Kate Murphy

kmurphy@enquirer.com

One of the largest and fastest-growing code schools in the world is opening a campus in Cincinnati.

The Iron Yard will offer a 12-week immersive course in back-end engineering to prepare students for careers in software development starting in May.

"The reality is that code and having the ability to code is the new American dream," said Rob McDonald co-founder of the business accelerator The Brandery. "People have learned a skill and gotten jobs and seen a dramatic increase in their compensation because of their ability to code. Access to resources like this is going to provide open doors for people that otherwise would be unable to enter labor forces of higher-paying jobs."

There are more than 1,200 developer job openings every three months in Cincinnati and about 400 of those are for junior developers, which is what they train, said The Iron Yard CEO Peter Barth.

"Cincinnati is exploding on the tech employment front," Barth said. "We align the curriculum we teach with the needs in this market and engage the employers in this community to come in and participate."

The partnership with employers throughout the course is the key that makes this model work across its 22 campuses worldwide.

He asks employers, "what are you looking for, what can’t you find in the market and how do we train that so that the students are productive for you?"

The core teaching will be delivered by instructors, but they also bring in project managers and lead developers from corporations, such as Procter and Gamble, to lead mock project management sessions or give talks on topics relevant to that company.

"It allows opportunities for the employer to connect with the students and see them work, which you don’t get to see in an interview," Barth said.

From start to finish the students will build real-world products every single day. They take a real problem in the community, such as transportation, and figure out ways to solve that with technology, then build it in the classroom. It could be an app to find parking spaces or one that tracks the bus to see if it’s on schedule or not.

"That dynamic is the key differentiator between this and a traditional education," Barth said. "They are working on that job and can see and interact with an employer as they're working on it."

He said the students can see on a daily basis why they're learning something, beyond just the credential.

The core demographic for the course is "24 to 34-year-old early career changers." It is aimed at those who have been out in the workforce for a couple years and realize they want to switch careers, but don’t want to go back to school for two or four years.

The Iron Yard is a licensed post-secondary educational institution in every state it operates. The full-time course costs $12,000 and will require about 80 hours a week dedicated to lectures and work on group projects.

In addition to the 12-week program, they offer free crash courses to adults once a week and a free 6-week course for kids.

The first Back-End Engineering Java course is scheduled to begin in May and a Front-End Engineering Javascript course will begin in July. The school is still searching for a permanent site downtown, but enrollment is open for both courses.