New York, NY (PRWEB) November 22, 2013
The software industry has consistently been male-dominated. In fact at U.S. software companies, on average, only 12% of engineers are women. As software continues to become one of the most important and powerful industries in today’s information age economy, this gender disparity has grown to become a major concern of the tech industry and business and political leaders throughout the world. Last night at its New York City launch party, Dev Bootcamp (DBC) announced a partnership with Levo to move the software industry towards gender parity through scholarship programs aimed at women interested in careers in web development.
Starting immediately in New York, Chicago and San Francisco, Dev Bootcamp will provide scholarships to members of Levo who are applying through a new branded scholarship program called the Levo Scholars Program. Together Dev Bootcamp and Levo hope to change the current framework of the job market to create more opportunities for women to excel in technology. Dev Bootcamp will also all continue to work with Levo to foster relationships with companies who are committed to gender parity and accessibility in tech.
“As Dev Bootcamp continues to expand into more markets, like New York City, and as we graduate more people into software engineering careers, we also want to take concrete measures to increase our commitment to gender diversity,” said Lloyd Nimetz, Co-Founder of Dev Bootcamp NYC (DBC::NYC). “Gender parity has always been baked into our company’s DNA and we see this new scholarship program as just the beginning of our efforts to help women launch successful and meaningful web development careers.”
Women enrolled in the Levo Scholars program will receive a $2,500 scholarship that will be applied to the Dev Bootcamp $12,200 tuition— with the potential for larger scholarships made possible from additional support from culture-forward, socially-conscious corporations that share a commitment to this cause. These partial scholarships will initially be assigned on a first-come, first-serve basis for those women who pass through Dev Bootcamp’s gender and race-blind admissions process.
“The Levo Scholars program will enable a first crop of new female engineers,” said Caroline Ghosn, Founder and CEO of Levo. “This is the first step that our organization is taking in addressing the ratio of women in STEM head-on in 2014. Levo will continue to expand the number of opportunities for digitally native women to acquire critical skill sets and cultivate our community of like-minded corporations that support equality in the workplace.”
Initially there will be ten Levo Scholars in 2014. As part of the partnership, Levo League will provide strategic advice and guidance to Dev Bootcamp as it continues to develop its gender diversity program.
“The tech workplace is notoriously unrepresentative of the larger population,” said Shereef Bishay, Co-Founder of Dev Bootcamp. “Partnering with Levo is a great step towards building an industry that’s more inclusive and that better represents the people it serves. The closer we get to that, the better off we all are.”
To apply to Dev Bootcamp and for more information on Levo Scholars, please visit: http://apply.devbootcamp.com/
Dev Bootcamp
Founded in February 2012 by software developer and social entrepreneur Shereef Bishay, Dev Bootcamp is a 9-week intensive training program that teaches adults to become professional Ruby on Rails web developers. Of individuals who graduate from San Francisco's Dev Bootcamp, 85% find jobs with an average starting salary of $80,000 in San Francisco and comparable salaries in other regions. Dev Bootcamp was the pioneer of the highly successful bootcamp coding school model. Its success have led to features in Fortune, WSJ, Fast Company, Business Insider, Mashable and Inc. Magazine. Dev Bootcamp is headquartered in San Francisco, California, with additional locations in Chicago and New York City. For more information, visit: http://devbootcamp.com.
Levo
Levo is the leading professional community for digitally native women in the US, having served over 8 million since its launch a year and a half ago. Levo’s mission is to enable access to the game-changing job opportunities, success secrets, and trusted network of peers and mentors that comprise an individual’s success equation. In addition to its award-winning web presence and five-star rated resume building app, Levo operates in 22 cities around the world through its Local Levo program. For more information or to join, visit: http://www.levo.com.
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