From left: Kevin Healy, manager Corporate Banking Ireland, Bank of Ireland; Helen Norris, Kernel Capital; Jim Cassidy, CEO, Code Institute and Joe Healy, manager HPSU Accelerate Department, Enterprise Ireland. Picture: Jason Clarke
Education technology company Code Institute, which delivers full stack software coding education, has secured a €500,000 syndicated investment.
The investment came via the Bank of Ireland Kernel Capital Seed and Early-Stage Equity Fund and Enterprise Ireland.
Code Institute, a previous Siliconrepublic.com Start-up of the Week, delivers intensive, certified “bootcamp-style” education programmes that provide graduates with job-ready coding skills that are immediately applicable in the workplace. The programmes are available online and in the classroom.
‘Our approach greatly reduces the time taken to get students job-ready, to date this has led to a 94pc success rate for students being hired within three months of graduation’
– JIM CASSIDY, CODE INSTITUTE
Founded in 2014 to tackle the widening ICT skills gap across Europe, the Code Institute programme is fully accredited and certified by Edinburgh Napier University and is the only university-accredited coding bootcamp in Europe.
The EU Commission has identified a shortage in ICT skills is looming, with 825,000 job vacancies predicted across the EU by 2020 due to a lack of digital skills.
“There is a real shortage of people with coding experience both in Ireland and internationally and our intensive bootcamp course gives graduates the real-world coding and software development skills that are in demand,” said Code Institute CEO Jim Cassidy.
“Our approach greatly reduces the time taken to get students job-ready, to date this has led to a 94pc success rate for students being hired within three months of graduation.”
A solution to the ICT skills crisis
The syllabus for the company’s full-stack course was developed in conjunction with their Industry Advisory Council, including experts from companies such as PayPal, Morgan McKinley, Ogilvy, Accenture and Dell.
Following the investment, Dr. Mícheál Ó Foghlú, CTO of Red Hat Mobile, and co-founder and former CTO of FeedHenry, has joined the Code Institute’s advisory council.
“Ultimately, there is no substitute for well-educated and talented people building great locally-based companies; the shortage in digital skills is a concern for future growth in Ireland and abroad,” said Orla Rimmington, partner, Kernel Capital.
“Kernel Capital is pleased to support Irish edtech companies like the Code Institute as they expand internationally and aim to help fill the gap in ICT professionals predicted across Europe by 2020.”
Donal Duffy, head of Enterprise Ireland relations at Bank of Ireland, added: “The Code Institute links industry and academia by developing an extremely practical, hands-on diploma in software development delivered by sector experts.
“Bank of Ireland plays an active role with a number of educational institutions through funding, facilities and mentoring initiatives so this investment is particularly appropriate to our ethos.”
