Scotland's digital skills academy might be revived as a college-based course, less than a year after its innovative predecessor went into liquidation.
The CodeClan name and brand have been acquired by CodeBase, the Scottish government's contractor for its £42m TechScaler program, which supports start-up businesses and entrepreneurs.
Teaching will be provided by Owasar, an online provider based in San Francisco.
A spokesman for CodeBase said the pilot program would involve training staff from three Scottish colleges: Edinburgh College, Borders College, and West Lothian College.
He mentioned that students are expected to join the next phase of the pilot in 2025. College Opportunities
Martin Boyle from CodeBase said that Qwasar would deliver world-class content through the Scottish college network.
He said, "While the pilot is currently small and focused on specific regions, we expect it to expand across Scotland in the future."
The spokesman added that the pilot would include college staff, such as lecturers who teach computer science, as well as management and support staff from CodeBase.
West Lothian College principal Jackie Galbraith described it as an "exciting partnership."
She said, "Scotland's colleges have a great track record of offering a wide range of opportunities, helping students, no matter their backgrounds, to develop the digital skills needed to start new careers."
CodeClan went into liquidation in August 2023 after facing difficulties in placing students into jobs during the COVID pandemic.
Skills gap
It was launched in 2015 by then Deputy First Minister John Swinney to address a skills gap for software developers and boost Scotland's tech sector.
The goal was to retrain people from all backgrounds and professions in the basics of software programming and to build a community of students, coders, and tech companies in Scotland.
The business offered training from locations in Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Inverness, employing 57 people.
The Scottish government and Scottish Enterprise did not provide financial assistance to CodeClan before it went into administration in August 2023.
However, a government spokesman told BBC Scotland they provided "support to students and instructors, enabling those affected by the liquidation of CodeClan to complete their courses."
Mark Logan, chief entrepreneurial adviser to the Scottish government, said that combining in-person and online training made a national program possible.
"By using these resources together, the CodeClan model is now significantly cheaper and removes the payment burden for employers, which was a problematic area in the previous CodeClan model," he said.
TechScaler is the Scottish government's start-up support program with seven hubs across Scotland. It is managed by CodeBase, which is also funded by the UK government and has private sector contracts, including a partnership with Barclays for learning programs across the UK.