Training company launches scheme to crack the coding shortage

A training company is aiming to fill the developing coding skills gap in Wales with a new project.

Codez Academy, based at the Welsh Innovation Centre for Enterprise on Caerphilly Business Park, has launched its Digital Roots scheme to help unemployed people gain new coding skills to help them in the job market.

Coding is the ability to write software – an essential skill in a world of websites, smart phones and tablets.

Dean Jenkins, founder of Codez Academy, said the demand for digitally-skilled employees is set to leave upwards of 750,000 vacancies in the UK workplace over the next five years.

He said: “There’s an enormous opportunity presenting itself in Wales to help the unemployed, to help those that have been made redundant, and to help those that want an alternative to going to university or taking a trade.

“The digital sector has expanded so rapidly in the past few years that it has left a huge shortfall in skilled people to sustain it.

“We want to give people the opportunity to step in and fill that shortfall, and with it really put Wales at the forefront of the digital sector.

“We believe that this scheme will go a long way to fulfilling that goal and the benefits to the economy and to people in Wales could be enormous.”

Digital Roots, which is being run in partnership with Caerphilly County Borough Council and Careers Wales, has already welcomed its first students.

There is no charge to students for the training, with funding coming from business sponsors. Those sponsors can then benefit from the new skills gained by the students with them taking on any web development work companies may have.

• More information for prospective students and sponsors can be found at www.codezacademy.co.uk/digital-roots.