Denver is no stranger to the burgeoning tech market. Bolstered by mainstays like Arrow Electronics, Google, Vantiv, and VMware, Denver’s tech growth was among the top 10 in the country last year, according to Forbes. And in the past five years, as found by a Metro Denver Economic Development Corporation study, the city’s tech employments increased by an impressive 32%(!). With that growth, it’s no surprise that coding bootcamps are becoming more prevalent throughout the city, as Denverites have seen their bootcamp choices grow alongside the overall tech scene. But just because you have plenty of options doesn’t always mean you know exactly what bootcamp’s right for you. That’s why, often, we encourage people to test the waters by attending a free coding session or simply networking with a few fellow aspiring coders. This way, you’ll understand a bit better why you want to learn to code and what your coding goals are. Here are the places to learn how to code for free in Denver.
Learn to Code Colorado
Founded in 2014, Learn to Code Colorado hosts weekly introductory sessions at Galvanize Platte (1664 Platte St.). Each sessions focuses on different topics ranging from HTML to CSS to JavaScript, and the exact target audience differs slightly with each different topic — some courses are few totally inexperienced newbies while others are for those with a couple weeks under their belt.There’s often food there, too. RSVP for each session on their Meetup.
Denver Public Library’s Devcamp
Library locations throughout the city host semi-regular coding courses for beginners. You’ll have to do some sorting and filtering on their website to find the exact course you’re interested in, but various languages and skill-levels are covered almost weekly.View their events calendar here.
Girl Develop It Boulder/Denver
Girl Develop It, as its name would imply, works to empower women interested in breaking into coding and/or a tech career. The group holds Code & Coffee sessions at least once per month where local developers can get together, talk about code, and help one another with their current projects.They also host paid events a few times per month that focus on specific expertise. For example, this month they’re holding Intro to UX and Intro to User Research sessions. Visit their Meetup page for more information about specific sessions.
Flatiron School’s Denver Campus
We’d be remiss if we didn’t also highlight Flatiron School’s local events for aspiring coders and engineers.At our Denver campus in our parent company’s WeWork’s 3601 Walnut St. location, our customized campus hosts weekly (or more) events for coders of varying experience. Flatiron hosts free workshops covering a vast array of topics and interests: free workshops, beginner study sessions, and local panels. Visit our Eventbrite page to see our upcoming events.When the main Walnut St opens in Spring 2019, we’ll be hosting frequent campus tours so prospective Flatiron students can meet instructors, students, campus directors, and just get a lay of the land. We highly encourage you to come see the campus and meet our team.In the meantime, come hang out with Flatiron’s community of fellow Denver coders, regardless of your coding experience.
