School of Code scoop double win at Silicon Canal Tech awards 2018
School of Code’s graduate and now full-stack developer, Leigh White, has been awarded Graduate Developer of the Year and Chris Meah, CEO of School of Code, has been presented with the Outstanding Technology Individual award, at this year’s Silicon Canal Tech Awards.
Leigh White, a graduate developer who underwent the free, fun and fast-paced 16-week School of Code bootcamp, has been recognised as the Graduate Developer of the Year at the Silicon Canal Tech Awards 2018.
The Silicon Canal Tech awards gathers Birmingham’s finest tech talent to celebrate start-ups, investors, established companies and rising stars in the West Midlands area, providing the opportunity to praise the growing tech community.
The award recognises Leigh’s efforts and contributions to the world of programming, with only a year of coding experience under her belt. Coming from recently graduating in a maths degree, Leigh decided that maths wasn’t for her, and so was unsure of which path to take for her career. She then stumbled across the School of Code, which opened doors to the technology sector and acted as a window of opportunity. Leigh had very little previous tech or coding experience but made it through our challenging and intensive web development course, which helped her develop the relevant and essential skills that make Leigh the award-winning full-stack developer she is today. She now works at Cogcept, an AI and Software consultancy based in Birmingham. Being Graduate Developer of the Year shows Leigh’s career change, ambition and hard work have paid off, and there is plenty more to come.
This also follows Clare Streets’ win last year, who won the Silicon Canal Graduate Developer of the Year and is now an Associate Director for B13 Technology. Before the bootcamp, Clare was a stay-at-home mum for seven years, before embarking our challenging web development course, defying all obstacles, which has helped her become who she is today.
This goes to show, our bootcamp develop and grow vital skills demanded by companies, for people who wish to lead a tech career. This is perfectly illustrated, by our bootcampers, Clare Streets and Leigh White achieving prestigious awards, and thus, recognised by the industry.
In brief, School of Code was founded by Chris Meah who believes technology is a golden opportunity to make the world a more equal, fairer place for everyone, but noticed the lack of diversity and from those who want to become a coder. School of Code’s bootcamp takes people from beginner to employed programme, thus enabling an increase in diversity and unique talent within the technology industry.
School of Code has also been shortlisted at the West Midlands Tech awards, created by Birmingham and Coventry Live, to celebrate digital start-ups. School of Code are up for Innovation in Education, and Chris Meah is shortlisted for Digital Young Person of the Year. The celebrations are taking place on Thursday 13th December 2018 at the ICC.
