Stuck in a rut? Want to change careers? Amsterdam is home to plenty of tech academies where you can learn to code and kickstart your career as a programmer. But now, with the pandemic and all, is it the right time to invest in a drastic change of course? Codam, SALT and Techionista are three of them, all aiming to solve the severe lack of developers, as well as the severe lack of diversity in the tech world. We checked in with them to see how they fare during the past couple of months.
Tough times for tech academies?
A recent report from StartupAmsterdam made clear that COVID-19 already had some impact on the more than 20 tech academies in the Dutch capital. Without naming them, some of them mentioned a dip in revenue of financial woes, partly due to less students bringing in tuition. That is however not the experience of Lisa Stamm. She is head of communications at Codam, based on Marineterrein in the heart of Amsterdam. “Since the coronavirus, we’ve seen an increase in applications. Many people see this as an opportunity to learn a new skill. I understand other tech academies have a tough time right now, because many are paid. If you’ve just lost a job, you probably don’t have an extra couple of thousand euros lying around. But at Codam, learning is for free.”