A City of Louisville initiative to provide training in software development has helped place more than 500 of its graduates into careers in the technology industry.
Code Louisville is a city-and state funded program founded in 2013 offering software development training free of charge.
Mayor Greg Fischer, who celebrated the milestone in a Monday press conference, said the program is designed to breakdown barriers and provide high-quality tech training to Louisville residents.
“Because we know talent is equally spread among the community, but opportunity is not,” Fischer said.
The city did not immediately provide information about the demographics of Code Louisville graduates.
Louisville is home to a growing tech sector that’s added nearly 4,000 new jobs in the last five years, he said.
Through a combination of online courses, career readiness training and guidance from professional mentors, Code Louisville has helped place 543 graduates into new careers in the technology sector.
One graduate, Djuan Ellis, said the program helped transform his hobby into a career as a software engineer.
“So as you go and you learn, you build confidence and I think that’s a big part of it, building the confidence and those skills,” Ellis said.
About 350 participants have already signed up for the next Code Louisville program starting in January of 2021.
