While becoming the next Mark Zuckerberg may be out of reach for someone just getting introduced to code, the skill has never been more valuable. Just understanding basic programming language is a great thing to put on your resume, and if you know how to code, you're golden. Software developers and programmers have been the most resistant to the recession, as jobs in the tech industry continue to grow. So what can you do to help yourself break into such a lucrative job market without having to sell your car to help pay tuition? Well, there are a few free programs starting up in a new effort to help people pick up the necessary job skills to compete in such a difficult job market.

The Boston Startup School The Boston Startup School is offering a free, intensive 6-week program that includes software development, marketing, sales and business development, as well as product design. The program was created to help the massive influx of startup companies find and groom potential employees. While the program is free, the competition is fierce, similar to most graduate programs or Chinese arcade dens. If you are interested you can apply here.

Code Academy Code Academy is another startup that is offering free courses for those interested in learning code. They have a team of programmers that upload tutorials and exercises for members to follow and practice. The exercises are free for all those that sign up, and the sign up process is fun and easy. Just go to their homepage and start the introductory lesson. After you complete the lesson, just fill out the form with your information and you will receive this in your email. Now you can enjoy your free lessons!

Code Year Code Year is another program created by Code Academy to get more people involved in coding. The program offers weekly lessons, one new on every Monday, for the 2012 calendar year. Subscribers will learn JavaScript, HTML, CSS, and jQuerey.

Mozilla School of Webcraft The School of Webcraft is another free option. Unlike the programs above, this one is peer-to-peer style, where users take lessons created and challenges created by other users, and discuss solutions or problems. You can earn badges by completing a challenge or uploading one of your own. And if these programs are not enough, or don't meet your coding standards then MIT and UC Berkeley have free access to their lectures and webcasts. There are years worth of lectures in the archives so you will have plenty to comb through. Do you know of any other free learning-to-code programs?

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