In partnership with the Red & Yellow Creative School of Business,Cape Townâs newest and most exciting coding school, Le Wagon was launched earlier this month.
Le Wagon’s mission is to enable the greatest number of people to learn digital skills to change their life, thrive in their career or launch their tech project. Over the past eight years, the brand has firmly established itself as the worldâs number one coding bootcamp, with campuses in 45 locations around the world. Following the successful launch in Mauritius and Casablanca last year, the Mother City was the obvious choice for Le Wagons’ next home on the continent.
The partnership with Le Wagon is a reflection of Red & Yellowâs commitment to developing South African talent via internationally recognised and collaborative pedagogy that delivers competitive 21st-century skills.
âFor years Red & Yellow has been South Africa’s leading authority in digital marketing education. We have always focused on next-generation skills, and we realized that coding has become a crucial part of this. Hence the decision to partner with the leading coding bootcamp in the world,â says Verusha Maharaj, Managing Director at Red & Yellow and Lead at Le Wagon South Africa.
Trusted by global industry leaders such as Google, Amazon and Apple, Le Wagon has trained over 15 000 students globally. According to the schoolâs last published European student outcome data, 93% of graduates received a job offer, started a freelance career, or created their own start-up within 6 months of completing a program*.
âEquipping graduates with the right skills in key sectors is critical to driving transformation and supporting inclusive growth. Coding bootcamps respond to this challenge, offering a practical and intensive format to both entry-level and mature learners, providing them with the ability to become a competent junior web developer within just three months,â says Ryan Brouwer, manager of Le Wagon, Cape Town.
Le Wagon focuses on the practical skills required to secure employment in the tech sector, while removing the extensive cost and time investments needed in traditional models. With no technical prerequisite to attend, the intensive programme offers opportunities for students of all levels, and is inclusive and accessible to reach a wide audience.
The short and intensive bootcamps in Web Development and Data Science will enable a student, within 360 hours of study, coding, digital exercises, and group projects, to build their own web applications from scratch or work autonomously on data science projects. Available in full-time (9 weeks) or part-time (24 weeks) formats, the programme equips students with the requisite skills and internationally recognised certification for future-fit professions across the globe.
Le Wagonâs peer-to-peer approach and immersive, hands-on learning methods build necessary soft skills and an entrepreneurial mindset that are increasingly required by employers and the new world of work. This approach gives each student a human and social adventure with mutual aid between learners through constant exchanges with the 15 000 alumni across 25 countries worldwide.
Le Wagon also strives to foster the local tech ecosystem by hosting free coding workshops and tech talks twice a month, with its first Cape Town workshop taking place on June 15th, on the topic of âHow to code your first landing pageâ.
Le Wagonâs responsibility to its students does not end with the bootcamp. A major focus is placed on assisting students to find work once it is all over. Careers Week is designed to ready alumni to enter the job market, teaching them how to build their portfolios and resumes and preparing them for the otherwise challenging interview process. They also form key partnerships with corporates and start-ups looking to recruit high-quality developers and data scientists, thus giving its students the greatest chance of employment, whilst helping to alleviate the skills gap present in the country.
âAlthough Cape Town can be regarded as one of the major tech hubs in Africa, in global terms it’s still relatively young. Cities like Lisbon have, for the past few years, focused heavily on developing this scene through incentivising innovation, focusing on improving the availability of coding education, and creating mechanisms for small start-ups to connect with potential investors. The result has transformed the city into Europeâs âSilicon Valley’. Cape Town has a similar potential to become this for Africa and the impact that it could have for the broader economy is far-reaching,â Brouwer continues.
Le Wagon Cape Townâs campus will be based at the Red & Yellow Creative School of Business in Woodstock with its first Full-Time Web Development bootcamp taking place on 29 August.
Visit https://www.lewagon.com/cape-town to learn more about the boundless potential that the world of coding can unlock for both personal and industrial-level innovation.
