Iron Yard software school to open in Nashville
Iron Yard, a South Carolina-based code school that operates in 13 other U.S. cities, is launching a Nashville program in May, responding to the area's growing need for software skills.
The software training program will offer 12-week courses throughout the year that will help prepare students for programming jobs and teach those interested in building a tech startup.
"We see a huge opportunity to have a significant impact on education," said Eric Dodds, an Iron Yard partner. "There aren't a lot of industries where you can go through a training program in 12 weeks and launch a new career you really enjoy."
Iron Yard will be Nashville's second programming boot camp. The Nashville Software School, a nonprofit, began offering coding courses to aspiring developers in 2012 and will graduate its seventh class of students later this month.
While Nashville has a thriving community of software developers, the need for more talent is cited by companies throughout the area. In Middle Tennessee, there were more than 1,300 tech-related job openings as of 2014, and 2,200 tech hires were made in the same year, according to the Nashville Technology Council.
The Iron Yard program comes on the heels of Nashville being named a partner for the White House's TechHire initiative, which called for additional coding schools to prepare more individuals for tech jobs. In January, Google announced it was expanding its fiber network in Nashville. Both developments illustrate the city's growing stature as a tech hub, as well as provide additional infrastructure that will further propel Middle Tennessee's tech industry.
The concept for Iron Yard grew out of a Greenville, S.C., business accelerator founded in 2011 by Peter Barth, a graduate of Vanderbilt University. Graduating startups that were beginning to grow needed more software developers but were struggling to find enough. To help those companies, Barth added a code training component to the accelerator.
"We all realized that one of the biggest problems we were facing was the lack of development talent," Dodds said. "We decided we would try to train developers that would work for our portfolio companies."
Iron Yard ran its first 12-week program in Greenville in 2013, and as the school developed, startup leaders from other states began to express interest in the training program. Iron Yard first expanded to Charleston and Atlanta in 2014, and new programs are underway in Las Vegas, Indianapolis and Little Rock, Ark. Along the way, the school has helped former baristas, teachers, retail workers and data analysts enter a new field.
The school is looking for a downtown location for its courses that begin May 26. Local staff will include campus director Joshua Cournoyer and three full-time instructors. Dodds describes the courses as very intense, with students logging between 60 and 80 hours a week.
Iron Yard will compete with the Nashville Software School, although the two programs have different business models. Iron Yard relies exclusively on student tuition — $12,000 for a 12-week program — and the Nashville Software School draws revenue from employer partners that hire its graduates, as well as from students who choose to pay $10,000 in tuition instead of joining a local company. The Nashville Software School offers four six-month programs each year, and the school recently added two night classes for part-time students.
"We clearly have not seen the end of either student demand or employer demand," said John Wark, Nashville Software School founder. "It goes to show how fast we are ramping up in terms of tech activity in Nashville and really how central it's become to every industry."
Reach Jamie McGee at 615-259-8071 and on Twitter @JamieMcGee_.
About Iron Yard
Iron Yard will offer three courses in Ruby on Rails, front-end development and mobile engineering throughout the year, and courses are capped at 15 students at a time. In addition, "Kid Classes" will be available this summer for ages 8 to 18, introducing students to game development and website building.
For more information visit http://theironyard.com/locations/nashville.