A year ago, the launch of the government-backed Fit4coding programme saw the first batch of 16 students begin their studies at WebForce3 in Luxembourg’s Belval Technoport.
The course aims to train 90 coders in 18 months in a bid to respond to the local demand for skilled workers. We caught up with Adem director Isabelle Schlesser who spoke to us about the programme’s first year and shared her vision for the future.
Ms Schlesser, WebForce3 is about to receive its third intake of Fit4coding students: what have you learnt from the first year?
The programme has been a great success. It was an ambitious endeavour because we offer places to candidates who do not necessarily have prior experience in IT and the challenge consists in making these junior developers ready for the job market in the space of a 490-hour training in just three months. To date, the programme has been a great success, however, with all those who started the course completing it. The job placement rate has also been encouraging with a high number of candidates already finding work as developers.
What are the course requirements?
The only prerequisites are to have passed the baccalaureate and to possess a strong interest in web development. The candidate then has to sit a series of entry tests and interviews to ensure we select the right students. The curriculum is very demanding so we try to choose the candidates who are most likely to finish the course. It is open to non-IT specialists–you do not necessarily have to have a background in computers–and there are no age restrictions: we have accepted younger candidates as well as more mature students with prior experience in the workforce onto the course.
How do you plan to develop the programme in the future? Do you intend to include new projects or diversify the curriculum?
We have already adjusted the course because we realised how important it was to include a work placement. Despite speaking to businesses about their requirements, we had not at the outset envisaged including an internship when the training period ended, but have since done so. It is crucial to involve companies from the word go–as the interns they take on are potentially employees upon completion of their work placement. We also added an “employability” module which aims to develop “soft skills” such as teaching candidates how to be better communicators and improve their interview skills. Given the ever-evolving demands of the IT market, it is vital to ensure the training we offer is moving in the same direction.
