The conflict in Syria has displaced millions. These refugees contend with hunger, homelessness, and extreme poverty—in the five years since the start of the Syrian crisis, Syrian refugees earned less than 40% of the average wage in Iraq, for instance. Additionally, access to education and professional development for millions has been disrupted.
Through a partnership with a humanitarian initiative Re:Coded, Flatiron School is launching a Fellowship that will train Syrian refugees in Iraq as software developers and connect them with employers who hire remote talent. The curriculum will be sourced from Flatiron School’s online Full-Stack Web Development program and will use our online curriculum and platform, Learn, supported by a community of local teachers on the ground.
“We were thrilled to launch our online campus last year and provide worldwide access to the same curriculum that has enabled hundreds of New Yorkers to start careers as programmers,” said Flatiron School co-founder and President, Adam Enbar. “By partnering with Re:Coded, we are able to expand the reach of our program beyond what we even imagined. We are honored and humbled to be able to provide practical, outcomes-based coding education to those who need it the most.”
The Fellowship is a full-time, year-long program, held at a training center in Erbil, Iraq, that is split into three stages. After developing and refining their English language skills, Fellows will spend four months undergoing Flatiron School’s full-stack development curriculum on our Learn.co online campus while honing their software programming skills with the guidance of local coding experts. For the remaining five months of the Fellowship, Fellows will work directly with private sector hiring partners, who are looking for remote technical support.
According to Alexandra Clare, Founder and Director of Re:Coded, “We approached Flatiron School with our mission — to use technology and entrepreneurship to effect change in areas of conflict — and they gave us the tools to make it a reality. Their programming curriculum and online platform will give refugees — the most vulnerable people in the world — the resources they need to regain the economic stability and autonomy that have been taken from them.”
Encouraging more people to gain web development skills
Flatiron School has a history of offering scholarships to people from groups underrepresented in the tech industry, helping them to learn programming skills and find jobs as developers—nearly 40% of our 2015 graduates were women, and 24% were low-income, and our newest NYC Web Development Fellowship was created with the city of New York for foreign-born New Yorkers.
For more information or to apply as a software development trainer, please visit http://www.re-coded.com.
