Organizers believe Omaha Code School will turn novices into new hires

Over the summer, Sumeet Jain taught an immersive web development course at General Assembly in San Francisco. Less than six months later, he and fellow organizer Rahul Gupta announced Omaha Code School, a new intensive program to bring novice developers to experts in just 12 weeks. “My students eagerly devoured the course content and became…

Over the summer, Sumeet Jain taught an immersive web development course at General Assembly in San Francisco. Less than six months later, he and fellow organizer Rahul Gupta announced Omaha Code School, a new intensive program to bring novices to capable developers in just 12 weeks. 

“My students eagerly devoured the course content and became capable developers so quickly,” Jain told Silicon Prairie News. “My passion for education reignited, I returned home and got to work with Rahul Gupta.”

The result is a program that will allow students to work on projects for class as well as real products. Jain uses Omawho.com as an example of a live, open-source product students at Omaha Code School would likely work on.

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“Beginners of all kinds will get tremendous value from the school,” Jain said.

Jain—who will serve as the school’s lead instructor—says the school is well-suited for designers or front-end developers, but also hopes to target non-technical entrepreneurs hoping to grow their skill set and learn how to develop their own products. 

“By staying nimble, resisting bloat and raising money for scholarships, we think we can bring aboard students who might otherwise be unable to attend,” he said. 

Classes begin Feb. 24 and run through May 16, and while a location hasn’t been determined yet, the school will likely be somewhere in downtown Omaha or Midtown. The program will combine intensive instruction with real-world projects to prepare students for the workforce, and draw on the support of mentors, who include a number of familiar faces from the Omaha community.

Total tuition for the program is $6,000—which Jain says is about half that of other programs—but a variety of scholarships are available and organizers say they evaluate applicants’ financial needs on a case-by-case basis. The Omaha Code School application is now available online

“What else is there to do here in February and March?” Jain said. “Seriously though, Omaha feels like a city on the cusp of something big. Organizations like The Bemis are doing wonderful things for the community. We take their example seriously and hope the code school can be a part of the movement we all feel happening around us.”

To learn more about Omaha Code School, read Jain’s post: “Building Talent in the Prairie.” 

This story is part of the AIM Archive

This story is part of the AIM Institute Archive on Silicon Prairie News. AIM gifted SPN to the Nebraska Journalism Trust in January 2023. Learn more about SPN’s origin »

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