CodeClan – Scotland’s national digital skills academy – is preparing for a relaunch with a pledge that it will be “fully relevant” to the current business environment.
Mark Logan, chief entrepreneurial advisor to government, made the pledge after a group of 80 students graduated from the programme following the academy’s sudden closure in August.
Students were joined by instructors, support staff, friends, and family on December 1 to toast the accomplishment of completing the course – despite their setbacks over the summer.
Logan said: “I’m delighted that all students affected by the closure of CodeClan have been able to fully complete their training courses. That this has been possible is a testament to how Scotland’s business community, in partnership with the government, came together to support affected students.
“The next priority is the launch of a new CodeClan. CodeClan 2.0 is being shaped in partnership with industry to be fully relevant to today’s business environment, it is being designed from the ground-up to be highly scalable, able to meet the needs of prospective students across Scotland, and with a hardened, robust business model. I look forward to its launch in early 2024.”
CodeBase – the tech ecosystem support organisation, acquired CodeClan’s assets in August following the company’s liquidation.
It has since been focussed on supporting the affected students and instructors, coordinating spaces, teaching and guidance so that impacted courses could be brought to completion.
The support has been made possible thanks to the collective efforts of the broader tech community, including financial support from The Scottish Government.
Graduates will continue to receive career guidance and support for a number of months as they seek work placements, led by CodeBase and with the help from across the Scottish tech ecosystem.
A number of graduates have already secured employment, and CodeBase is actively engaged with multiple organisations across Scotland to support this process.
Darren Lackie, student representative for the cohort, said: “It was an emotional ceremony that really felt like the end of an era. There was a great deal of emphasis on gratitude to people across the tech community who made it possible, from the instructors who stayed on, the students themselves who persevered, and the likes of FanDuel, who provided a home for lessons to continue.”
Yasmin Sulaiman, VP of Partnerships at CodeBase said: “Collectively, we are so thankful for the widespread support across Scotland, without which we wouldn’t be celebrating these graduations. This has been an immensely challenging and uncertain time for students, instructors, and affected staff. If there is a call for action, it is for as many organisations as possible to consider employing these talented and resilient individuals.”
A graduate directory has been set up by CodeBase so that prospective employers seeking tech talent can access bios and information on SQA qualified software developers, and data analysts, which can be filtered by specialisms including backend, frontend, java, css, python, javascript, and data science.
As part of the bootcamp course, students undertook projects to showcase their learning and identify real world applications. One such project is Binday.info, a calendar application which gives users reminders for curbside packaging, glass, garden, food and landfill bin pickup dates across Edinburgh. The project was created by a group of CodeClan students (David Bujok, George Tegos, Lewis Ferguson) and their instructor (Pawel Orzechowski). The app is now available on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.