BYU grad Tyler Richards is bringing an intense program on developer coding to the Camp 4 space in Provo this fall. The DevMountain program is intended to teach students the web application development skills they need in order to get started on a career.
“There is a tremendous need for computer programming talent in the Utah business ecosystem,” Richards said. “We know that we can contribute to Utah businesses and at the same time give our students skills that they can truly make a career out of.”
Richards said that DevMountain is working hard to help students solve problems without having to bury their heads in textbooks. He anticipates that the students will need to put in about 20–30 hours a week for the program. It is designed to fit into any schedule so students can keep a job or enroll in other classes while attending the program. The classes themselves will be held in the weekday evenings and on Saturdays.
The short 12-week program will be intense for all students because of the amount of content taught. It should give students a basic knowledge of web programming using real-world problems. Some of these skills include Javascript, workflow and collaboration environments, server side scripting and advanced techniques for building web applications.
Those entering into the course do not need any experience beforehand; they only need a desire to learn and any basic computer to use for programming. There will be a small amount of preparatory work given to accepted students to complete before the course begins on Sept. 9.
Cahlan Sharp, a product engineer for Scan, Inc., in Provo, has helped Richards organize the program and is the lead mentor for the program. As one of the course instructors, he strongly recommends the program because it is both a useful and cost-effective education.
“You can pay a fraction of what you’d pay for a four-year degree, learn applicable skills that are relevant to today’s workplace, and you leave ready to contribute and, if this is your goal, to get a pretty good starting job,” Sharp said.
DevMountain is currently accepting applications online for the Fall 2013 program. Students who are accepted before Aug. 15 will attend the program for a total tuition of $3,500.
“I think this is a sweet spot,” Sharp said. “There is a lot of opportunity for students, entrepreneurs, or even people who just aren’t satisfied with their job to learn some extremely valuable and marketable skills.”
DevMountain will also be holding a free one-day training camp on Saturday, August 3, from 1-4 p.m. Attendees will learn how to create a person website and basic HTML and CSS. Information about the event can be found at http://devmountaindaycamp.eventbrite.com.
