Code school prepares students for careers in tech

STOCKTON — Several recent graduates of CodeStack Academy said the immersive 10-month accelerated code school offered by the technology division of the San Joaquin County Office of Education prepared them to basically pick and choose the techbased career they want to pursue.

The academy, established in 2018, was designed to be an economically accessible software engineering certification and job-readiness program that would provide opportunities to acquire the software and web development skills necessary to join the technology focused workforce. No experience is required, though registrants must be 18 years or older. The academy is led by SJCOE/CodeStack coordinator and software engineer Jateen Bhakta.

On Wednesday, about a dozen CodeStack Academy alums shared their experiences on a virtual call conducted by the SJCOE.

“It’s really intense,” said alumnus Zach Davis, who is helping write curriculum for the academy. “I started dreaming about code. It gets that much into your being.”

The academy is an eight-hour per day, five days per week immersive software engineering school. Students are tasked with more than 1,000 hours of classroom time, including a mix of instructor-led, projectbased, and peer-to-peer learning, followed by 160 hours of real-world apprenticeship with CodeStack development teams working on live, public facing projects.

The students are coding from the first day of class creating Windows apps, web apps and mobile apps all built on the Microsoft Azure platform. They are instructed on industry best practices, UI/UX and ADA accessibility concepts and implementation.

During the past three months, students are challenged to use their skills to develop pro-bono software projects for the social benefit of local nonprofit organizations under the supervision of CodeStack Software Engineering and UI/UX Design teams.

The grads said the hard work is worth the sense of confidence, achievement and high-demand job skills they now possess.

For more information, visit www.codestack academy.org.