Skillcrush, founded by Adda Birnir, is a fantastic enterprise dedicated to helping women build the technical skills they need to break into the digital market. It’s not just technical training that Skillcrush focuses on; what makes Skillcrush stand out is the support and encouragement that helps students understand how to apply these skills in the real world to get a job.
Birnir is candid about her story. She lost her job during a layoff in 2009 and noticed the employees retained were the ones with technical skills. Birnir immediately decided to learn how to program. Not only did she train herself to code and establish a client base including MTV and the New York Times, she eventually launched Skillcrush. Birnir is deeply invested in sharing her knowledge not only from the perspective of a CEO and entrepreneur, but as a technical instructor. Adda Birnir was named “one of the 20 Women to Watch in Media by the Columbia Journalism Review and one of the 30 Most Important Women in Tech by Business Insider”.
Skillcrush is deeply invested in its students. Three month training courses are available throughout the year offering the following Blueprints:
- Web Designer
- Web Developer
- Mobile Web Designer
- Freelance WordPress Developer
- Ruby on Rails Developer
Throughout the three month course, students have direct access to their online trainer and other classmates via Mightybell, an online community platform. The training style is lighthearted and includes some hilarious tongue in cheek humor in a lot of the training videos offered. This approach seems to take the sting away from those learning how to code for the very first time.
Handouts come with the course available for download, from reference materials to tests to check your knowledge. Advice is integrated with the courses, helping students understand what their next steps should be when taking the leap to apply for a job or go freelance.
Skillcrush has a great team of women on your side and they’re with you all the way from the day you start your training, it’s up to you to put the elbow grease in. Courses are available to both women and men and are best for newbies and beginners. Be prepared to do your own research and reference sites like W3Schools.com to further develop your understanding of coding.
Know someone that wants to learn digital skills and doesn’t know where to start? Have them look at their blog and get excited!