Wellington
Ever tried to get hold of a professional who can write computer code?
Such is the shortage, that a recent would-be returning ex-pat Kiwi, who knew how to program, putout a general inquiry through WellRailed if anyone in Wellington or wider NZ would be interested inmeeting once he got here.
Apparently he immediately had 26 replies, and half a dozen offers of employment, sight unseen,with no interview whatsoever.
So; it would seem there’s a definite shortage of people who understand and can manipulate theworkings of computers, mobile devices and apps.
It is this developer (another name for coder and programmer) shortage that’s driven
It is called Code Yoga , and itsintent is to expose people who have never coded before to what it is about, and, reasonably quickly,help them get a level where could be employed at a junior coding level. From there – well, theworld’s your oyster if that’s your bent.
This is very much an Enspiral kinda thing to do.
The collective’s co-creator, Joshua Vial, and the rest of its current eco-system of 105 peoplebased mainly in Wellington but linked to Hong Kong, Berlin, New York and Phnom Penh, share aphilosophy of helping people to help themselves.
It is part of the social enterprise model that drives most of the 12 companies that reside (thewrong word but it will have to do) under its umbrella.
Enspiral itself is programmer short-handed at times, so at the very least it is feeding its ownneeds.
But, in identifying a patently obvious shortage, and doing something about it in a ‘just do it,just learn it’ manner, Enspiral’s demonstrating an attitude that’s bigger than itself.
According to Vial, many of the dozen or so people who have done the course since it kicked off inrecently (advertised through the interesting ‘teaching/learning’ platform
These include writers, teachers, other types of professionals, as well as students.
As a crash course compared to university or polytech based one to three year courses, it isobviously quite different.
However, as a way of introducing newbies to the hidden world of code, and whether it is a gigthey’d like to have a go at for a while, these Enspiral guys deserve some credit.
Heck, some of them might even enjoy it as a challenge!
P.S. Enspiral's kicking off a dev boot camp in the next month or two too - keep an eye out ifyou'd like to be part of t