Twenty-six-year-old Blisha Magar is one of 20 refugees working away in a classroom during a free computer coding boot camp called Refcode. The program, led by software engineers, teaches refugees tech skills.
On Magar’s screen is a website she made with two furry monsters, one blue and one orange. They look ready for lunch.
“I’m going to add a burger, pizza, broccoli and a cookie on the side,” Magar says.
A hospice care worker, she’s originally from Nepal. Magar is flexing the skills she learned in the boot camp to practice creating a website pixel, which reacts when you hover a mouse on it. She clicks the burger and drags her cursor over the monster.
“So if I click on broccoli, it might just open it,” Magar says.
She learned about the boot camp from friends, and it felt like an opportunity she could not pass up. “Since it’s free and I would be learning, like, a skill that’s very prevalent now. So two birds with one stone,” Magar says.
Brenton Strine, a software engineer, started the Refcode program in 2017.
“Companies are almost desperate to hire talented software engineers. So there’s this huge need there. And then, on the other hand, there’s this huge need of new Americans starting over from nothing,” Strine said.
This is one of a handful of programs around the country that aim to bring thousands of new Americans into growing industries such as software development and artificial intelligence.
When refugees come to the U.S., they usually need jobs. Last year, over 60,000 refugees resettled in the country after a record low in 2021.
Many refugees of working age start with low-wage, low-skilled labor. Strine said many refugees want tech jobs but have to settle for roles like rideshare drivers because learning how to code is difficult.
“If you think about a ladder that you climb to get to your first job, a lot of the rungs on that ladder are already in place, but what’s missing is that bottom rung for people who haven’t gotten a start yet, don’t know anything about code,” Strine said.
The 10-week boot camp provides hands-on experience with AI and coding. The industry is hungry and some students find jobs after completion.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates the tech sector in the U.S. will grow faster than the workforce in the next decade, adding over 350,000 jobs a year.
Refcode has recently grown and is now funded by DeKalb County, part of the Atlanta metro area. Strine said he can expand boot camps, pay instructors and offer internships to some graduates.
“We’re starting to fill in the rungs on that ladder a little bit where we’re paying our graduates now to do real work and put a real job on their resume,” Strine added.
For some participants, the program can jump-start a new career. That’s what 54-year-old Tesfaye Gebeyehu hopes for. He came to the United States over a decade ago from Ethiopia, where he was an irrigation engineer. He currently works at a supermarket and hopes the program will help him get a job in information technology.
“I am interested in changing my career. Now, I am working unprofessional work. I try to change my career to IT,” Gebeyehu said.
A couple of weeks later, Gebeyehu and the rest of his cohort were ready to graduate. Strine congratulated them. “I’m really excited because you made it to the end of the class,” he said.
Graduates took photos. They got a slice of pizza, a diploma and a fresh line on their resume that might help them land their next job.
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