Code Louisville celebrates placing 750+ graduates in technology careers; 15,000 hours donated by mentors

Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer today joined Code Louisville staff, graduates, mentors, employers and partners at Virtual Peaker in the NuLu Marketplace to celebrate significant milestones achieved by the software development and technology training program.

“Code Louisville has become a key part of this region’s growing tech ecosystem since 2015, when President Obama helped put it on the map,” the Mayor said. “Its leaders and staff have been building a dedicated community of graduates and mentors, who are demonstrating what can be accomplished when a city invests in technology training for its residents.”

Code Louisville offers students a unique blend of online learning, career readiness training and guidance from experienced software development professionals. Hundreds of industry mentors have now donated a total of 15,000 hours of their time to Code Louisville – including many program graduates. More than 40% of the 91 mentors who’ve served in 2022 are former Code Louisville students, for example.

Today’s event was hosted by Virtual Peaker, a local energy technology company founded in 2015 that is one of the top employers of Code Louisville graduates, alongside El Toro, Humana, Switcher Studio, Waystar and UPS. In all, more than 300 companies have hired at least one Code Louisville graduate over the past seven years.

“Code Louisville has been instrumental in the growth and success of Virtual Peaker’s development team and ultimately our technology platform,” said the company’s CEO and Founder, Dr. Bill Burke. “We’ve created a hiring strategy around the program, and it has proven to be successful as we’ve hired 14 full-time engineers directly from Code Louisville. We’re looking forward to this continued partnership as our team continues to expand.”

Shawn Offutt, a Code Louisville graduate who has worked as a software developer at Virtual Peaker since 2020, also spoke about his experience breaking into the technology industry. “Before Code Louisville, I was working in a warehouse. Getting into technology was my goal, but at the time I couldn’t afford to go back to school,” he said. “Code Louisville helped me get promoted to the front office, then transition into a full-time career as a software developer. The training is definitely top notch… everyone there is ready to help you out.”

Brittney Coble, who now works as a Support Operations Engineer at Capella Space, also spoke about the impact Code Louisville made on her career. “Code Louisville didn’t just teach me how to code, it also taught me how to problem solve so that I could continue learning and building on my skills after I graduated the program,” said Coble, who has since mentored multiple cohorts of Code Louisville students.

Mayor Fischer closed out today’s event by encouraging Louisville adults who are interested in coding and technology to register for the next Code Louisville training, which starts in January.

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About Code Louisville

Code Louisville is offered at no cost to residents 18+ in the Louisville region. All coursework is remote at this time. Participants must complete two 12-week courses in the pathway they select in order to graduate. Code Louisville offers pathways in Web Development with JavaScript, User Experience Design (UX), Data Analysis with Python, Quality Assurance (QA) Testing, and Software Development with C#.

Code Louisville began in 2014 and was expanded in 2015 through a federal grant. Now that the original grant has expired, the program is funded through Louisville Metro Government. The program is run by KentuckianaWorks, the Louisville region’s Workforce Development Board. For more information, visit CodeLouisville.org.

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