HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — The New Year will bring the launch of a new, tuition-free program called NewForce to train students on in-demand software development skills at Mountwest Community and Technical College in Cabell County.
“Think of it as a ‘boot camp’ for software coding,” said Dr. Keith Cotroneo, president of Mountwest.
“It will be a six month, 40 hours a week training program to dramatically increase the human resource capacity of the region in software coding.”
The NewForce launch announcement was held Thursday afternoon at Mountwest Community and Technical College in Huntington.
Generation West Virginia, a statewide organization dedicated to attracting and retaining young talent, co-hosted the event that included Huntington Mayor Steve Williams and Dr. Sarah Tucker, chancellor of the West Virginia Community and Technical College System.
Several NewForce employer partners like Core10 and Advantage Technology were also represented.
In addition to training, NewForce will connect graduates who’ve been trained at no cost to them directly to in-state employer partners trying to fill software development positions.
“The revenue for the program will come from employers who hire out of the graduate pool,” said Cotroneo on Thursday’s MetroNews “Talkline.”
John Wark, president and founder of Nashville Software School, attended Thursday’s announcement.
The NewForce curriculum was developed at Nashville Software School.
Of the potential students, “Nashville Software School has a mix. Some of them are young students. Some of them have degrees from universities. They just have to be willing to learn,” Controneo said.
“The idea is that if we develop this really, really strong human resource pool in software coding that tech companies will want to relocate or develop a branch in a quality community that has low cost of living.”
Training for the initial class of 25 students begins in January and there are plans to grow from there.
For more information about the application process, CLICK HERE.