Technology and Humanity

Coding School for Refugees

Netherlands-based HackYourFuture touches people’s lives.

There are many difficulties faced by refugees who have to migrate to other countries due to the internal turmoil in their country. The most important of these is the problem of not finding a job usually due to not knowing the language; hence, the livelihood problem.

This situation is also not very different in European countries that host thousands of refugees.

Unfortunately, refugees in these countries are often seen only as a problem to be solved.

Yet, when you start looking at refugees from a different perspective, you realize that you can do something for them.

Hack Your Future

Gijs Corstens, the founder of HackYourFuture, is just one of the individuals who succeeded it. While thinking about how they can help thousands of refugees immigrating to Europe, they have succeeded in helping hundreds of them thanks to the “refugee coding school” they have established.

HackYourFuture is a coding school set up to teach refugees computer programs and coding.

Corstens defines the purpose of HackYourFuture, which was founded as a foundation, as enabling students to find jobs as software developers by empowering students (refugees) through coding learning.

First of all, they prepared a 6-month program with 40 volunteer software developers to teach the basics of web development. They also direct students who graduate from this program to employment through their networks.

Besides teaching them how to code, they also teach students how to work on projects in a technology team.

Thus, students learn not only to code but also how to do teamwork. Being part of a technology project and witnessing the stages of the project does matter for them.

Online Education

The HackYourFuture team started by teaching face to face in Amsterdam at certain times on Sundays. Besides, during the week, thanks to online homework and mentoring, they helped the curriculum continue.

In addition, during this 6-month coding school, students visit many workplaces, take specialized courses from various technologists, and take individual coaching training for their careers.

Corstens, the founder of HYF, explains the thought behind this project.

When more than 2 million people came to Europe as refugees, especially in 2015 and 2016, he says that his home country, the Netherlands, like other European countries, was not ready to host these people.

Corstens thinks it is a tremendous waste of time and talent for these people to wait for about 18 months in refugee camps to end their applications as refugees. ‘We want to give them a chance to prove what they can achieve with the right support and network’ Corstens explains.

A Universal Language: Programming (Coding)

Since refugees need to make a lot of progress to become part of society, they have been embarking on the idea of doing a study on coding, which is now a universal language, to help them overcome the language and job barrier.

‘Our experiences have been overwhelmingly positive with very hard-working people who really prosper when given a clear goal and the right support’.

To match the existing demand of the web developers in the job market with the many talents in the refugee groups, they immediately started to work and set up HackYourFuture. In this way, a complete win-win situation emerges for many companies that need these people to grow their business with qualified developers.

In addition to teaching JavaScript as a basic language in coding schools, programs such as HTML, CSS, Node, Angular, MySQL/MongoDB are also taught.

Furthermore, it is aimed that students learn to think like a programmer, how to solve problems, and how to manage a project. So they get to a completely ready level for their first web developer job.

Employment

HackYourFuture currently operates in the Netherlands, Canada, Belgium, and Denmark.

While only 11% of refugees who came to the Netherlands in 2014 could find jobs within 2.5 years, 85% of HackYourFuture graduates were able to find jobs as developers.

HackYourFuture has helped over 200 refugees to find jobs in these 4 countries, over 120 in the Netherlands alone. It is also worth noting that these jobs are for high-quality positions in the IT sector.

The Others

HackYourFuture is not the only coding school opened for refugees in Europe. In the last few years, many initiatives have launched in different countries for similar purposes.

Then, they started to address a wider audience in London under the name CodeYourFuture.

The Refugees on Rails initiative reached many European cities like Munich, Cologne, and Berlin, while the refugees{code} initiative came to life in Vienna, Austria.

Carrying out similar projects in countries like Turkey, which hosts the world’s highest number of refugees, can provide thousands of refugee families to live in much better conditions.

Please contribute in the comments if you know other institutions that help the refugees through coding schools.