NewBoCo code school gets $10,000 for programming, scholarships

The New Bohemian Collaboration Initiative has received $10,000 from the state of Iowa for its adult coding program.

NewBoCo's DeltaV School was named on a list of eight schools and training organizations announced Wednesday to receive $10,000 grants for Quality Pre-Apprenticeship Program training.

The DeltaV School, housed in NewBoCo's offices, is a multi-week program in which students learn software development before joining the workforce.

It also offers introductory classes to give people interested in coding a sense of what working in the industry is like.

The school is recognized as an apprenticeship provider by the U.S. Department of Labor.

NewBoCo Chief Operating Officer Aaron Horn said the funding partially will go toward costs for running the school, such as hiring instructors and providing classroom space.

The grant also will fund five scholarships for students from under-represented demographics in the field, such as women, people of color and people from lower socioeconomic backgrounds.

Horn said the apprenticeship is competency-based, meaning students graduate as soon as an instructor or employer certifies they're able to do software development professionally.

'In Eastern Iowa, there's nobody else offering a (software developer) apprenticeship, so we're just trying to grow this idea as a valid and valuable way for these companies that are trying to hire more tech talent and are essentially running out of ideas to do that,” he said.

NewBoCo's first coding apprentice is on track to graduate in mid-October and join the group's developer team writing code for companies in the Iowa Startup Accelerator.

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