A triad of Birmingham-based companies and a San Fransisco-based tech guru are working together to train, mentor and deploy tech-savvy individuals into the workforce.
Coding education company TrueCoders, IT consulting company Alloy Digital and talent solutions firm DEPLOY are combining their services with tech expert Abhi Bhattacharya to produce workforce-ready coders and software developers.
Bhattacharya, who trained the team of software developers that produced Amazon’s Alexa device, has visited Birmingham multiple times and is helping provide AI-focused curriculum as part of the partnership. He’s also the co-founder and CEO of California-based software development firm STEALTH.
Through the partnership, students of TrueCoders’ certificate program will be offered software development mentorship with Alloy Digital and help from DEPLOY finding an industry position. Bhattacharya will lead AI boot camps in tandem with TrueCoders’ nine-week course curriculum to better prepare students for the market’s AI-driven ecosystem.
“We developed the curriculum with what students will need in the workforce in mind, so we try to cover the things that you’re going to see when you go out into the field as a developer,” said Michael Doyle, president of TrueCoders. “One of our little fun sayings is ‘ABC: Always Be Coding.’ We make it as hands-on as possible; day one, you're coding and you're going to be doing that repetition every day.”
Chase Morrow, a five-time business founder and current CEO of DEPLOY, said the ‘train, mentor, deploy’ model that the partnership emphasizes is important to individuals who are looking to secure a position in coding and software development.
“There are several boot camps out there, but I did some research, and we haven’t found one yet that has got that ‘train, mentor, deploy’ mentality,” Morrow said. “We’re going to mentor them to get them better and then we’re actually really going to go help them find jobs. These people put their own money up. It’s affordable, but it’s not cheap, and it shouldn’t be.”
Through the partnership, employers connected with DEPLOY will be able to hire software developers and coders straight out of the TrueCoders program, as well as tap into TrueCoders’ alumni base of more than 1,000 coders nationally and internationally.
"We feel so strongly about the Birmingham startup and tech community, but also, communities don't have borders anymore. Covid changed the world, so our community’s gotten much bigger,” Morrow said. “The partnership works really well — not only have we all known each other for a long time and worked together, but we believe in the power of community, and I think that if I added a fourth word (to the train, mentor, deploy idea), it would be community.”
