Pictured from Left to Right: Marcus Shaw, Allen Major, Rachel Xiaodong, Shakia Atkins, Janai Crenshaw, Juania Ashely, Kyle Givens, and Annie St. John Joseph
The Graduating Class of ULEM MSIMBO/DigiUL! These graduates future is bright, because they’ve invested the hard work of learning how to Code, Web develop & create Graphic Design. They are from Left to Right: Marcus Shaw, Allen Major, Rachel Xiaodong, Shakia Atkins, Janai Crenshaw, Juania Ashely, Kyle Givens, and Annie St. John Joseph.
Through the “Boot Camp” Course that the students completed guided by the leadership of Darnell Williams (president of ULEM) and the wonderful instructors, this class is well equipped for any future career they choose!
Msimbo means “code” in Swahili. A twenty (20) week program for displaced, unemployed and underemployed workers interested becoming computer programmers. This programs seeks to address the IT industries’ issue of diversity and skilled workers. ULEM looks to enroll 18 students and provide a stipend for $75/ week.
The IT industry is in high demand for talented coding programmers. On average 2% of the IT workforce are people of color. In the past few years, there have been a number of efforts by the IT industry to create programs and bootcamps to train young women of color, women and college students.
MSIMBO seeks to address the displaced worker that cannot get training because of gender specific (i.e., Black Girls Code) training that being offered’ being financially unable to go or return to college and some of the coding bootcamps are cost prohibitive. The industry has to rely on H1B visa that allows for talented foreign workers to fill positions that cannot be filled by an American worker. The federal government issued 177,750 H-1B visas were issued, according to State Department data. There is a push by the federal government to provide grant dollars to train displaced workers to fill this skill gap and decrease the number of H-1B visas. This program seeks to train individuals to fill that gap. This program would be offered to for free when other programs are demanding $9000 or more for training.
MSIMBO bootcamp trains talented, low-income individuals to become full-stack web developers and launch a new career. Students are trained in web development, effective business communication, and leadership. We will conduct a 20 weeks of 120 hours coding technology training program and the professional development for ULEM’s MSIMBO program.
SEP
2018
About the Author:
Kaye Long, Writer and Publisher