On Thursday, October 13, Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer joined Code Louisville staff, graduates, mentors, employers, and partners at Virtual Peaker in the NuLu Marketplace to celebrate new milestones achieved by the software development and technology training program.
“Code Louisville has become a key part of this region’s growing tech ecosystem,” Mayor Fischer said. “Since 2015, when President Obama helped put it on the map, Code Louisville has been building a dedicated community of graduates and mentors. They are showing us what can be accomplished when a city invests in technology training for its residents.”
Code Louisville offers students a unique blend of online learning, career readiness training, and guidance from experienced software development professionals. Hundreds of industry mentors have now donated a total of 15,000 hours of their time to Code Louisville.
“my administration is proud to be investing in code louisville because we want more places to follow Kentucky's example.”
President Obama during his 2015 visit to Louisville
Code Louisville was founded in 2013 and won a 5-year federal grant soon after that allowed it to grow and prosper through 2019. Now that the original grant has expired, the program is funded through Louisville Metro Government and run by KentuckianaWorks, the Louisville region’s Workforce Development Board.
The celebration event was hosted by Virtual Peaker, a local energy technology company founded in 2015. Virtual Peaker is one of the top employers of Code Louisville graduates, alongside El Toro, Humana, Switcher Studio, Waystar, and UPS. In all, more than 300 companies have hired at least one Code Louisville graduate.
Video: Hear from employers at Louisville tech companies El Toro and Virtual Peaker.
“Code Louisville has been instrumental in the growth and success of Virtual Peaker’s development team and ultimately our technology platform,” the company’s CEO and Founder Dr. Bill Burke said. “We’ve created a hiring strategy around the program and it has proven to be successful as we’ve hired 14 full-time engineers directly from Code Louisville. We’re looking forward to this continued partnership as our team continues to expand.”
Shawn Offutt, a Code Louisville graduate who has worked as a software developer at Virtual Peaker since 2022, also spoke about his experience breaking into the technology industry.
“Before Code Louisville, I was working in a warehouse. Getting into technology was my goal, but at the time I couldn’t afford to go back to school. Code Louisville helped me get promoted to the front office, then transition into a full-time career as a software developer. The training is definitely top notch…everyone there is ready to help you out.”
“Code Louisville helped me get promoted to the front office, then transition into a full-time career as a software developer.”
Shawn Offutt, Code Louisville graduate
Brittney Coble, who now works as a Support Operations Engineer at Capella Space, also spoke about the impact Code Louisville made on her career: “Code Louisville didn’t just teach me how to code, it also taught me how to problem solve so that I could continue learning and building on my skills after I graduated the program.”
Brittney has now mentored multiple cohorts of Code Louisville students. Many graduates of the program return as mentors. Of the 91 mentors who have served in 2022, more than 40% are former Code Louisville students.
Photos: In-person Code Louisville classes
Mayor Fischer closed out the event by encouraging Louisville adults who are interested in coding and technology to register for the next Code Louisville training, which starts in January.
You can see a replay of the full event on MetroTV as well as local media coverage by WHAS11 (video below), WAVE3, and the Lane Report. You can learn more about Code Louisville and how to get involved at codelouisville.org.
