London’s Leading Coding School Makers Academy

Awards 16 Fellowships to Promote Diversity in UK Tech

Makers Academy, Europe’s most elite and competitive coding school, has announced the winners of its first ever fellowship programme, which gives students free enrolment in their 12 week – software engineering course in 2018. Graduates are then guaranteed a job as a junior software developer at the end of term.

The prestigious Ffellowship was intended to give four four aspiring students a chance to become coders. Due to the high volume of exceptional candidates, London’s leading coding bootcamp quadrupled its investment in sponsoring free places on its course and awarded 16 scholarships to a diverse pool from London and across the UK.

The school launched the programme with the aim of removing the financial barriers to entering the UK’s digital industry through education and to promote greater diversity in the future workforce.

Commenting on the scholars, Evgeny Shadchnev, CEO of Makers Academy, said: “This is the first time we’ve launched this type of fellowship, and our aim was to attract students from all walks of life. We hoped to receive 100 applications but exceeded that number significantly. The strength of the candidates was so impressive that we decided to offer 16 places instead of four, half of whom which are women. It’s a testimony to what Makers Academy has always believed: talent comes from everywhere but opportunity doesn’t. We must therefore play a part in levelling the playing field and nurturing diverse talent as we continue to close the skills gap in the tech sector.”

The scholars come from different backgrounds and boast varying levels of education. They include single working mothers, a previous applicant that couldn’t take the course initially because his application for funding was rejected, and a student who was put off coding at university level because computer science is so male-dominated. “We are thrilled with our new scholars and are pleased to announce that we have filled our fellowship allocations until April next year. This is a tremendous outcome and we look forward to teaching the next generation of technology leaders,” said Shadchnev.

The Makers Academy course will take place from January to March 2018 at Makers Academy, located in the heart of Tech City in London.