticeships, paid fellowships and employer-connected learning.
For HR teams, this creates a broader talent strategy opportunity. Rather than recruiting solely for existing AI experience, organizations can combine skills-based hiring with structured work-based learning to develop talent around specific enterprise platforms and workflows.
Top Insights
- Per Scholas is extending Salesforce AI training into eight months of paid workplace experience, addressing the experience gap facing many entry-level technology candidates.
- Fellows will help nonprofits improve Salesforce systems, data quality and AI-enabled workflows while receiving coaching, mentorship and career-placement support.
- The model reflects a broader shift toward applied AI skills, where employers increasingly value demonstrated workplace capability alongside technical credentials.
- Nonprofits gain technology capacity while fellows gain experience working with real data, workflows, governance requirements and organizational change.
- Salesforce administration is evolving as AI agents and automation become part of CRM operations, increasing demand for platform and AI governance skills.
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