New Funding Opens Up Careers In Coding

06/06/2019
Melinda Matthews Clarkson, the ceo of CodeClan
Melinda Matthews Clarkson, the ceo of CodeClan

CodeClan, Scotland’s national accredited digital skills academy, has been included in the Digital Start Fund recently announced by Kate Forbes MSP, Scotland’s Minister for Public Finance and Digital Economy.

The Digital Start Fund is a grant to support individuals across Scotland to increase their technical skills and enter the digital workforce. When combined with the Digital Development Loan for SMEs, Scotland’s digital economy has outstanding levels of support for ongoing growth.

CodeClan is one of the only two organisations in Scotland to offer the new Digital Start Fund, which offers unemployed people, and those on low incomes, grants between £1,000 and £8,000 to cover training in software development. Additional funding for travel and childcare may also be available if required.

Companies across Scotland can also now use the Digital Development Loan, to pay for employees to access CodeClan’s training courses. These include the Professional Software Development (PSD), and the new Full-Stack Web Development courses, created specifically for the Highlands region. The organisation’s growing range of short and bespoke training programmes are also eligible.

Melinda Matthews Clarkson, the ceo of CodeClan, said: “Since it was founded in 2015, CodeClan’s mission has been to encourage and support new technically-inspired individuals and now, with the additional support from Skills Development Scotland and the Scottish Government, we can reach more individuals that are passionate about technology but for whom the cost of training was out of reach. We are looking forward to offering this grant to eligible students across Scotland.”

According to research by industry body ScotlandIS, Scotland has 12,800 digital vacancies per year. Digital industries offer well-paid careers with long-term security. Gaining those skills through traditional routes can be time-consuming and costly. CodeClan offers students and employees a completely new way to rapidly learn a whole new set of languages and work-skills and help them to find employment within Scotland’s rapidly evolving digital economy.

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