International coding institution opens in Dublin with plans to expand to Cork and Galway

Wild Code School, one of Europe’s leading coding institutions, is opening in Dublin this week, with plans to expand to Cork and Galway and increase its student intake from 45 to 300 by 2025.

Wild Code School was founded in France in 2014, and now operates campuses in 24 locations across Europe, all offering five-month coding bootcamps aimed at meeting skills gaps in the tech sector in a rapid and responsive way.

Speaking at the opening of the Wild Code School Dublin campus today, the organisation’s international founder, Anna Stépanoff, said Dublin was selected as the location for the newest campus because of the ongoing growth in demand for skilled tech employees in Ireland.

“Ireland has been established for a number of years now as a hub for international tech companies, and that brings with it huge demand for workers with up-to-date tech skills. In the wake of Brexit, I believe even more opportunities will open up in Ireland for those with the skills that leading employers need. That’s why we’ve selected Dublin as the location for our newest Wild Code School campus, and why we have set ambitious targets for growth across Ireland in the coming years.”

Since it was established in France, Wild Code School has trained over 2,000 developers across Europe to date, with two main courses offered: Web Development and Data Analysis. 90% of graduates are working in the tech industry within six months of completing their Wild Code School course.

The new Dublin campus is located in The Digital Hub in the Liberties area of Dublin.

Speaking at the opening today, Marek Wystepek, Dublin Campus Manager, said: “We’re delighted to be bringing our innovative training model to Dublin. This year, our aim is to train 45 students in Web Development and Data Analysis. In the coming years, we plan to increase our offering to Cork and Galway, with the aim of training 300 students every year from 2025 and widening our course offering to include cybersecurity. As part of our expansion, we also plan to create 14 full-time jobs with Wild Code School in Ireland. Obviously, by turning out job-ready graduates with highly sought-after skills, we’ll also be contributing significantly to meeting current skills needs.”

Female participation in Tech

As part of its launch into Dublin, Wild Code School teamed up with the Dress for Success Dublin charity in late 2019 to offer five full scholarships to women interested in becoming coders.  The scholarships are worth €7,800 each.

The five successful applicants will start their Wild Code School course over the coming week.

One of the scholarship awardees is Andrea de Roeck, 30, from Swords. Commenting ahead of the commencement of her course, she said: “I’ve a background in graphic design, but worked in the newspaper industry following college. When I was job-hunting, I realised that most of the jobs out there had a coding requirement, and I needed to upskill. I completed some online coding courses but I still feel there are gaps in my technical skill-set, so I’m delighted to receive the scholarship and look forward to helping balance the gender ratio in the tech industry.”

Wild Code School marked its opening today with a panel discussion at its campus in The Digital Hub. Participating in the discussion were:

– Anna Stépanoff, CEO and Founder of Wild Code School;

– Sonya Lennon, designer, businesswoman and founder of Dress for Success Dublin;

– Adam Hetherington, Owner of Binate Digital and a trainer for Wild Code School workshops; and

– Alec McAllister, a Senior Executive with Technology Ireland at IBEC.

A focus of the panel discussion was on promoting the participation of women in tech. CEO and Founder of Wild Code School, Anna Stépanoff, said: “Coding is one of the most important skills today – how we work, live and play is powered by coding. Every time a new app or product is created, it’s usually going to be used by both women and men, so it’s imperative that women are involved in all aspects of the development to improve the user experience.

“Currently, 30% of students on Wild Code School programmes across Europe are women.  In Ireland, I’d love to see us reaching a 50/50 gender balance, as well as expanding our campuses to Cork and Galway.”

For further information on the general application process for Wild Code School, go to: https://www.wildcodeschool.com/en-IE/campus/dublin.