Four students from the first batch of Project Code, Bangladesh's first international coding bootcamp, have graduated from the program.
Certificates were distributed to the graduates, and they delivered presentations on their activities under the program during a ceremony at the Project Code office in Dhaka on Saturday. Deputy Minister of Education Mohibul Hasan Chowdhury Noufel was present as the chief guest of the event.
The deputy minister said: “I have started basic programming and coding in secondary level educational institutions. Many students are getting some ideas till higher secondary, but Bangladesh does not have the kind of training and guidance needed to deliver international standards.”
He added that the young entrepreneurs of Project Code have led the way in overcoming the country's weaknesses in coding training, making it a very important initiative.
Shahriar Saeed, director of administration of private mobile banking service Nogod, said: “Project Code is working on various issues of efficiency. If we recruit people, they can contribute to us. We always feel we should keep in touch with the best at this kind of work.”
Ishtiaq Khan, founder of Project Code, told Dhaka Tribune that there is a bootcamp for software development in Europe called Codeworks.
“After talking to them, we found the cost of the program is Tk10 lakh. We joined the venture. If you do it through us, it will cost Tk1.5 lakh. I believe that the quality of education under Project Code is much better compared to other countries. We will do better in future,” he added.
Ershad Khan, another founder of Project Code, said: “We have partnerships with companies from various countries, including Japan and America. Various recruiting organizations have to face many challenges to get skilled and trained people. Keeping those things in mind and keeping pace with the world, our aim is to develop tech-savvy people.”
He also stressed the need to increase participation of women in all spheres.
Shahriar, a student of Project Code's first batch, said: “Project Code is like an educational institution on one hand, and a workplace on the other. It is not possible to take classes here only by paying money. Here, it is made in such a way that the workers can be competitive at any multinational company in or outside the country.”
Afia, another student, said Project Code is working to build education and action, especially for women.
Project Code is the first international coding bootcamp in Bangladesh and is an exclusive joint venture of Digital Bridge and Codeworks, Europe's 1 coding bootcamp. Project Code will offer Codeworks' 3-months long Software Engineering training program in Bangladesh. Project Code uses the exact same curriculum, course content, campus learning platforms and technology as the ones being used in Codeworks' own campuses in North America and Europe. The program is full-time, highly demanding (800 hours) and highly selective, thus ensuring the highest quality graduates.
So far 20-25 students have joined Project Code. 10 students in the second batch and 12 students in the third batch will start training in a few days.
