SCOTLAND’s digital skills academy CodeClan has partnered with the Scottish Tech Army so that CodeClan’s graduates have the opportunity to work alongside Scottish Tech Army’s one thousand plus developers on public sector and social enterprise projects while providing a springboard into new digital careers.
Scottish Tech Army was launched in April 2020 to harness the skills of the Scottish tech community and support organisations on the front line of dealing with the effects of the coronavirus pandemic. Since launch, over 1,200 volunteers have joined Scottish Tech Army and worked on on more than 175 projects. Organisations supported by Scottish Tech Army to date include Young Enterprise Scotland, Govan Community Project, Edinburgh Community Food, Voluntary Services Aberdeen, Inspiring Scotland and the National Library of Scotland.
Alistair Forbes, Founding Director and CEO, Scottish Tech Army, said: “CodeClan graduates have found that working on these projects has given them a valuable opportunity to put the skills they gained at CodeClan to practical use, work with experienced technologists and build their professional networks. They have also played an important part in the delivery of our services across Scotland and we’re delighted to be extending our partnership with CodeClan.”
CodeClan, Scotland’s digital skills academy, has experienced record demand for its programming, data and bespoke courses in 2020, recently marked its 5th anniversary and has produced over 1,000 graduates since opening its doors in 2015.
Melinda Matthews-Clarkson, CEO, CodeClan, said: “We are excited to formalise our partnership with Scottish Tech Army, which has already done so much important work for so many Scotland-based organisations that have faced incredible challenges because of Covid. For our graduates, working on real world projects can provide invaluable experience, experience which we can see has also helped many of them to secure employment.”
CodeClan has made a series of appointments to its leadership team over the last few weeks, with Neil Brown joining as Chief Operating Officer (COO) from The Data Lab, Damien Miller’s hire as Chief Delivery Officer (CDO) , and Bill Douglas replacing Polly Purvis as Chair.
Melinda Matthews-Clarkson added: “We’re pleased to have strengthened our leadership team in recent times and as we look ahead to 2021, our focus will remain on our team, our graduates and continuing to build our employer and partner networks.”
