Talk to almost any business leader today and they will describe their companies as technology firms first and a provider of a particular product or service second.

With that new reality, personnel offices are scouring all available sources of tech talent, from university computer programs in places like Ann Arbor and East Lansing to their current non-tech workers who wish to develop new skills.

And to fill that gap, for-profit schools that teach software code writing have become an important new player in the field.

A new one, Tech Elevator, just opened its Detroit school within the TechTown business center at Wayne State, where it’s conducting its first classes this summer. Another coding school known as Grand Circus opened in 2013 with investment from businessman Dan Gilbert’s Detroit Venture Partners; in a little over six years at its site in the Broderick Tower on Grand Circus Park, the school has graduated more than 1,500 students and now trains about 400 a year.

The classes teach code languages like Java, JavaScript, and C# (pronounced C-sharp) in classes amount to a full-time job for about three months — eight hour days in class plus homework and team projects on top of that.

It’s a demanding schedule, and it’s not cheap. Tech Elevator charges tuition of $15,500, while Grand Circus charges $9,750. Students pay in various ways, out of personal savings, with student loans, or in some cases getting scholarships.

But the demand for tech talent is so unrelenting, and the financial rewards for tech workers increasingly lucrative, that coding schools like Tech Elevator and Grand Circus are easily filling their classes.

“There is definitely a war on (for) technology talent,” said Kristina Kolbas, senior vice president of technology for Quicken Loans, which fills hundreds of technology openings each year. “Our approach here at Quicken Loans is we try to diversify and explore many different avenues to find talent.”

Added Mike Malloy, Quicken’s chief people officer: “We are constantly hiring. We are always looking for talent, particularly in the technology realm. These are very good paying jobs and run the gamut.”

Diverse backgrounds

The classes attract students with many different backgrounds.

Heidi Gray, 27, taking classes at Tech Elevator this summer, grew up near Flint where her father was both a farmer and an auto assembly line worker. Interested in film, she worked in Los Angeles for a few years as a production assistant on TV shows like "Top Chef" and "Biggest Loser." Dissatisfied with that field, she traveled the world for a year as a Christian missionary before finding her way back home and to Tech Elevator classes.

“I think the problem I ran into was when I started out in the film industry, I didn’t set goals for myself,” she said. “My only goal was to make it, survive. After that I began to evaluate, is this what I really want? I found myself not really being challenged by it anymore. That’s something that’s very important to me. I always want to continue to learn and to grow in my industry.”

Jerry Yono, 28, was born in Detroit and now lives in Novi. Initially hoping for a medical career, he had some medical challenges that derailed him on that path. So he worked in real estate for awhile and became a high school admissions counselor. A brother who does software for the StockX sneaker exchange encouraged him to consider a tech career.

Like Gray, he had felt somewhat adrift.

“As I looked through my life, I had built up these intellectual skills I felt were not being utilized,” he said. “And I saw tech as a way to both utilize those skills, to build a better life for myself and my family, and also use tech to help others.”

Both students say the arduous schedule is worth it.

“We’re putting in 12 hours a day, sometimes more,” Yono said. “But it’s exciting to see the improvement.”

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Anthony Hughes, CEO of Tech Elevator, said that diversity of students is a signal that so many people are seeking a more fulfilling career.

“We’ve had folks who were landscapers, bartenders, accountants, white-collar workers,” he said. “The common attribute for all of them is that they recognized that their careers are flatlining. They see these opportunities in technology all around them. But there’s this hurdle that they can’t get over. So it’s about acquiring technology skills and getting an on-ramp into the field. “

Soft skills, too

Learning code languages like Java, JavaScript, or C# is only part of the curriculum at schools like Grand Circus and Tech Elevator. Throughout their three months’ training, students undergo coaching in the soft skills of interviewing and communicating with others.

Nicole Choinski, who runs the career pathway program at Tech Elevator, helps students write resumes, touch up their LinkedIn profiles, and go through mock interviews. She lines up companies like Duo Security, Quicken Loans, GE Aviation and others to meet with students. She hosts a matchmaking event at graduation for students to have a series of speed-dating job interviews with employers.

“It’s all about that soft-skill development,” Choinski said. “From there, we see the offers start to come in.”

One of the strengths of the coding schools like Tech Elevator and Grand Circus is that they try to focus on current industry needs to ensure that jobs are out there for their graduates.

“We try to organize the curriculum and the classes around where the jobs are,” Damien Rocchi, CEO of Grand Circus, said. “We spend a lot of time with employers understanding what’s in demand.”

Because of that, the career counseling and soft-skills training becomes as important as learning to code itself.

“When you get into computer programming,” Yono said, “one of the most important things is learning how to communicate with people. You can’t just put your headphones in and just code for nine hours a day.”

Michigan's next direction

Tech workers once toiled mainly at software or computer companies. But the demand for their skills is now all but universal. And that has important implications for a state like Michigan that is still redefining itself in the post-industrial era.

“If you think about it, every company is an IT company,” Rocchi said. “If you look at the automotive industry you often hear them talk about themselves as IT businesses that make cars. The demand for IT or tech skills is just everywhere.”

So if coding schools like Tech Elevator and Grand Circus did nothing more than speed career changers like Gray and Yono on their new path, they would be delivering a valuable service. But Choinski of Tech Elevator says it goes well beyond individuals. Coding schools have become part of the answer to what Michigan itself does next.

“Michigan had this brain drain issue and this skills-gap issue,” Choinski said. “People are excited to meet someone who is doing something to rectify it.”

Contact John Gallagher at313-222-5173 or gallagher@freepress.com.Follow him on Twitter@jgallagherfreep. Read more on business and sign up for our business newsletter.