Chris Meah, centre, is smashing the geek stereotype at his School of Code in Birmingham

When Chris Meah enrolled for a computer coding course as an undergraduate, he soon realised that he had more sisters than there were women in the class. It confirmed his suspicions. “The computer geek character you see on TV is pretty close to the reality,” he said. “Almost everyone is white, nerdy and male.”

The experience inspired him to establish School of Code, which runs 16-week boot camps for aspiring technology whizzes. Birmingham-based Meah, 29, wants to attract as diverse a range of participants as possible. The first boot camp did just that — graduates included a stay-at-home mum, a fine arts student and a probation officer.

School of Code is one of thousands of start-ups founded in England’s second city each year, many of