Scotland’s digital skills academy – CodeClan – is partnering with the New York-based Flatiron School to deliver on demand, self-paced digital courses.
The New York coding and programming vocational school offers the courses as an alternative to full-time immersive courses in software development and data science.
Such flexibility is increasingly being sought by those interested in up-skilling or re-skilling, but who must juggle other responsibilities, for example childcare.
Globally, self-paced learning is becoming more popular, enabling people to study around work and other commitments.
Loral Quinn, CodeClan’s CEO, said: “The Flatiron team are at the front of the field in this area, and we’re excited to partner with them with a view to appealing to a more diverse range of students and making CodeClan more accessible to a bigger audience.”
Since 2012, Flatiron School has trained over 10,000 graduates in software engineering, data science, cybersecurity, and UX/UI product design.
Kate Cassino, CEO of Flatiron School, said: “We have been working hard over the past few months on a partnership with CodeClan where they will deliver drop-in live lessons, mentoring, careers coaching, wellness, and support for getting students into jobs across the UK.”
CodeClan estimates that by making its curriculum available on demand, it will be able to re-skill triple the number of students learning part-time compared to on-campus by 2024/25, tripling the number again in 2025/26. That would equate to getting 3,000 students a year reskilled by the end of 2026, against the current level of around 300.
With approximately 40 percent of applications for CodeClan courses coming from women looking to switch careers, Quinn added: “These numbers indicate that even if girls and women have been discouraged from studying STEM subjects at school, college, and university, there’s still a career pathway available to them, one that’s flexible around study, work, and family commitments.”
She added: “The UK tech job market is predicted to grow six-fold to £30bn by 2025, but there will only be one qualified woman for every one hundred roles unless something significant changes.”
As recently announced, following CodeClan research with The Young Women’s Movement to identify barriers to women in tech, CodeClan is offering free places on its Women in Data Science cohort commencing on September 4.
