History

Making a Difference Since 1974

Organizational History

CTP was founded in 1974 by Scott Luebking (1951-2009) and Neil Jacobson in partnership with IBM and California State Department of Rehabilitation. CTP began as a training program for clients of the Berkeley Center for Independent Living (CIL) and was known as the “CIL Computer Training Program.” In 1982 the Computer Technologies Program evolved into an independent vocational training program serving the broader disability community.

In 1978 the Computer Technologies Program became a charter member of the Association of Rehabilitation Programs in Computer Technology (ARPCT). CTP served as the model for technical training programs. This model has been replicated at more than 50 locations internationally.

Training

CTP evolved over time to keep pace with the workplace of the day. With guidance from the Business Advisory Council, CTP continuously updated curriculum and added new training courses to serve the changing needs of its clients and business.

In 1997, the Office System Training (OST) began as a training program for clients interested in careers as administrative assistants. Over time OST changed names to the PRO Customer Service and Administrative Training and has broadened its focus and graduates now go on to a wide variety of professional office jobs.

CTP taught COBOL business application programming until 2000 when the need for COBOL programmers sharply declined. In the period of 2000 to 2004 programming training rapidly incorporated modern object oriented languages such as C++ and Java. The programming training ceased in 2005 due to the downturn of the tech sector.

The Network and Technical Support Training (NTST) program started in 2006 and enjoyed a 100% placement of its initial class. NTST continues today in its third major revision as the Computer Technician Training program (CTT).