Learn Platform

Today’s education system is failing society because it does not teach the skills needed for workers to advance their current careers or start a new one. As the workforce continues to evolve, many labor workers are falling into low-skill jobs rather than gaining the necessary skills to keep up in industries that have seen significant technological advancements.

The Coding Dojo Learn Platform is an all-inclusive educational experience for learners of all backgrounds, and includes hundreds of hours of videos, assignments, lessons, and projects that help workers retrain and upskill. The Learn Platform allows organizations to have full control and customization of their learning initiatives so they can manage and deliver employee onboarding, reskilling/upskilling programs and other educational content.

 Through the Learn Platform, organizations can increase their talent pool, fill crucial roles, increase employee retention, and lower recruitment costs. 

There has been a great deal of automation in the workforce over the past decade. However, with automation comes the reduction of labor-intensive jobs, which is hurting the middle class. As the world faces the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been an acceleration in tech jobs, which has  ultimately left many trying to keep up with the demands of today’s job landscape. According to the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report, 85 million jobs will be displaced across 26 countries by 2025. The future of jobs is dependent upon workers having the necessary skills to retrain and contend in today’s competitive workforce. The Learn Platform is designed to train anyone to become a self-sufficient computer developer, regardless of their technical background. While the advancements in technology and how it is used on a daily basis has redrawn the entire roadmap of every industry, the Learn Platform allows for customizable and innovative curriculums that gives students and professionals 21st century skills to provide economic mobility and meaningful employment. 

The Learn Platform provides students with the opportunity to gain valuable soft skills such as problem solving, teamwork, and “learning how to learn.” The platform is guided by market feedback, and because of this, it has yielded a robust educational experience for the company’s B2C students and corporate partners. The Learn Platform is an AI-enabled platform that provides unmatched insight and management options to Chief Learning Officers and other education-focused professionals. By using entrance exam and survey data in tandem with machine learning algorithms, the Learn Platform uses predictive analytics to identify top performers and learners who will need extra assistance before the program even starts. It also identifies where learners are struggling and what content (online resources, teaching methods, etc.) will help lead the student to success. Additionally, the Learn Platform shares both a micro and macro view of each program’s success by creating heat maps of time spent on each task. Companies that are hiring for software engineers and developers are also able to use the platform to create bespoke in-house training and/or onboarding programs to help increase their talent pools, increase employee retention and lower the cost of recruitment.

The Learn Platform serves students and professionals of all ages around the globe who are looking to advance their current skillset or want to learn new skills to find better jobs or increase their education about the aspects of web development. As the labor market continues to hollow, the Learn Platform allows individuals to hone in on the necessary skills needed to compete in today’s job market. In order to help workers develop the proper skills needed during these changing times, Coding Dojo works with potential employers at government agencies, corporations, NGOs, and other organizations to define what skills the employer is looking for in their employees. Coding Dojo continuously refines its curriculum to meet the demands of given technologies and to match course offerings to job openings in each of its markets. 

Technological advances, particularly in the last decade, are setting back millions of workers and will continue to do so for years to come. Without the necessary skills training, many workers will face unemployment or struggle to find a job that suits their current skillset. Coding Dojo recognizes that not everyone has the means to attend a four-year university, enabling them to learn the skills to change or advance their careers. The Learn Platform seeks to help individuals gain access to valuable training they might not have access to in order to thrive in the digital workforce. 

Coding Dojo has more than 120 employees working on constant improvements to the Learn Platform and various other aspects of the business. 

Diversity, equity and inclusion are major driving factors for Coding Dojo growth as an organization. A diverse and inclusive workforce is one that looks at the problems that minority groups are facing and actively works to develop solutions. Coding Dojo regularly launches initiatives, partnerships and scholarships to help individuals participate in their programs and gain access to the necessary training to thrive in the changing workforce. Year after year, Coding Dojo offers multiple tuition scholarships to promote diversity, support women, aid veterans and support local communities

The Learn Platform’s innovation comes from its all-inclusive feature set and flexibility. The success of the Learn Platform comes after years of investment and refinement to create a robust educational experience for Coding Dojo’s B2C students and corporate partners, guided by market feedback. The solution allows for administrators and learners to have seamless experiences because a learning management system, curriculum, analytics and instruction are all integrated into one platform.

Often, organizations are stuck between wanting to deliver branded content with no platform available or they have a platform that lacks strong content delivery and outcome analytics. Between these scenarios, organizations are left to piece together their learning initiatives from different vendors, which ultimately causes a major pain point for administrators and learners. What sets the Learn Platform apart from other systems is its ability to adapt to any learning program – a nod to its modular design and ease of use. From administrators to Chief Learning Officers to education professionals, anyone who uses the platform can host their branded content or utilize the platform’s existing content to create custom and focused educational programs. This allows for seamless delivery, the ability to manage operations, and tracking and analyzing program outcomes all in one platform, regardless of the size or scope of the program.  

The Learn Platform uses AI to bring unmatched insights and management options to education-focused professionals. Entrance exams and surveys are conducted, then the Learn Platform utilizes predictive analytics to identify top performers and learners who will need extra assistance before the program even starts.

