30 Developers Trained and Ready to Contribute to Wales’ FinTech Ecosystem

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Two months ago, Cardiff and Vale College joined forces with FinTech Wales and Member Partners Admiral, Deloitte, Hodge Bank and Principality to launch two unique, fast-track training programmes designed to meet the growing need for skilled people to fill job vacancies in FinTech.

30 students, aged between 21 and 62 with various career backgrounds, embarked on an intense 10-week Coding Academy, fully funded by the UK Government through the UK Community Renewal Fund, and as a result we now have 15 back-end and 15 front-end developers ready to work; one of which has already secured a role as Academy Developer with Principality Building Society, and many more have interviews lined-up.

Richard King, FinTech Wales Coding Academy (Front-end Developer) graduate said:  

“Having decided to make a career change from PGA Professional Golfer at the beginning of this year, I felt hugely fortunate to get onto the FinTech Wales Coding Academy (Front-end Developer) programme in April. This course has been designed to address a shortage of skilled workers in the industry and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it. It has given me a lot of new skills and just as importantly for me, it exposed me to some of the industry’s leading companies in the area and, thanks to the FinTech Wales Coding Academy, I’m now very excited about starting a new career as an Academy Developer at the Principality Building Society.”

Gemma Hallett, Head of Skills at FinTech Wales commented:

“It’s no secret that the skills shortage to support the ever-growing FinTech ecosystem is a concern. The number of job opportunities far outweighs the tech skills available, however, with partnerships like this, we can make a difference and gradually close the gap.  There’s no quick fix, but there are plenty of long-term solutions if we all work together.

”This academy in particular focussed on programming languages, cloud services and project management methods, which are highly sought after skills recognised by FinTech Wales’ members, and whilst 30 is just a drop in the ocean at this stage, we have 30 more developers today than we had two months ago, all of which are skilled to an entry-level and keen to contribute to our ecosystem.”

Ffion Paschalis, CAVC, Project Lead said: 

“We at CAVC are thrilled that one of our Fintech Wales Coding Academy learners has already been offered a role with Principality Building Society, as an Academy Developer.

It is a testament to their hard work and dedication to this intensive course; and that of our colleagues, delivery partners and employers who have endorsed this academy.”

With a number of other interviews lined up for our newly skilled developers, I look forward to watching their careers evolve in the sector over the coming months and beyond!

A big thank you to our curriculum leads and our delivery partners iungo Solutions, The Knowledge Academy, risual Limited, Gaia Ines Fassò, who helped deliver these pilot academies.”

The future of the FinTech Wales Coding Academy and how YOU can get involved

Following the success of our pilot Academy, FinTech Wales and Cardiff and Vale College are now planning the next cohort, with the view of running a number of programmes a year and will therefore be looking for our next round of individuals to kick-start their career as a front-end or back-end developer over the forthcoming weeks/months.

We’re also extremely keen to talk to other members who would be interested in supporting the Academy as a Member Partner. All we ask is that you provide essential insight into the skills you want us to develop and in return you gain priority access to our learners.

Get in touch to discuss how you can get involved.