The Interface Web School, which is a part of the AIM Institute, wants to help put people to work in the growing tech industry.
Aim's mission is to grow, connect and inspire the tech community through educational and career development initiatives.
Nick Gordon is a web developer at Venel, who learned how to code at the Interface Web School. Gordon tells us he was ready for a career change.
"Everywhere I turned I got burned out," Gordon said. But this career gave me the opportunity to never get burned out because it's always changing."
Gordon says it had been at least 10 years since he stepped inside a classroom.
"Going back into a school setting, I was really eager to learn," he said. I wanted to learn, I needed to get into something new."
Gordon says he'd always been interested in technology, so he was naturally drawn to the Interface Web School.
"The technology is only going to be taking more and more of our daily life (in a good way), making things easier," Gordon said. But we need to learn with it as these tasks change throughout our life and become more automated, we just need to be aware of how it works."
Gordon began learning how to code, something Interface Web School Director Ellen Meyer says is essential to the tech workforce.
"As more tech companies either grow or arrive here in Omaha, there's a talent gap," Meyer said.
According to the Greater Omaha Chamber's 2018 report, nearly 6% of its jobs are in tech positions. The report also states that Omaha has twice the number of jobs as the national average.
"The majority of our students are career changers," Meyer said. We have folks that previously to coming to interface were working in retail, working in hospitality."
Jobs Gordon says he was happy to leave. He started his new career just two months after completing the program.
Gordon says he hopes more schools will incorporate coding into their curriculum.
"If you can sit down and either learn it by yourself or find a teacher, you can develop the skills needed to find a career," Gordon said. You just have to have the drive to do it."
