Fayetteville’s Nerdies, a tech-based alternative learning provider, has launched a coding school called Blur State.
Nerdies founder Brad Harvey said Blur State was created to be an intensive coding boot camp for adults looking to enter the information technology field in areas such as computer programming, design and business analysis.
Blur State sessions will be limited in size to ensure the best possible learning environment and run two or three nights a week for 12 to 15 weeks, he said. Dates have not been determined, but Blur State is accepting applications for its first sessions.
Harvey said Blur State and partner companies will pre-screen all candidates and accept only those with “the best potential for future employment.”
“There is a shortage of qualified computer programming talent across the area,” Harvey said in a news release issued Tuesday. “Companies are struggling to find and hire the right kind of coding talent they need to run their businesses. Also people looking to find employment or enter into this field struggle to find affordable relevant training just simply to get them in the door. We started Blur State to fix this problem.”
Technical training and the development of homegrown technical talent has been a priority in Arkansas in 2015. Innovate Arkansas, a nonprofit created by the Arkansas Economic Development Commission and Winrock International to nurture tech-based startups, has refined its mission this year to help grow and retain tech talent.
Nerdies is an Innovate Arkansas client firm.
Earlier this year, Innovate Arkansas announced that the Iron Yard, a national coding school based in Greenville, South Carolina, would begin offering classes in Little Rock. Iron Yard classes begin on June 29 in the River Market District of downtown Little Rock.
In addition, the 100 Girls of Code program, started in Chattanooga, Tennessee, has launched in central and northwest Arkansas. It introduces girls ages 10 to 18 to coding, developing and computer programming.
Another IA client firm, Young Coders Academy, launches in Cabot on July 7, and Gov. Asa Hutchinson has also emphasized computer science, pushing a bill through the Legislature that mandates computer science classes in every Arkansas high school.
Harvey said Blur State is unique because it will focus on job placement and workforce development of its students. He said the curriculum will be tailored to make sure graduates have the skills to step into a new job, and that those new skills represent the needs of partner companies that Blur State is working to secure.
“We are solving two major problems we see everyday in the hiring of new IT talent,” said Blur State co-founder Justin Hill. “Through partner companies, Blur State is able to precisely identify the needs of their business and develop curriculum geared specifically to those issues.”
The average annual salary for software developers in the U.S. is just under $100,000, according to the Bureau for Labor Statistics, and Harvey noted data from PayScale.com that says entry-level computer programmers earned a median wage of more than $48,000 in 2014.
“If we can work with companies across the region to produce quality job candidates, reduce the barriers of job entry for those students and get them into a new higher paying job with tremendous upside potential, we feel like we have won and have made a very positive contribution to the region and our students,” Harvey said.
Sign up for Daily E-news
