Michael has always been interested in computer programming
Keen to learn code properly so that he could retrain to get a tech job, he’d struggled to find the right kind of training which would still allow him to juggle his learning with his full-time job and a busy family life. Then he saw an ad for The Developer Academy and now…

"Learning to code with The Developer Academy has been postive from day one!"


After 19 years in Engineering, I've got a Web Developer job!
Michael says:


“When I first looked into coding courses, I did a bit of looking around on the internet and found some basic information and background but then I decided I wanted to learn something new. I started looking around for a course or maybe going back to college part-time, but that’s quite difficult to do when you’re working full-time. I did find some bootcamps online, but it didn’t fit my lifestyle.

Then I found The Developer Academy and because that was part-time it made it possible to fit around my everyday life. I quickly realised it was different to what everybody else was offering.

The only other options out there were either a correspondence course – if you wanted to go down the part-time route – or there were the bootcamps if you wanted to have some instruction, but they are expensive and wouldn’t work for me because of my full-time job.

"What I really liked about The Developer Academy approach was the flexibility - that everything is tailored with help from the instructors. They all come from different backgrounds and you get the opportunity to speak to them about that."

When I saw the ad, I sent The Developer Academy Founder an email. We had a conversation and I visited the office. We sat and had a good chat, I soon realised that they could work with me and help me find out what I needed to learn to become a coder.

What I really liked about their approach was the flexibility – that everything is tailored with help from the instructors. They all come from different backgrounds and you get the opportunity to speak to them about that.

When you speak to someone it’s a lot easier to get a feel for what their roles are, because it’s such a varied industry it’s hard to find out otherwise.

The fact that there was always somebody available throughout my training was what I most valued. I like to work things out myself, but if you get to the point where you need a bit more qualification or you need to ask about something different – maybe a related technology – then you can just ask the question and one of the instructor team will know, or point you in the right direction.

You have really easy access to get the insight you need quickly. I feel really supported as I can just ask on our Slack channel or send out an email and I’ll get a response. Plus, there’s the three group sessions a week.

"The fact that there was always somebody available throughout my training was what I most valued"

My job came about after I had a conversation with Ben (The Developer Academy Founder). He’s always doing research, talking to local companies, asking them what skill sets they require and what candidates they would like to speak to.

Through this engagement with companies, he matched me up with a local company, Razor and said: ‘It would be good for you to go and speak to them. They need someone and I think you’d be a really good fit.’ Soon I had my interview, really liked them and went back for a second visit – then they offered me employment!

I’m joining them as a Developer at junior level, going in and learning all the facets of the industry.