Why wait to change careers into tech and learn new skills?

It has been mid-2019 when we at TechFace once more faced the fact that Switzerland is lacking tech talents and specifically Software Developers. According to the latest World Economic Forum Future of Jobs Report 2020 “Technology design and programming skills” are among the top 10 skills of 2025. It is therefore without surprise to see, that many companies are searching for talents with these skills. And not only the skills were important, but they were also looking to increase diversity in their teams. At the same time, we know so many women eager to change careers into tech and learn new skills.

So we asked ourselves, why do we want to wait for talents with these skills to emerge in the next years? Why don’t we allow talented women to change careers into tech and learn programming skills already today?

What is the program about?

With this in mind, we launched the Full Stack Developer Program 2020! The goal of this program is to enable female talents to change careers into tech. At the same time, they are taking advantage of their already acquired skills. The program consists of attending at 10 weeks Bootcamp, lead by LeWagon. This is followed by an internship at companies committed to diversity and inclusion. The 6 months internship is supported by further workshops that allow the participants to gain more insights into different related topics. But most of all, these workshops allow them to stay connected and support each other.

Once we had the program content defined we started reaching out to female tech communities and companies offering internships to spread the word. The feedback was very positive so that we soon got enough applications to launch the program.

How did the program go?

In March 2020 we started with the Bootcamp by LeWagon. The circumstances were not in our favour, the Corona Pandemic had a major impact also on the program. At first, we had to move the Bootcamp online. It was not easy for the participants, as one of the major advantages of this program was to support each other by being in the same location. Being able to learn together and help each other would have been much easier being in the same room. Still, the six participants were so committed and eager to change their careers into tech, this did not stop them.

“I was able to let down my guard during the bootcamp with an amazing group of ladies, who are now part of my tech network. We still regularly talk and support each other in our respective roles.” – Joyce, Participant Full Stack Developer Program 2020

The Bootcamp was highly praised. All the participants were so amazed about how much they were able to learn in only 10 weeks! And they were now ready to apply their skills in the internship!

Are you ready for real projects?

It was time to get hands-on experience in a real project. Sadly, some of the companies couldn’t take an intern anymore due to the Corona Pandemic. However, all the participants were able to start an internship within a few months after the Bootcamp ended. At the same time, they attend the monthly workshops. These covered topics like Design Thinking, Agile Project Management, Python, React and UX Design.

“The quality and choice of topics of the workshops has been excellent and I continue to be impressed with each workshop and the instructors.” – Sue, Participant Full Stack Developer Program 2020

Interestingly, all the participants ended up in different companies with different products and services. Furthermore, they had to learn new tech stacks and this meant they were thrown in at the deep end. However, what made them successful in the internship was applying the skills they already had.

“The already gained working experience in a different industry of our intern was a great added value she brought to the team and the tasks she was working on.” – Monika from Mibex, Internship offering company

While the start for the participants has not been as planned, given the remote Bootcamp, it provided them the opportunity to learn even more skills. Today, they are all thriving in their internship and changed their careers into tech successfully.

And what do the companies say?

While we support women in building their best careers in tech, we also want to ensure that we increase diversity in tech teams. Therefore we wanted to know, how the companies, that offered an internship, experienced the program. Did we meet their expectation? Were we able to reach our goals?

The answer is a definitive yes! Marco from Software Fabrik allowed his intern to apply her skills almost from day one. She learned fast and was soon able to handle smaller projects on her own.

The same feedback we received from Nico at we.publish. He confirmed, that the basic the participants learn in the Bootcamp is key. The intern is able to apply her abstract thinking and learn new stack even on her own.

Monika from Mibex Software knows how important it is for an intern to contribute productively as soon as possible. And her intern did this in no time.

All three of them confirmed; they would definitely recommend this program to anyone – participants and companies!

Is it your turn now?

Are you ready to change careers into tech? Has the last program and its participants convinced you to get started?

There is good news! We will be starting the next program in April 2022!
Apply now and don’t miss this opportunity to become a Full Stack Developer in 2022!