The Story of Code First

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Our CEO, Ashwin Bharath, shares the story behind why we created Code First:

A few weeks ago, during my second week of lockdown in Virginia - I took all the proper precautions and visited my local grocery store. As I approached the checkout with the raised stress levels that have become far too common for these types of errands - I was greeted with the warm smile and upbeat attitude of a cashier that helped to scan and bag my items. At that moment, I felt overwhelmed with gratitude - this cashier was risking his health so that my family would have food on our table.

As hundreds of millions of people shelter in place, essential workers are ensuring that we are safe and out of harm's way. These are the cashiers and stockers at the stores that are open, those who deliver our mail, food from restaurants, essentials ordered online; and of course, the first responders and healthcare professionals who work tirelessly on the front lines to care for the sick.

During these extraordinary times, ordinary heroes have carried the burden - ensuring that society is able to carry on. It is our responsibility to do what we can to show essential workers our appreciation.

For Revature, that means creating pathways for individuals to gain the critical skills necessary to launch a career in technology. So, it is with tremendous gratitude that we launched Code First, a new initiative that provides free, instructor-led virtual coding courses to the families of essential workers. We know that technology skills will be absolutely critical to the future of work. At a time when unemployment has the potential to impact millions of Americans, we hope to play a small role in taking care of essential workers and their families -who have made incredible sacrifices and contributions.

In the coming months, Revature will be donating approximately 2,000 hours of instructor-led virtual training to essential workers, their families, and others who have been impacted by COVID-19. Code First will help participants gain experience in the latest enterprise-level programming skills while working on real-world project scenarios and advancing towards industry-recognized professional certifications. You can learn more and apply
here.

I founded Revature because I wanted to create a pathway for qualified talent from diverse experience and educational backgrounds to reach their potential as technology professionals. To date, we've jump started more than 5,000 careers in technology and it's my personal mission to train and deploy one million software engineers into the workforce by 2030.

Eventually, life will return to normal. Businesses and schools will re-open and we will venture outdoors again without masks and fear of crowds. But for the heroes who are allowing us to patiently wait for that day by risking their lives today, their lives should not return to normal. It will be our turn to give back and support their future and the future of their families.

It is our hope that Code First will play a small part in creating new career opportunities for these heroes, their loved ones, and our community.

To learn more about Code First and apply to join the program visit:
www.revature.com/