Photo: Flatiron School
Even in a city of more than eight million people, there aren’t enough engineers to fuel the city’s tech boom. But the city is doing something to redress the balance by offering a free mobile development course for anyone looking to switch careers.
Mobile Dev Corps is a new, four month long course run by the Flatiron School and fully funded by the city. The course is being run in conjunction with the NYC Talent Pipeline and will use the Flatiron schools’ immersive curriculum that has lead to a 99 percent job placement rate and average starting salary of $74,000 a year in past incarnations.
The shortage of coding talent isn’t a problem unique to New York — it’s a issue of tech entrepreneurs the world over. But you don’t need to be versed in the details of C++ or Java to build a mobile app. In fact, there are a whole host of programs that promise to turn complete novices into professional app developers in just a few months, but it’s pretty rare to find one that’s free of charge.
20 NYC residents will be invited to the intensive course aimed at people with no technical background. To be eligible you must be a resident of New York City, at least 18 years old, earn no more than $50,000 per year and have no prior experience as a mobile or web developer.
During the 16-week program, which begins in January, students will be trained to produce apps for Apple’s iOS mobile operating system. Some of the topics in the curriculum include an introduction to Apple’s new Objective-C programming language, debugging, SDKs, App distribution and mobile design.
Launched by Mayor Bill de Blasio in 2014, the NYC Tech Talent Pipeline is a $10 million public-private partnership designed to support the growth of the City’s tech ecosystem and prepare New Yorkers for 21st century jobs. The mission of the partnership is to develop and train homegrown talent in the city to meet the needs of the booming tech companies that call New York home.
It’s not the first time Flatiron School has teamed up with the city to run courses. Past programs, such as the Web Development fellowship, saw bartenders and receptionists find jobs as developers at some of New York’s top tech startups, including Kickstarter and Buzzfeed.
With just 20 places going for the Mobile Dev Corps, competition is likely to be intense, but if you fancy yourself an iOS developer you can apply here.
