Coding No Longer a Job Skill Just for Engineers

With the job market becoming increasingly competitive Codecademy co-founder Zach Sims explains how the online coding school helps teach practical coding skills to help people keep up with many industries’ increasing reliance on technology.

“We teach people interactively and in a super hands on engaging way to build real projects and then to learn skills that end up getting them jobs.  Coding is important because it is a skill of the future,” Sims told the FOX Business Network’s Maria Bartiromo.

According to Sims, coding is no longer a skill specific to fields such as engineering.

“I think we find that more of our students actually aren’t specifically learning to become engineers, but learning skills that can help augment whatever else it is that they’re doing.”

With technology playing an increasingly greater role in our work lives it is important to understand the fundamentals of how and why technology works.

“I think as we see everything from finance to any other industry become more algorithmically oriented everyone needs to learn the basics of how this all works.”

Sims explained that Codecademy has kept its prices low and hopes to boost revenue through growth in the number of students.

“A lot of our students learn for free and then a small number of them learn for $20 a month.”

“We’ve started to see people that have gotten jobs through Codecademy and then go back and try to hire people that are like them and have learned the same way.  So we’re already starting to see a network effect with employers.”

Sims sees coding as benefiting people from a multitude of fields as technology becomes increasingly prevela

“I think obviously every industry is becoming more of a technology industry.  I mentioned finance before, I think we’re seeing everything from agriculture to law change where things like eDiscovery are becoming popular in the legal field, where there’s now ways for farmers to optimize their farms using algorithms.  So I think really every industry is one that can be revolutionized.”