Up-skilling Software Developers: Nebraska Dev Lab Transition Academy

Education has been a common thread throughout our life at Don’t Panic Labs. It used to be about educating our team and the community through various public events. Then we created our Advanced Continuing Education program for developers, a week-long intensive that covers several topics around modern software development.

With the creation of Nebraska Dev Lab and its Pipeline Program, we took on the challenge of addressing the tech talent shortage here in Nebraska by transforming individuals with no programming experience into quality, entry-level developers.

Now we’ve expanded the Nebraska Dev Lab with the addition of the Transition Academy. This program aims to upskill successful software developers from older technologies to modern development platforms and tools. The Academy includes 14 weeks of instruction and a 4-week apprentice posting back at their company.

Transitioning developers from one platform to another is a unique way to help address the current shortage of software developers.

The challenges are obviously different than in the Pipeline Program. When you start with individuals who have no coding background, you focus on just breaking through the barrier of teaching them how to think in code. With the Transition Academy, the participants can already think in code; they’re just relearning how they structure solutions. This built-in knowledge allows us to jump-start their training and increases everyone’s chances of success.

The Transition Academy is an exciting opportunity for Don’t Panic Labs to help improve the tech ecosystem here in Nebraska. We’re already seeing great results and are excited to see what the future holds.

If you’d like to learn more about the Transition Academy, email devlab@dontpaniclabs.com. We’re happy to share more about this impactful program.