How Makers is bridging the gap between the tech industry’s needs and undiscovered talent.

Launched in 2013, Makers transforms motivated individuals into qualified software developers through its world-class 16-week training bootcamp and places them with leading employers. They don’t recruit based on qualifications, they look for aptitude, attitude and the ability to learn, so their cohorts reflect the diversity of society today.

Makers exists to change lives and organisations for the better. They are for career changers from any background who want to unlock their true potential in tech. They are for employers who want look beyond the obvious to find the exceptional.

Why did you and the team develop Makers?

We started Makers to transform lives and organisations by bridging tech industry needs and under-discovered talent. The tech industry faces a historic shortage of talent as Covid has accelerated the already rapid industrial shift towards tech. At the same time, the traditional routes to filling that talent gap don’t work. Universities are slow, often not focused on workplace skills, and they exclude huge swathes of potential talent. Only 50% of young people in England go to university and only 17% of computer science students are women. At Makers, we identify talent by testing for attitude and aptitude. We don’t look at qualifications. This approach allows us to access the extraordinary, under-discovered talent that is neglected by other sources of talent supply. We look beyond the obvious and we find the exceptional.

Why is Makers different?

We don’t just train our Makers to be software engineers. We give them the tools and the growth mindset to continue to learn and solve problems through the rest of their careers. Our structured curriculum supports our students to solve their own challenges, underpinned by a pioneering emotional intelligence and wellbeing curriculum that helps them manage uncertainty and ambiguity. That’s the kernel of the transformational experience of the Makers course.

Our course is aimed at career switchers. We believe it is never too late to find the right work. The average age of our Makers is 28. Our vision is career joy in a more representative tech industry and we are here for people who may not have had the opportunity to enter tech when they first left education.

Our organisation is built around a set of values and beliefs about what work should be like. We hire people who care deeply about our mission and empower them to do their roles with freedom and autonomy. Our values are to nurture a growth mindset, prioritise joy and to trust rather than fear. Dana, our Chief Joy Officer was one of our first hires.

What’s next for Makers?

We are in the process of becoming a BCorp. We believe passionately in our broader mission and responsibilities and the BCorp status allows us to crystallise this in our formal governance. We have recently launched a new Devops course and have plans for more launches this year. Watch this space.

Have you got your sales engine roaring? We'd love to hear from you! You can apply for funding here or apply for Office Hours here.