It’s 2018, and coding is an invaluable skill to have both in and out of the workplace. It’s a shame, then, that women play such a marginal role in the coding community. In fact, it was recently reported that the number of women learning computer skills is down by a third. This doesn’t bode well.
Thank goodness, then, for the recent proliferation of all-female coding workshops, designed to target the gender imbalance that permeates the world of coding. Global movements like #GirlsWhoCode and #BlackGirlsCode are whirring, and aim to inspire women everywhere to take up coding with alacrity.
If you’re a Londoner and looking to bolster your skill set, make yourself more employable, or simply just learn a new hobby, you’ve come to the right place. We’ve rounded up the best coding courses for women in London.
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Oh, and they’re all free (or thereabouts, with a little help from some corporate sponsors). What a time to be alive.
Best free coding courses and bootcamps for women in London
Women Who Code: Coding for all abilities
Women Who Code launched in London in 2014, and now boasts 5,299 members. It serves as a hub for events, tutorials and get-togethers for members and companies alike. What’s more, Women Who Code also serves as a careers platform, collating and advertising local London jobs; one glance tells me that the Financial Times is seeking a Senior Engineer (one assumes software), complete with the requisite coding languages.
For those looking to start out coding, Women Who Code’s resources page is eminently useful. Separating resources into format (tutorial, blog post, video, product etc), level (beginner, intermediate, advanced) and topic (HTML, CSS and so on), it gives perusers a database of avenues into coding.
You can find out more over on their website.
Revolut: Best for business types
Fintech firm Revolut is offering free coding classes to women in a bid to recruit more female engineers and bolster diversity in the tech industry. The company announced it will hold free coding classes for women at its head office in Canary Wharf. Classes are set to take place on a monthly bases, and are limited to 15-20 students, so that those partaking can get as much one-on-one support as possible.
If you’re interested, you can find out more on the Revolut blog.
Founders & Coders: A comprehensive introduction
Okay, so this one’s not strictly for women. It has, however, garnered a LOT of favourable reviews from women, which bodes well. Natalia Baltazar, Development Manager at the Guardian, is quoted on their website: “Hands down the best experience of my life,” she relays. Now that’s a pretty compelling tribute.
It’s essentially a 16-week full-time coding bootcamp, followed by a 10-week full-time mentorship, portfolio building and job interview scheme. There are offices in London and, if you fancy a shakeup, Nazareth.
As you can imagine, this isn’t a free service that’s handed out willy nilly; each place on the programme costs £2,500. Don’t run for the hills yet though – Founders & Coders’ employment partners, including the Guardian and WCRS, are offering to help pay for these costs. Alternately, they’ll make a regular contribution after you graduate. “This is a way of paying it forward,” the company explains, “so that we can provide a place for someone in a future cohort”.
The official website has more information for the curious.
Best free coding courses and bootcamps for women outside of London
For those among us not being made a mockery out of by London rent, there are still ample coding options…
Codebar: Coding far and wide
Again, not explicitly for women, but aiming to facilitate the “growth of a diverse tech community” (we’ve taken this to mean “broaden it out from the sole domain of white men”), comes Codebar. The non-profit initiative wants to “enable underrepresented people to learn programming in a safe and collaborative environment and expand their career opportunities”. When it comes to tech, “underrepresented” is pretty much a synonym for “women”.
With chapters in Brighton, Cambridge, Manchester, Bournemouth, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Oxford Kent, Norwich, Peterborough and Bristol – in addition to myriad European capitals – there’s sure to be a workshop in your vicinity.
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