Free ‘boot camp’ on offer.
After lockdown 2020 the business buzzword was “pivot”. Everyone was pivoting. Service offerings were changing, logistic models altered, it seemed every part of business was affected in some way.
While for the most part, everyone returned to the status-quo relatively quickly, one long-term effect Covid has had is on recruitment. There are simply not enough highly skilled people in New Zealand to fill some of these niche roles. In fact, NZTech analysis shows concern at the shortfall of tech talent nationally, flagging “a shortfall of over 10,000 skilled staff that will be needed by the sector over the next three years.”
One local company, Re-Leased, has experienced this firsthand. With a rapidly expanding software developing business, and not enough software developers to go around, they have had to ‘pivot’ and get creative.
Based in Ahuriri’s tech hub, Re-Leased has grown to now having over 120 employees in six offices across four countries, all in less than a decade.
With further significant expansion plans into the future, Re-Leased global head of talent and engagement, Rachael Chetty said that the company had decided to “invest in Hawke’s Bay, and grow the local pool of highly skilled, highly employable people to continue to fuel this burgeoning industry. For the first time in the region, we will be co-hosting a course that promises to take people with some or no programming experience and turn them into world-class graduate developers, fees free.”
Partnering with New Zealand’s premier, full-immersion web development boot camp specialists, Enspiral Dev Academy, Re-Leased will be hosting this 15-week intensive coding course in their Ahuriri offices. Normally costing $10,000, the next cohort is scheduled to start at the end of January 2022.
Chetty hopes that the course will appeal to “People who are already in the workforce but looking for a new challenge. People who love to problem solve through collaboration, and are curious, hardworking and brave”.
“For a motivated and determined individual, the jobs are there for the taking”, says Chetty. Having already employed a Dev Academy graduate, Re-Leased is “confident that the skills developed through the course of this programme create practical, work-ready employees.”
If the potential for employment wasn’t enough of a hook for future applicants, web development jobs are also relatively well paid. The Dev Academy website states that average starting salaries sit at around $53,000 at the moment, and research by tech recruitment firm AbsoluteIT shows that median salaries increase by 60% in the first six years.
However, Re-Leased global head of engineering Tony Schollum makes it clear that, “The course isn’t a walk in the park. It is 15 weeks of full-time study, and then some, but for the person, or people who decide to take the leap, the potential long-term gain far exceeds the short-term pain.”
By learning alongside a working development squad in the Re-Leased offices, Tony also notes that students will “have access to real-world, real-time projects, availability to on-site mentoring and a foot in the door to one of New Zealand’s fastest-growing software companies”.
This is truly an opportunity of a lifetime for the right person, but places are limited. Interested parties can find out more about the course at https://devacademy.co.nz/
Applications for the January cohort are being taken currently at https://devacademy.co.nz/studying-in-the-regions/ and close on 30 November.