Changemakers: Spotlight on Code Your Future
The grassroots coding organisation driving change in tech.
We believe in collaboration over competition and spotlighting groups that are working to change lives through tech. A few weeks back we received a message from Atanas at Code Your Future, a 4-year-old grassroots organisation that trains disadvantaged adults to code for free then helps them find life-changing jobs in the tech sector. Run entirely on the power of volunteers, we were honoured to be asked to speak to them to share tips and advice on how we teach here at Makers. We’re excited to promote their mission and share the opportunity to volunteer at Code Your Future with our community. This is their story.
Who are your students and how you support them?
We work with groups that struggle to get the skills needed to find work in the tech sector, through discrimination or otherwise. This can be refugees, single parents or others in households with low income, the long term unemployed, those diagnosed with mental health, learning or physical disabilities, ex-offenders — and many others who may be currently excluded from the tech sector.
Students are trained in web development and soft skills by professionals from the local tech industry. Students receive support to lower any barriers to their program — including laptops, childcare and internet costs.
Who are your founders? What inspired them to create Code Your Future?
Germán is the founder of CodeYourFuture. He previously worked in R&D for Motorola and roles in innovation and partnerships for Samsung Electronics, where he led efforts to improve creativity and cooperation with the European tech ecosystem. Germán is co-creator in ten inventions. He holds degrees from Universidad Simón Bolívar in Venezuela and Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany and he volunteered extensively for organisations like AFS and AIESEC.
The inspiration to found the organisation came from observing the lack of social mobility opportunities in the tech sector, and the frustration related to the lack of tangible impact from big tech companies to alleviate the refugee crisis in 2016.
Why is it important that organisations like CYF exist?
CYF and similar organisations help alleviate the lack of vocational digital training and the employability struggles refugees and other unprivileged groups face when looking for better paid jobs. People from disadvantaged backgrounds tend to be either unemployed or stuck in a vicious cycle of low-wage and low-skill jobs.
What challenges have you faced and overcome?
The main challenges were being able to reach out to people who needed it the most, and keep recruiting and onboarding volunteers on a regular basis. By partnering up with local NGOs we have been able to target many underrepresented groups in society and volunteer numbers keep growing thanks to the support our or partners organisations and the word of mouth of our current volunteers.
What are you most proud of about the work that you do?
We are proud to say that 90% of our on the ground activities are run by volunteers; almost 200 students graduated from our courses in the last three years; our success rate is 80% of graduates getting a job up to 6 months after graduation; the expansion from London to other 3 regions in the UK in the last 3 years and having ongoing pilots in Palestine and South Africa.
How can people support the work that you do?
People are welcome to join our community and support one of our four main teams: Ambassadors, Personal Development, Education and Tech Projects. There are different roles in each team, according to availability, skills and experience. We welcome people from all backgrounds, tech and non-tech, and we’re building an inclusive community where our volunteers are part of the decision making process.
To hear more, please sign-up to our Welcome Event, that takes place fortnightly on Wednesdays.
