What is it about

Do you want to work as a software developer? Are you already learning to code and have loads of questions but no one to answer them? Are you confident in writing code but struggling to find a job? Or are you completely new but you are interested in becoming a dev and not sure how to get started? This program is for you! It’s all about starting your career in tech!

Who are we

We are a group of people with various experience working in tech that would like to help you get your way in tech as a software developer. We have from junior devs, senior devs to dev leads, so we understand the problems you might encounter at every step.

Why do we do this

We know working in tech can be a good career, but we also know how hard it is to get through the door. It’s a lot of competitions, there are a lot of young guns fresh out of uni with computer science degrees. They are corporate-smart because they have the resources to train themselves up from when they were children. They are quick to learn because they are free of other stresses in life so they can invest their time and effort in building a career instead of surviving. Of course they get the jobs.

But we don’t want tech to be something only privileged people get into. It gets boring when there is no diversity in life experiences. We want to equalise tech, one person at a time. We want to give back to the community. And we simply enjoy writing code so much that we see it as a leisure way of spending time with like-minded friends.

Who is it for

You are from refugee/asylum seeker background
You are one of the following:
- Either you are totally beginner, keen to learn but not sure how to get started
- or you are currently learning to code in the hope of becoming a developer
- or you have fair amount of experience and looking for a job
Highly self-motivated
Committed to spend at least 4 - 6 hr per week on self-guided learning
Available for Saturday meetings

Note:

Coding is hard but not hard. It’s never about easy or hard, it’s about if you want to do it or not. If you are determined, it’s not hard. You put the work in and you will get the result. It’s that simple. But it is hard in the process because it’s quite different from the things you know. When you speak a language, if you make a grammar mistake or pronounce something wrong, you are probably still making sense to others. But coding is a lot less tolerant, a typo is going to break your code and you might spend hours looking somewhere else then find out it was just a typo! But once you get used to it, it’s predictable and reliable, debugging becomes like solving puzzles, you get a great sense of satisfaction when you finally get it.

We will try our hardest to assist you, but we can only work as hard as you do. It is your journey and you do have to invest your time and effort into it, there is no magic but hard work. There are going to be challenges, you are going to get stuck at one piece of code that just won’t work as you expect, it is going to be frustrating when you send hundreds of CVs out and don’t hear anything back. But with hard work and consistency, and a little bit of help from others, you will get there!

About the program

It’s not a quick program that will make you a dev in 30 days. It’s a long process. Think about a uni degree, it’s three years full time and plus you will have to take into account some learning done in high school too. There are companies offering more career-focused bootcamps and it’s usually half to one year full time and they expect you to join the class 8 hours a day and do homework outside classes so they can squeeze all you need to know in that short period of time.

So realistically, expect 1 - 2 years if you are serious about becoming a software developer, or longer depending on how much time and effort you invest in. It's a long process but we are committed to be there supporting you through the journey.

As for our program, we are here for the long run but we break things up into three-month terms. So we run three terms in a year, each for three months. At the start, we set the goals and decide the ways we are going to achieve the goal. Then we spend the three months working hard on it. At the end, we re-evaluate the goals we set, if we have made progress, and tweak our approach knowing more about ourselves now. Then we take a break and start again.

It is going to be focusing on:

Personalised learning. We understand everyone is different. We all learn at our own speed and ways, we have different goals in life. So we will sit with you to help you set realistic goals based on your needs and circumstances. We will help you find learning materials that suit your style of learning. You will be in charge of what you want to learn and how you learn, and you are responsible for your progress.

Collaborative environment. As much as it’s about coding, it’s also about collaboration. Soft skills are just as important at work. How you communicate with others in the team, how you help and how you ask for help, together with the hard skills contribute to if you get a job, if your colleagues enjoy working with you and if you can resolve conflicts at work. So from day one, we want to foster an environment where you can build your soft skills. You will be asked to demonstrate your work, to ask for help and to help others!

Real world experience. We are aiming to organise things as close to the real world working environment as possible, so you have a good understanding of how things work at work and it won’t be like jumping off a cliff when you eventually go into the real world. There are opportunities to work on meaningful projects that work and fail in the real world.

Is it free?

To join this program is free at cost, but we expect you to pay back by helping other fellow participants when you can, just like how we help you. We are all team players here, we want the best for everybody so we lend a hand whenever we can. And we believe everybody is good at different things, either you get a coding function quicker than others, or you are a CV wizard, or you cook amazing food, we all appreciate it!

But it’s not free in the sense of time and effort, you will be less free while you are doing this. The only way you can achieve something is to spend the time and work hard on it. You need to set the time for yourself and for your team, put the effort in. There will be days you wish you are free to do something else, but if you decide it is worth the effort doing this and you put the work in, you will see the result.

Structure

Program timeframe: 22nd March - 21st June 2025

Meeting time: 2 - 5 pm, every saturday somewhere in the CBD

4 - 6 hours self-guided learning time each week including 1 - 2 hours pairing with teammates on a task

Tech stack

HTML/CSS, Javascript/Typescript, React

What to expect at the end of the term

You will gain insights on working as a software developer
You will learn to set realistic goals and achieve them
You will get better at collaboration with others
You will make progress on your personal goals

What next

After the three-month term, we will reassess if you are still a good fit with us (mainly if your goal still aligns with ours and if you put the time and effort into your goals) while you can also reassess if this is still the way you like to go with your career. If the answers are both yes, you will be invited to join the next term!

How to apply

We are looking for 6 - 8 people to join our program in 2025. Please send through a little introduction about yourself, why you want to join and what makes you a good candidate, and CV if you have one!

Application closes on the 14th Mar 2025.

Please fill out the EOI form here https://forms.gle/xQ1ytMQPFgsk... or send your application to refugeescodemelbourne@gmail.com.

After the application, you can expect one round of interview where you can ask more questions and we can ask you some questions to see if you are a good fit for the program. Then we will let you know the result within a week.

- Please help us spread the word! If you know someone who might be interested, share the news with them! 🙏

SkillUp Software Developer Program 2025 for Refugees/Asylum Seekers - Expression of Interest

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General Admission ticket