NEW ORLEANS – Today, the Center for Entrepreneurship and Community Development (CECD) at Loyola University New Orleans announced the opening of their recruitment cycle for the Loyola Certificate in Software Development and Coding. The Certificate program is an immersive, 10-week “bootcamp” program that bridges the “gap to workforce” for recently graduated liberal arts seniors from Louisiana universities, offering access to a potential career in technology.
For its initial cohort in summer 2017, the Certificate program partnered with leading tech company LookFar and seasoned education provider Tech Talent South to equip graduates and recent alumni with foundational technology skills that complement their four-year liberal arts degrees. Learning to code allows students to build, innovate, and pursue their passions across a variety of industries, and it is also a foothold to using technology to solve all kinds of problems. Moreover, the program is open to students from all Louisiana universities and helps local talent stay local after graduation, expanding the workforce for local tech companies.
“LookFar is committed to building the breakout start-ups that will come out of New Orleans, and a big part of that is software development and the workforce development around that field,” said Chris Reade, President and Founder of LookFar. “We partnered with Loyola on the Certificate in Software Development and Coding because we believe that Loyola’s program has the potential to home-grow the local talent that can give our entrepreneurial ecosystem the people it needs to scale.”
The program also brought students into the offices of top technology companies in New Orleans, where students met the company’s teams, toured the workplaces, heard from top executives, and had the opportunity to pose questions related to potential career paths in tech. In turn, hiring managers became more familiar with the students’ interests, skill sets, and cultural fit for their firms. Site visit companies during the Summer of 2017 included Civic Source, GE Digital, InExile Entertainment, iSeatz, LookFar, Lucid, Turbosquid, and zlien.
The program’s instructors were real-world professionals in the field who lend a practical context for the curriculum as well as one-on-one assistance for students. Vicky Tran, a graphic design major and Certificate student this past summer, found that the in-person instruction was one of the most beneficial components of the program: “Having an instructor makes the learning process easier than sitting and doing it on your own [through free online courses]. The difference is having that push and having someone there to give you more information than just Google.”
“What I wanted to learn, since I come from a business background, is to find out how businesses work, what the actual positions there are, how they organize themselves, and who their clients are,” added Gabe Philbois, a Certificate student and former business owner in Brazil. “It’s one thing to like to code; it’s another thing to want to work in coding. I wanted to see if I would fit into one of these places, and now I’m pretty sure I will.”
If you are currently a senior graduating in May 2018 from Loyola University, Tulane University, or another local college, then apply to the Loyola Certificate in Software Development and Coding at bit.ly/loyolacode. The priority deadline for applications is December 22, with a regular deadline of February 9, 2018 (admission is not guaranteed). The first five students to submit a deposit on the program by the priority deadline will receive a $500 early-bird discount on the full program tuition.
For more information, visit the program website at bit.ly/loyolacode or email Kate McCrery, Program Manager at the Loyola Center for Entrepreneurship and Community Development at kymccrer@loyno.edu.
