With apprenticeships now a vital part of many firms’ recruitment and retention drives and following National Apprenticeship Week which took place last week, Manchester-based Northcoders – the industry leading software development training and solutions provider – is launching its brand new ReSkill programme which can be paid for with apprenticeship levy funding, co-investment, or levy-transfer.
ReSkill has been created for employees who want to change their career direction into coding but have little or no prior coding experience.
It follows the recent launch of its UpSkill programme which is aimed at businesses that employ junior developers who would benefit from ongoing training and skills development. To date, more than 45 people have started the programme.
The first ReSkill programme cohort will start on 8th March. Like all Northcoders courses, it will be delivered remotely due to Covid-19, but it will be available on campus in Manchester or Leeds once it is safe to return to in-person delivery.
Businesses can pay for both with apprenticeship levy funding, co-investment, or levy-transfer. If employers don’t have a levy, they can share the cost with the government. This is called ‘co-investment’ and means the company pays 5% and the government will pay the rest.
As part of the Government’s Plan for Jobs, other additional support is also available. Employers can access £2,000 for each new apprentice they hire aged under 25, and £1,500 for each newly recruited apprentice aged 25 and over. This includes taking on an apprentice who has been made redundant.
The ReSkill programme will be taking an academy style approach that will focus on C#, TypeScript, GO or for the first time Java and Kotlin. Northcoders has combined all the best bits from its industry-leading, award-winning coding bootcamp with a level 4 apprenticeship. The course is front loaded, turning anyone with the right aptitude into a fully trained, project-ready developer, in as little as 11 weeks. All ReSkill programmes include engineering masterclasses in DevOps and CloudOps, AWS Certificate, human skills workshops, and end point assessment.
For the UpSkill programme, Northcoders curated a bespoke modular structure where participating developers can choose a language track – C#, TypeScript, GO or Java and Kotlin – to specialise in and then add in either an applied testing or mobile application development masterclass. They will also access a DevOps & Cloud Engineering Masterclass, AWS Certification Prep, a Software Lifecycles & Methodologies – Human Skills and have a Projected End Point Assessment Period.
The programme follows a 13-month apprenticeship curriculum developed by industry experts and is delivered by Northcoders’ software developers who specialise professionally in the area they teach. Content is tailored to each organisation’s goals and objectives and will be designed to complement a full-time software development commercial working environment.
Amy Wild – chief commercial officer at Northcoders – said: “The appreciation, value and understanding of apprenticeships have grown and grown over the past few years. They have now become an integral part of how companies recruit and train their people across many sectors. The government’s commitment to supporting them financially has also been incredibly positive to see and I’m sure their popularity will continue to flourish.
Amy added: “The fact that both ReSkill and UpSkill can be funded using the Apprenticeship Levy opens them up to many more companies. We want the programmes to add real value and, most importantly, deliver commercially for our partner businesses.”
Since its inaugural course in 2015, Northcoders has helped over 750 people switch careers into tech, with average starting salaries of £25,500. As well as the Manchester campus, Northcoders also has a site at tech hub Platform in Leeds.
Over the past two years, it has been selected as one of the country’s brightest tech stars in Creative England’s CE50 list and was named Business of the Year at the 15th Annual Chamber Business Awards. It has also launched scholarship schemes and a deferred payment programme aimed at women and gender minorities, as well as those who identify as BAME or LGBTQ+, have a disability or have had limited access to education, to help address diversity in tech. The firm also relocated its Manchester campus to a new 10,000 sq. ft space at Manchester Technology Centre on Oxford Road in early 2020.
