Grow Wellington has provided seed funding to help kickstart Enspiral Dev Academy, an initiative to help Wellington’s ICT workers hit the ground running in existing roles after completing a nine week intensive web developer programme.
Enspiral’s owner Rohan Wakefield said the programme has been developed after consultation with a number of the Wellington region’s IT businesses.
“We have made sure that we can offer students a chance to learn relevant skills needed by industry now. They are open to anyone with passion and proficiency with a computer. There is no age limit, people will need to be motivated, resourceful self starters,” said Wakefield.
There will be 30 places available on each programme.
Adrian Gregory, GM for innovation and workforce at Grow Wellington said the fee will be $11,000 per place on the programme, with $4000 of this fee to be refunded by the Academy when a graduate obtains a job in the industry.
Wellington City Council is also sponsoring graduates who take up employment in the industry in Wellington by way of a bursary.
“There is also provision for IT businesses to sponsor students and fund them through their studies, partially or completely,” said Gregory.
According to the firm, Grow Wellington got behind Enspiral to assist with overall development costs of the programme, which is based on a model being used currenty in San Francisco and Chicago.
“The U.S. has a high record of follow-on employment success from these boot camps and like these, Enspiral’s programme balances technical training with soft skills like customer-focused communications, which prepare students for the work environment,” said Gregory.
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