“We really believe in order to create access to opportunity, we have to be innovative in the way that we offer education opportunities,” says Daisy Magnus-Aryitey, co-executive director, Code the Dream.

WorkingNation sat down with Magnus-Aryitey at Presented by JFF Horizons – See Beyond 2022 in New Orleans.

“Our [nine-month] program is very flexible. It’s really designed around the needs of recent immigrants and refugees, and people from low-income backgrounds who have different responsibilities. Education needs to fit into their schedule and not require them to drop everything to fit into our schedule,” she says.

To get hands-on tech experience, Magnus-Aryitey notes the program has its own in-house paid apprenticeship program. “Folks come in after the classes, take that classroom knowledge, and really start to build on those skills spending 40 hours a week with senior developers, building real world apps for nonprofits to help them accelerate the work that they do.”

“They get to put that knowledge into practice, meeting with clients, working with senior developers, and really building these real world tool that serve people from marginalized communities.”

She cites Vamos as an example of an app developed by their apprentices, “It’s an app that helps coordinate outreach to migrant farm workers. It’s being used in seven states across the country to help coordinate outreach to people who are marginalized people who need services and resources.”

Upon completion of the program, Magnus-Aryitey says job placement is the goal. “We are always in the process of building up partnerships. A lot of our apprentices have just been scrappy and gone out and gotten their own jobs. It’s wonderful to see.”

“We’re always reaching out to partners and seeing how we can help them build up their pipeline of diverse tech talent and really get some ready developers on their team from marginalized backgrounds.”Learn more about Code the Dream.