In a bid to tackle the increasing IT skills gap and the youth unemployment rate in South Africa, WeThinkCode_, a peer-to-peer technology institution which provides free education in computer programming, officially welcomed the first 100 students to participate in its Coding Boot Camp.
More than 22 000 young people from all backgrounds, between the ages of 17 and 35, applied to be a part of the programme, and only 100 successful candidates were selected to participate in the Coding Boot Camp.
On 26 January, the successful candidates were inducted into the programme, following which, they will undergo a four-week intensive training programme, where they will be challenged to solve programming problems, for seven days a week.
This is the first of three Coding Boot Camps planned for this year. WeThinkCode_ aims to attract at least 200 more people to participate in its boot camps in February and March.
Once the boot camps have been completed, 120 of the most promising students will receive an opportunity to enrol in a two-year course that will help them to become world-class software engineers, which will start in May.
What’s more is that they will be able to study for free and the students will then secure a four-month internship programme per year with a corporate sponsor, who will have the option to employ them full time upon graduation – securing a number of jobs for currently unemployed members of society.
Arlene Mulder, co-founder of WeThinkCode_, explained that the boot camp is an incredible feat. “We are very excited about our first Coding Boot Camp intake,” Mulder said.
“Innovation in tech education has been neglected in recent years. We are not just training coders, but the digital problem-solvers of the future.”
Marcel Klaassen, head of growth at FNB Business added, “We need more initiatives of this nature to help the increasing number of unemployed youth and secure the economic future of our country.
“This initiative has been introduced at a critical time when students from across South Africa are struggling to afford tertiary education. As one of the founding sponsors, we are honoured to part of such a great initiative.”
Details: www.wethinkcode.co.za
