And so it begins …

The first cohort began their 11-week course in November 2017 all with their own individual stories on what brought them to Tech Returners.

Over the next 11 weeks I have asked them to share their experiences to inspire other returners.

Previous careers from media, maths teacher, solicitor, production designer, construction, trainer to pharmacist all of which have taken career breaks for various lengths of time and for different reasons. Reasons including focusing on their children, lack of flexibility to studying but all with the same desire and passion for to develop in tech.

Aims for the course are not just the desire to code but to build confidence by growing their network with people in a similar position, having a plan what to do next and explore different opportunities such as starting a career in tech or starting their own businesses.

I hope you enjoy reading through their journeys and progress and watch this space for further developments for Tech Returners.

Week 1 — The fears, intros, and developing our first websites…..

In this first week we hear the experiences from Sarah, Helen and Rachel:

I’m not going to lie, I was absolutely petrified about the first Tech Returners session. Don’t get me wrong, I wanted to do the course and I signed up for it because it excited me, but as week one approached I began to get more nervous. I know nothing about coding and it’s fair to say that since having my first child I’ve lost some confidence.

Unfortunately I wasn’t able to return to my job after maternity leave finished. I worked as a Director and vision mixer in T.V and the flexible working options were limited and the hours not family friendly so I was forced to make a decision that broke my heart. The Tech Returners course appealed to me as it was an opportunity for me to get up to speed with new technologies, challenge myself with something completely new and almost reinvent myself a bit.

Week one arrived and I’m pleased to say it went like a dream. I achieved more than I could have ever imagined in the first session. If you’d have said I’d be piecing together the start of my first website I never would have believed you.

I met all the fantastically talented people that I will share the next 12 weeks with. Such amazing women all with different stories and goals they want to achieve from the course. Beckie from Tech Returners, Darren, Paul and James from The Barclays Eagle Lab were so supportive, positive and passionate about the project and I feel lucky to have their experience, knowledge and guidance moving forward.

The blank computer screen I was faced with at the start of the session represents where I am right now and I’m ready to write the code to my new and exciting future!

Thank you Tech Returners, roll on week two!

The first day of our tech returners course was fantastic. We met our group for the course and introduced ourselves. We all have an interest in starting careers in tech after having breaks from work for various reasons. We had an inspiring talk from Beckie about what the course would involve and how it can help us with our return to work. We found out that we would be covering an introduction to coding HTML, CSS and JavaScript as well as using other technology such as learning about electronics and 3D printing. All super exciting stuff!
We had a lesson in starting to code in HTML by Harriet who explained everything brilliantly so we could all get started having ago at making basic layout of a web page. I think we were all quite surprised that we were able to do that on our first day of the course.
It was great to meet a positive group of like minded women and can’t wait until next Wednesday to carry on learning more. We can practice what we have learnt on some online coding tutorials so it would be good to have chance to do that to keep the learning fresh in my mind.

I was really, really keen to get on the first tech returners course as it sounded ideal for my situation. I had been a solicitor for ten years but was feeling jaded and ready for a new challenge. I had done some online coding courses and was keen to learn more, but I have a toddler and an 8 year old, so I knew I would need something flexible that I could fit around them. The course is one day a week, during school hours, which was perfect. I also wanted to have the comradeship of being with other leaners and to be able to ask a human teacher questions when I got stuck. :-)

I have to admit to feeling pretty nervous on the morning of the first day. “What if everyone else is already really good? What if I ask a stupid question? What if I can’t keep up? What if they are all young hipsters?” These, and other similar thoughts were creeping up on me as I got on the tram to MediaCity.

I needn’t have worried. The guys from EagleLabs were really welcoming and seemed genuinely pleased to be hosting the first cohort of tech returners. The other participants are friendly and down-to-earth and come from a diverse range of backgrounds, including teaching, HR, pharmacy and animation. The course leaders and support staff from Northcoders were patient and supportive and they didn’t seem to think any of our questions were silly! In fact, Harriet from Northcoders, who was leading the first session, made a point of telling us to ask questions, as it helps everyone else as well. Our first hands-on session involved learning some basic coding. We helped each other along, learning from what the others had done and vice-versa. By the end, we each had made a basic web page using HTML. I couldn’t quite believe how much progress we had made in the space of a few hours!

Roll on week 2 :-)