Some of you have been asking my advice on the best ways to learn to code, even if you don’t live in Silicon Valley or near the coastal tech hubs in the United States. Here are some of the exciting opportunities available throughout Kentucky, Indiana, and Ohio for folks who want to learn more.
Side note: I’m thrilled that this list is so long. It is such a good time to code in the Midwest!
Did I forget something? Do you have a question about learning to code? Leave a comment below.
1) Code Louisville – one of the highest-quality programs I’ve seen. (Full disclosure: I am a former Code Louisville participant.) You can expect training with homework assignments, peer reviews, self-paced learning, online forums, a Facebook group, networking, and weekly meetups with mentors and fellow students. At the end of the program, they even provide job fairs and other career assistance. http://www.codelouisville.org
2) Treehouse — At one point, Kentuckians could get a free Treehouse subscription through the Louisville Public Library. Although I believe they’ve discontinued this deal in recent years, I still highly recommend signing up for Treehouse. It’s roughly $25 – $49/mo and the content is high-quality, and created by some of my favorite people in the tech apprenticeship & coding bootcamp industries. http://teamtreehouse.com/
3) Awesome Inc U – Primarily services Central Kentucky, but also occasionally offers online classes as well as in-person classes in surrounding areas. Awesome Inc provides affordable in-person and online coding “crash courses” for adults and kids http://www.awesomeincu.com/
4) My humble hometown of Lexington, Kentucky, has its own coding group for those who identify as female: the Lex Ladies Graceful Coders, a group of young women in Central Kentucky who are learning web programming. Their first project was LexPlayPacman: https://github.com/LexLadiesCode/lexplaypacman
5) I’m thrilled to have helped bring CoderDojo to Kentucky, with Lexington and Louisville (and Southern Indiana!) all rolling out programs to help teach coding to kids. Learn more here: http://coderdojo.com/
6) Interested in learning Adobe software for graphic or web design? The 100% online Bluegrass Area Digital Media Artists Group (BADMAG) is Kentucky’s official Adobe user group, which was actually sponsored by Adobe for many years. The group has transitioned its in-person, paid meetups to a 100% virtual (and 100% free!) format. (Full disclosure: I’m the former Editor of Kentucky’s Digital Media Artists Group Magazine, and I also have connections to Adobe.)
7) Learnable, Udemy, Coursera, Skillshare, and more – regardless of where you live, these MOOC’s (Massive Open Online Courses) are available to everyone. Prices (and quality) will vary per course. You’ll find good stuff on all of them, so search around if there’s a particular type of class that interests you.
8) CodeAcademy.com is fully online, free, and highly-recommended by those of us who work in the tech field!
And of course, if you need help getting your tech apprenticeship or coding bootcamp off the ground, whether online, in person, or a blended hybrid learning environment, please feel free to reach out.