Digital education providers and apprenticeship specialists Code Nation announced their partnership with The City of Bristol College this week, expanding their reach into the UK’s booming South West.
Code Nation, head-quartered in Manchester’s city centre, provides Software Development Apprenticeships and private training courses – in their physical campuses and virtual learning environment – to create a viable solution to the digital skills gap; business-ready digital talent.
Having harnessed funding from the Apprenticeship Levy and the Adult Education Budget, Code Nation can provide training in software development free of charge to their students – and have created great coding careers for their graduates, 89% of whom had no prior experience in the field.
Co-founders Andy Lord (CEO) and (Chairman) David Muir are bringing their innovative approach to creating employable tech talent to the region, creating further employment opportunities for residents and providing employers with access to software developers at no cost.
The region boasted a number of impressive statistics last year, receiving the third-most investment of all UK cities, with only Manchester and London raising more, according to the Digital Economy Council.
The growth of technology and digital in the region saw over 30,000 digital jobs created and over £8bn digital-tech turnover.
Bristol is also home to notable employers such as Hewlett Packard, EE, and Just East, a growing tech community with meetups like Techspark and Venturefest,, and leading digital gaming company SG Digital, who are already creating their new software developers through Code Nation’s apprenticeship programme.
Having trained over 900 students in campuses based in Manchester, Trafford, Chester, Ellesmere Port and Cambridge since their inception in 2018, Code Nation is already the UK’s fastest growing Software Development Apprenticeship provider.
Working directly with employers with requirements for software developers, Code Nation engineer their training courses around the skills that modern businesses look for – problem solving, communication skills, commercial awareness, and of course, full-stack technical knowledge.
Paul Rogers, City of Bristol College’s Head of Business Partnerships said: “The College welcomes the opportunity to work in partnership with Code Nation in the rapidly growing Bristol tech community. It will enable the college to continue to raise the aspirations for all learners with higher level, well-paid apprenticeship opportunities”.
“The partnership will create an innovative way of establishing a long-term career pathway in one of the areas that is guaranteed to show huge growth for new talent. Bristol will be at the forefront of digital activity with many global brands establishing a base here, so whether you are starting your career or looking for a career change – becoming a software developer could be just the answer”.
Having harnessed funding from leading sector organisations through the apprenticeship levy and local funding streams, the partnership will provide training in software development.
The partnership between Code Nation and City of Bristol College comes after months of planning following the region’s status as one of Europe’s booming tech hubs, and Code Nation’s CEO is very pleased with their latest venture.
Andy Lord of Code Nation comments, “we’ve always had the South West on our radar and we’re delighted to have partnered with City of Bristol College to create a space to train the region’s next generation of digital talent. Bristol sees more and more individuals moving here to find work with their impressive digital employers – as well as being home to two billion-dollar tech firms”.
The CEO continues, “ Despite the current circumstances, we have the ability to run our courses for Bristol’s residence in the next few weeks thanks to our E-Learning platform. We’re proud to be able to bring our outreach programme here, running our 3-week course at no cost to those who are unemployed, or earning £16k or less. For many it’ll be the first step in finding a career in the digital sector – and what better place to look for their first role.
“We’ll also be hosting our free 1 and 2 day introductory courses for people who want to give coding a try. Next on the list will be our 12 week coding bootcamp and our apprenticeship programme delivered through the fantastic facilities in City of Bristol College – or our state of the art virtual learning environment.”
Bristol is leading the way in the development of robotics and autonomous vehicles – what many describe as the future of technology – and is home to two tech unicorns; tech-enabled energy provider ‘OVO’, utilising software engineers to develop their proprietary technology platform, and artificial intelligence specialists ‘Graphcore’, using machine learning to help innovators in the sector achieve important breakthroughs.
Code Nation’s partnership with City of Bristol College will enable the residents of the region to access the transformational training needed to access roles with leading employers, starting future-proof careers in the fastest growing industry in the world thanks to their business-led programme.