The Learn Platform’s machine learning capabilities can also identify which areas learners are struggling with and what content they can use to improve. Heat maps of how long students spend on particular assignments/tasks are tracked, which allows the Learn Platform to have a micro and macro view of a program’s success. To gauge the participant’s satisfaction level, surveys and other feedback loops can be implemented to understand suggestions for areas of improvement. Coding Dojo regularly updates its tools and technology on the Learn Platform to keep up to date on new programmatic learnings and technology offerings. Custom machine learning algorithms can also be implemented to further boost the platform’s predictive analytics and learning science capabilities. 

To date, Coding Dojo has trained more than 5,000 developers who have been hired by start-ups and world-class companies like Expedia, Microsoft, JPMorgan Chase, DocuSign, Skytap, among others. 

The Learn Platform is driven by market feedback, with the expectation that the solution is constantly addressing the problems and concerns that are represented through students’ results and feedback. Individual customers have different needs, and Coding Dojo is able to cater to these needs by customizing the platform and curriculum to create tailor-made programs that reach and exceed the organization’s goals. Coding Dojo’s Theory of Change model for their Learn Platform is represented through its upskilling/reskilling programs and employee onboarding offerings. Education and preparation within the tech space is Coding Dojo’s end goal. Through a wide net of partnerships and initiatives, Coding Dojo has refined its programs to help anyone, regardless of their technological background, succeed. Specific examples include Chicago Codes, a tuition-free coding boot camp on Chicago’s South Side launched in collaboration with the Chicago Cook County Workforce Partnership and the city of Chicago. This initiative gave participants the proper introduction into the tech space, which helped increase their opportunities in the future. Another example is the Teaching Washington Teachers initiative, a scholarship pool of $420,000 for K-12 teachers that launched during large-scale teacher layoffs in the area, which allowed recently laid off teachers to learn the necessary skills to obtain a new career. 

Throughout the next year, we aim to continue to improve our learning science, the technical capabilities of the Learn Platform, and our partnership network to entrench our position as a leader in U.S. workforce development. By continually improving every aspect of our education, we will be well equipped to train the millions of Americans impacted by COVID-19, and by the general displacement of workers in today’s digital economy.

Within five years, we aim to leverage our platform, curriculum, and partnership network to make inroads into federal and state-by-state accreditation. This will enable students to utilize Pell grants, as well as federal loans, tax credits, and other educational-focused incentives, which will make this valuable training even more accessible to U.S. workers.

Coding Dojo’s team is comprised of seasoned engineers, business development executives, learning scientists, marketers, teachers, and other education professionals, all who have the end goal of making upskilling and reskilling accessible to everyone in the workforce. 

Coding Dojo partners with many private companies, governments, universities, and other organizations to deliver the Learn Platforms learning capabilities.

Coding Dojo launched a registered apprenticeship program in the city of Boise, Idaho for developers and software engineers. Once a student received hands-on instruction and had their new skills evaluated, their resume was sent to companies looking to take on apprentices. After the student spent some time as an apprentice, the company typically offered them a full time role.

Coding Dojo also collaborated with the country of Chile to develop the next generation of talent within their technology sector. The Chilean government created a countrywide training program where Coding Dojo helped develop the required curriculum, train local instructors, and customize the Learn Platform to deliver a seamless educational experience and retrain the local population.

Additionally, Coding Dojo worked alongside the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia via workforce development organizations including the Saudi Digital Academy and SITE to develop computer-programming courses and deliver those courses to local residents via the Learn Platform. Most recently, Coding Dojo partnered with Chicago Codes to launch a tuition-free coding boot camp on Chicago’s South Side in collaboration with the Chicago Cook County Workforce Partnership and the city of Chicago. This partnership helped Chicagoans learn the skills necessary to pursue careers in software and web development. 

Coding Dojo’s core business is in independent training, but also conducts bespoke training at the request of companies depending on their needs and intended learning outcomes. Our main customers are organizations who are in need of retraining and upskilling programs for their employees, those who are in need of an effective systems to onboard new employees, and those who need to source specific talent for a given role. Our primary beneficiaries are both the employees and employers. For workers, we prepare them with in-demand skills so they can advance or pursue better careers, while we help employers expand their talent pool, fill shortages, and lower the cost of recruitment and retention. 

The Learn Platform is a financially sustainable business that is used by organizations around the world to deliver their educational content. Revenue is generated through white labeling and licensing the platform, employee placement fees, curriculum/content development, and program delivery when needed. 

We are applying for the Reimagining Pathways to Employment in the US Challenge because we want to highlight the value the Learn Platform can provide to organizations and workers looking to reskill and/or upskill. Potential media exposure and monetary reward will allow us to show prospective customers our robust offerings, our featured platform that will be transforming the workforce for years to come and expand our partnership network. 

For future partnerships, Coding Dojo aims to collaborate with additional private and public companies, universities, workforce development organizations, NGOs, governments, and among others. Across all industries, there is a need for upskilling/reskilling programs and smoother employee onboarding. Coding Dojo’s collaboration with organizations will be crucial as automation, AI and other emerging technologies continue to accelerate and replace human labor throughout the next decade and beyond. 

With automation, AI and other emerging technologies continuing to accelerate, Coding Dojo will look to collaborate with private and public organizations that are in need of upskilling and reskilling programs. As technological advances continue make headway, Coding Dojo’s goal is to work with organizations that are looking to help their employees gain the necessary skills needed to survive in digital economy.