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Iron Yard Closing Little Rock Campus

2 min read

On Friday, 13 students graduated from Iron Yard’s immersive 12-week coding school, but there won’t be another commencement here anytime soon because Iron Yard is closing its Little Rock campus.

Iron Yard, which has locations across the U.S. and in London, England, is not returning because the city isn’t a good fit for it right now, says CEO Peter Barth. So far, a total of 33 students have graduated from the Little Rock campus.

He said there is a shortage in most markets of people with coding skills and, in those markets, that is a “very lively conversation.” But it is “less so” here, Barth said.

“Employers were talking about it, but less so the general population. And every market is different, right, but … Folks aren’t quite as far along in knowing this is a field that’s really interesting and compelling,” he said. “(The market here) requires a lot more upfront work to kind of push folks over the hump with general education on this is a good opportunity and what the career might look like, and those types of things. Often, that groundwork is already laid, and then we’re just talking about how we can get you into that field.”

After a year in Little Rock, he said, Iron Yard found that Arkansans need night and weekend coding classes, not only to increase general awareness of those opportunities, but because many have to work to pay their bills.

Iron Yard doesn’t offer that type of schedule. Its full-time students spend half their time in lectures and the other half in laboratories, with the intense program sometimes requiring 10- or 12-hour days, according to Barth.

“It’s a big life commitment to stop what you’re doing and come do this,” Barth said. “You have to really be ready to change, to make a career change, a life change, so it’s not something that you can convince somebody in meeting them in the marketing piece to want to do. They have to have made that decision already, then be looking at how can I do that, and, at that point we’re a great fit.”

Iron Yard launched its Little Rock classes in June 2015. Its graduates have found jobs at PrivacyStar, Metova, Perks, Mass Enthusiasm, ePublishing and DNT Media.

But the news isn’t all bad. According to Barth, the organization has built relationships with employers and plans to stay engaged and open to the idea of returning to Little Rock in the future.

“We love Little Rock. We would love to come back. It was heart-wrenching to make this decision,” Barth said. “We’d love to come back, and we’ll definitely stay involved, help mentor with an accelerator program…But the timing is not right at the moment.”

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