Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer joined Code Louisville employees, graduates, mentors, employers and partners today at Virtual Peaker in NuLu Marketplace to celebrate important milestones in software development and technical training programs.
“Code Louisville has become a key part of the region’s growing tech ecosystem since President Obama helped put it on the map in 2015,” said the mayor. “Its leadership and staff have been building a dedicated community of graduates and mentors who are demonstrating what a city can achieve when it invests in the technical training of its residents.”
Code Louisville offers students unique online learning, career-ready training, and mentorship from experienced software development professionals. Hundreds of industry mentors have now donated a total of 15,000 hours to Code Louisville, including many program graduates. For example, more than 40% of the 91 mentors who will be appointed in 2022 are former Code Louisville students.
Today’s event is hosted by Virtual Peaker, a local energy technology company founded in 2015, along with El Toro, Humana, Switcher Studio, Waystar and UPS, and is one of the top employers for Code Louisville graduates. In total, more than 300 companies have employed at least one Code Louisville graduate over the past seven years.
“Code Louisville has been instrumental to the growth and success of Virtual Peaker’s development team and, ultimately, our technology platform,” said Dr. Bill Burke, the company’s CEO and founder. “We built our hiring strategy around this program and it has proven successful as we hired 14 full-time engineers directly from Code Louisville. We look forward to this ongoing partnership as our team continues to expand.”
Code Louisville graduate Shawn Offutt, who has been a software developer at Virtual Peaker since 2020, also talks about his experience breaking into the tech industry. “Before Code Louisville, I worked in warehouses. “Getting into tech was my goal, but I couldn’t afford to go back to school at the time,” he says. “Code Louisville helped me get promoted to front office and then transition to full-time software. Developer career. The training is absolutely top notch…everyone there is ready to help you. “
Brittney Coble, now a support operations engineer at Capella Space, also talks about the impact Code Louisville has had on her career. “Code Louisville didn’t just teach me how to code, it taught me how to solve problems so I could continue to learn and improve my skills after I graduated,” said Coble, who later mentored multiple Code teams of Louisville students.
Mayor Fischer ended today’s event by encouraging Louisville adults interested in coding and technology to sign up for the next Code Louisville training, which begins in January.
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About Code Louisville
Code Louisville is free to residents of the Louisville area over the age of 18. All courses are currently remote. Participants must complete two 12-week courses in their chosen pathway to graduate. Code Louisville provides access to web development with JavaScript, user experience design (UX), data analysis with Python, quality assurance (QA) testing, and software development with C#.
Code Louisville started in 2014 and expanded through federal grants in 2015. Now that the original grant has expired, the program is funded by the Louisville Metro government. The program is run by KentuckianaWorks, the Louisville Area Workforce Development Council. For more information, visit CodeLouisville.org.