PortfoLion has just invested €2 million in Codecool to boost its international expansion. Through this capital injection the Hungarian coding school can continue its growth in the most promising segment of the educational services market.
The IT labour shortage in Hungary is currently estimated at 22.000 people, and this figure approaches 1 million in the EU as a whole. Experts agree that the problem of the recruitment of IT specialists is an existing, and probably long-term phenomenon. A qualified IT labour force has become the most important factor in the future success and business growth of enterprises not only in Hungary but globally, too.
Recognizing this trend early on, in 2015 a group of Hungarian private individuals founded the Codecool IT specialist training company, which at the moment operates educational centres in Budapest (HU), Miskolc (HU) and Krakow (PL). Now in four grades, currently more than 300 students are taught programming as well as other skills ensuring their successful placement within the profession. During the Codecool course made up of 12 months of theoretical, and 6 months of practical elements, primarily 18-40-year-old career starters, or those switching careers, without any previous IT qualifications, are taught programming in coordination with the employer market, thereby guaranteeing graduates a job at the successful conclusion of the course. In addition to traditional secondary and higher education, this model supplies a high volume of recruits, which can be adjusted to specific corporate demands. The guarantee of a job and the post-financed training model are particularly attractive factors for applicants.
“Our start-up investment perfectly covered the costs of the establishment of the quality educational background as well as the cash-flow demand that goes hand-in-hand with post-financed training” says Balázs Vinnai, a successful tech entrepreneur, one of the founders.
In the coming 12 months, Codecool intends to use the equity at its disposal to open two new schools abroad, thus expanding to 1.000 the number of junior programmers it trains in one year. According to the plans of the founders, Codecool schools will be operating in 24 cities in Europe by 2022.
