Defying Bloomberg & Increasing Tech Diversity: Coal to Code
summary
A staged program recruits rural coal communities with a two‑week intro, 16-week boot camp, followed by apprenticeships and paid contractor stints; graduates ship real community projects (mentor app, shelter sites) and work on a consultancy that competes with offshore pricing. Curriculum emphasizes Ruby without Rails, SQL, HTML/CSS/JS and AWS, uses pair programming and code katas, and has run eight cohorts. Outcomes include a $1.5M Appalachian grant and continuing placements despite a less than 50% graduation rate.
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chapters (17)
- 0:00Start
- 14:12Define Success
- 16:24Test: Recruit Diverse Group
- 17:16Test: Laundry test for Aptitude
- 19:07Test: Use VFD
- 21:18Tests: Project Based Learning
- 22:30Tests: Teach agile process
- 23:14Test: Teamwork
- 24:07Tests: Flexible Stack
- 25:31Test: Ok with failure
- 26:44Story: As a trainee
- 27:26Tests: Build Portfolios
- 33:21Test: educate local businesses
- 35:15Test: compete with offshore
- 36:25Story: As a tech hub
- 39:27Test: Partner with high schools
- 46:52Test: West Virginia
related talks
35m"Beyond Code"
13mEnter by Bootcamp
06mDiversity in Tech
24mMaking Tech More Diverse: An Actionable Strategy
41mBooting Up: Hiring and Growing Boot Camp Graduates
17mEmpowering the next generation through the Hidden Genius Project
27mSwitch Up: How to Switch Careers to Become a Ruby Engineer
28mBetter Together Diversity Networking Lunch