A Start-Up Aims to Teach Anyone to Write Computer Code

This entry was posted on 12.30.13, in Career Technical Education, Postsecondary, Technology. Bookmark the permalink.

While studying political science at Columbia University, Zach Sims looked on with frustration as peers—graduating with lots of student debt and few workplace-ready skills—struggled to find jobs. In 2011, before what would have been his senior year, he dropped out to help start Codecademy, a free, interactive web platform designed to help teach even the most unlikely candidates programming languages likes JavaScript.

Mr. Sims, now 23, and his co-founder, Ryan Bubinski, 24, a Columbia graduate, have proved particularly adept at heralding coding as a résumé must-have in a digital economy. Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York City declared he would learn to code via the platform. Codecademy has attracted millions of users, has drawn $12.5-million in venture-capital funds, and employs 22 people, Mr. Sims says, although it has yet to generate revenue. (The co-founders remain coy about possible revenue streams but say they are in the works.) <Read more.>

Via Megan O’Neil, The Chronicle of Higher Education.