Holberton School Australia launched last week while announcing its partnership with REA Group, sharing a mutual understanding of the magnitude of Australia’s tech skills, as well as a belief that diversity is key to our collective success. Chris Griffith addressed this exciting news in The Australian on the 14th of October, “Holberton, REA Group offer digital skills training”.
Young Australians will gain employable digital skills with Silicon Valley’s Holberton School bringing its alternative software engineering education program down-under.
The education start-up’s migration is in response to a huge short-age in computer and digital skills that is projected as Australia moves forward.
Global on-line real estate company REA Group is partnering with Holberton, supporting its launch.
Founded five years ago to address the gap in education for prospective tech engineering talent, Holberton is a global school with 27 campuses around the world.
The project-based university alternative seeks to educate the next generation of software engineers.
The initiative comes hot on the heels of another digital training initiative. The Australian this week reported that graphics design platform Canva will partner with OpenLearning to also address the nation’s digital skill shortage by offering computer science training
Holberton’s Australian website launched today, with the first course now open for enrolment. While the programs are conducted online, students get to meet in person. During the course there are 50 days of physical get togethers. The first course meetings will be in Melbourne.
REA Group in a statement says the Holberton philosophy doesn’t presume any existing knowledge of computer coding or digital practices. There is no pre-course, no formal teachers or formal lecturers and no competition. The admission process is automated, and seeks to identify smart and motivated people.
Courses last nine to 12 months and focus on learning how to learn and on the “why”. “The curriculum prepares students for real workplaces as they are coached and incited to work together, leaving the program job ready.”
The first Australian course will start at the same time as around 5,000 worldwide Holberton students begin course work. Students across all campuses work on the same projects simultaneously fostering teamwork and collaboration.
REA Group says Holberton graduates have landed employment opportunities at the likes of Google, Tesla, Facebook, LinkedIn, Apple and many more.
REA Group’s involvement stems from its own activity training women for digital economy roles.
REA Group chief technology officer Chris Venter says Australia needs to prioritise building a workforce that meets the requirements of a modern digital economy.
“According to the Technology Council of Australia, there will be one million Australian tech sector jobs by 2025 and without innovative pathways disrupting the traditional approach to a tech career, we won’t have the skill base to fill these pivotal roles.
“We need to open the door for people who may not have otherwise considered a career in tech and make it easy for them to upskill or transition from another sector.
“The Holberton School model and organisational initiatives, such as REA’s Springboard to Tech program, which is specifically designed to encourage women to move into tech, will help us plug the skills gap and re-build a prosperous Australian economy.”
Emmanuel Goutallier, executive partner at Onepoint APAC and founder of Holberton School Australia, says he searched the globe for a new way of teaching that enabled software engineer talent to be job-ready in less than 12 months.
“The local Australian market needs software engineering skills as quickly as possible and our curriculum does not assume any prior tech knowledge and therefore increases the pool of talent at entry. No ATAR is required, just sheer motivation and the willingness to problem solve.
“The program is designed to suit those seeking a career change, school leavers as well as upskillers. “The Holberton way is about learning by doing and learning from your peers.
“As the Edgar Dale ‘cone of learning’ shows, people generally remember 20 per cent of what they hear but 90 per cent of what they do.
“We are focused on helping to diversify the tech workforce with our automated admissions process completely removing any human bias.
“Specifically designed to identify smart, motivated people, our admissions don’t take into account previous education, work experience, gender, ethnicity, or age. Our view is anyone can become a software engineer.”
REA Group is 60 per cent owned by News Corporation.
