Why are we starting The Coding Ground?
Together we've been practicing Software Developers for over 2 Decades and have always been passionate about Software Development. Combined with our passion for helping others changing their lives, we are embarking on a journey to create world class software craftsman of unemployed, resource-poor South Africans.
By working hard and being passionate about Software Development, Mandla has changed the life of him and his family. Read more about why this is so important to Mandla and Theo. You can also watch a talk Mandla did on the topic at RubyFuza, a local developer conference.
By contributing to our campaign, you can change the trajectory of one of over 50% of South Africa's unemployed youth boys and girls, to not only help them provide for their families, but also help shape the future of their Country and Continent.
What do we need?
In short, we need ~$170 000, this will allow us to secure funding for a minimum of 30 students (our stretch goal would be 80 students) for a year, with either one full-time craftsmen to mentor, or two part-time craftsmen.
Your contribution will go to the following:
- A premises able to accommodate the 30 students.
- Equipment including mid-level laptops for the students, network infrastructure, an internet connection, projectors and other items needed
- Monthly utility bill including water & electricity
- A travel stipend that will help the students get to and from the grounds
- 2 Meals per student per day
- Furniture
- A Library of relevant books
- Creation of additional coursework
Because we aim for The Coding Ground to be completely self-sufficient, we will work with companies so that the students' fees are entirely sponsored with the obligation to work for the sponsoring company for a year. Should a student that has been paid for by the crowd funding campaign be taken on at a client, that money will then be made available for another student.
Our dream is to not only help students to find jobs, but also to create a fund where the students can apply for funding to start their own initiatives. This will truly change South Africa.
What if we don't meet the minimum requirements to start?
Should we not meet our minimum requirements to start our fund, we have investigated a number of alternative strategies to reduce costs, including using Raspberry pi's (or similar, more powerful variants) and reducing the salaries and time spent by the craftsmen. After all, even being able to change 1 individual's life is worth it.
The Impact
To An Individual
With our previous involvement at Sisonke Rising, where we taught individuals between 12 and 25 how to code on Saturday mornings for 2 years, we realized just how much of a difference a mentor can make. The privilege of helping someone realize that they are capable of so much is a massive responsibility. Watch a video of Moral, a Sisonke Rising student, sharing what a difference Sisonke Rising has made in his life.
To A Country
The average wage for a low-skilled individual in South Africa is around $9 per day if they even are employed. With your contribution and The Coding Ground's mentorship, the student will immediately go to earning a starting salary almost three times as much, with the potential of tripling that salary again in a matter of ~3 years.
The change does not just stop at earning a salary, however. Once an individual can provide for their households, they will become active participants in the economy and will be able to help catapult the country into the new digital era.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are you going to teach?
We are going to use a combination of online resources, including Harvard CS50, Free Code Camp and various other resources including books, regularly scheduled talks.
So which programming languages are you going to teach?
We are going to teach Javascript (client side and server side) as well as C#. More importantly, we are going to teach our students how to easily adopt new languages and skills required.
What will happen to the funds should you receive external sponsorship?
The more funds we can raise, the more students we can help. If we raise more funds than students we can take in the first year, the funds will roll over to the next year's students.
Can you guarantee that after a year the students will be able to contribute at their employers?
Simply put, we cannot. We can, however, use our combined knowledge of more than 20 years including all the lessons we've learned from teaching Code to children on Saturday mornings for the past 2 years to do our absolute best to ensure this is a success.
Campaign Update
Thank you for being patient while we ‘failed fast and often’ in starting up the Code School – The Coding Ground. Until now we have not sent you feedback as we had nothing concrete to give feedback on.
However, it gives us great pleasure to send this update to you, now. We have signed our rental agreement to lease premises and will be facilitating our first Bootcamp this Saturday, the 1st of July 2017. We will be selecting our first five students from this group.
Despite the fact that the funding did not meet our expectations, we've learnt numerous invaluable lessons in getting things started and we still know and believe that this is simply too important to give up on. We embarked on a mission for The Coding Ground to fund the students and with your contributions, we have enough funding to officially start the process. Our primary mission remains the same, to give hope and skills to those with aptitude, determination and a willingness to work hard for their future.
Our strategy for the next year is to:
- Facilitate Bootcamps;
- Structure the Bootcamps in such a way that they are beneficial regardless of whether the attendee is selected or not; and
- Provide a stipend, training material, constant mentorship, life skills and a safe environment conducive to learning, over a period of 12 months.
The possibilities for the students are endless after the twelve months, and although we might have a number of potential forks in the road, in future; we are not limiting ourselves or our students just yet.
We look forward to giving you more good news, and as soon as we have selected our students we will send the perks your way.