Northcoders to partner On The Beach

The academy, which will take place at the beach holiday specialists’ digital headquarters Manchester, will enable trainee software engineers to learn programming languages Javascript, C# and Ruby.

This is the first partnership of its kind for both businesses and sees the two tech companies coming together to create skilled software engineers, nurtured and developed through on-site training.

Chris Hill, CEO at Northcoders, said: “We are all incredibly excited to be partnering with On the Beach for this year’s software engineering academy.

“It is fantastic to be working with such a pioneering business that wants to strengthen its relationship with the community by giving people from different backgrounds the opportunity to kick-start their career in tech.”

Northcoders was launched by Mr Hill, a former Sky Bet software developer, in 2015 from Manchester and earlier this year it launched a campus in Leeds.

On the Beach’s software engineering academy has taken on people from diverse backgrounds over the years, including career changers, ex-students, and self-taught coders, as well as a number of Northcoders graduates.

The course will also cover several core aspects of tech, including product, UX and agile training with the sole aim of getting graduates ready for work.

The course has more than double in size from 2018, with 15 trainees in this year’s cohort, in comparison to the six in the previous year.

Trainees will receive regular support from their dedicated Northcoder tutor, line manager or tech mentor.

Graduates will be offered permanent roles at On the Beach after they finish the nine week programme - six of which will be delivered by Northcoders.

They will then rotate around different teams within the company for the next two years. After this period they will be given the opportunity to choose which team they would like to work in permanently.

Stefan Nordin, chief technology and product officer at On the Beach, said: “As a tech-driven business, nurturing and developing talent is critical to us. Our Software Engineering Academy is one of the key ways in which we do this, and we are incredibly excited to expand the Academy this year.

“Our priority was to use a local training partner, whose ethos and values mirror our own.

“Both companies have very similar support systems from tutors, mentors and their student communities, with guaranteed employment after graduation, so the fit was right.”

Northcoders says it has helped over 400 people switch career into tech on average starting salaries of £25,000 since its inaugural course four years ago.

It has also launched scholarship schemes and a deferred payment programme aimed at women and gender minorities, as well as those who identify as BAME or LGBTQ+, have a disability or have had limited access to education, to help address diversity in tech.

Mr Hill believes retraining people to become software developers is not only likely to help plug the skills gap but also create a more diverse talent pool in the tech industry. He addded that 35 per cent of people retraining to be software developers are women.