Fighting inequality and increasing diversity in tech
CodeYourFuture (CYF) is a UK based non-profit organisation that trains refugees, asylum seekers and other disadvantaged people to become web developers and find work in the tech industry. At CYF Scotland, we are on the lookout for new partners and volunteers, as we approach the start of our fifth class in early 2021.
Our mission
Targeting motivated applicants who have limited access to education and are currently underrepresented in the tech sector, CodeYourFuture is not another coding school, it is a community with a mission to fight inequality. In fact, CYF strives to remove as many obstacles to learning as possible for its students: the course is free and students’ costs, such as travel, childcare and internet are covered. Moreover, our 8-month-long part-time course is designed to allow students to fit their studying around other commitments.
Our students
CYF students come from a variety of backgrounds, including:
- Refugees or Asylum seekers
- Single Parents with low income
- Those diagnosed with mental health, learning, or physical disabilities,
- Those who live in a household with a total income below the UK poverty line,
- Women, minorities, ex-offenders, or anyone else experiencing problems getting the education needed to find meaningful work- including being homeless or long-term unemployed.
Our course
At CYF, the tech curriculum starts from the basics and encompasses front-end and back-end technologies, in order to develop rounded full-stack junior web-developers. Alongside technical development, the CodeYourFuture program places an emphasis on the development of soft-skills and positive habit formation over the duration of the course. Moreover, students are matched with professional mentors who offer them career guidance and support during the course. Employment is one of CYF’s main success benchmarks. Upon graduation, we help our students with CV writing, interview skills, and match them to exciting job opportunities within our partner network and wider community.
Our impact
Despite our focus on remaining an inclusive and diverse volunteer-led community, we pride ourselves on the practical impact we have on people's career development. So far, in Glasgow, we've graduated thirty-nine Full Stack Web Development Bootcamp students, 70% of whom have gone on to further related study or full-time tech employment. Our graduates have gone on to work with organisations such as BBC Scotland, STV and many other companies and startups in Scotland.
We are on course to graduate a further ten students in November, and are almost ready to interview applicants for our largest class yet of thirty students in our next Bootcamp starting in early 2021.
Join us!
To achieve our aims, we have worked with a number of corporate partners over the past few years. In Scotland, we have a special opportunity for partners to sponsor the development of students in our next Bootcamp. We ensure our partnerships are fruitful for everyone involved, with fantastic opportunities to energise your company's working atmosphere and social impact through things like tailored volunteering opportunities, collaborative workshops and exclusive hiring avenues.
If you are interested in the chance to make an impact in your community and taking concrete action towards increasing diversity in the tech industry, we would love to speak with you.
For more information on how you or your organisation can get involved with CYF from a tech education, career mentoring, soft skills development or sponsorship perspective, contact scotland@codeyourfuture.io.
You can also find further information about CodeYourFuture on our website: https://codeyourfuture.io/.
