Low-Code Academy

The number of computer programming job openings is expected to double in 2020 to one million (ref), while colleges and universities are graduating only 40,000 new computer science majors per year (ref). 

That's one of the reasons why low-code is gaining momentum. It allows untrained individuals to quickly start building software. 

Our proposal is a Low-code Academy that spans across online channels and physical training in partnership with educational institutions. 

In a typical training scenario, students get to build simple working software in 1 hour just by configuration, then iterate over and over again, grasping the technical concepts progressively as they need to respond to business requirements. The entire training program takes 2 weeks, which makes the graduate ready for a junior-level position. 

The low-code movement is therefore revolutionary. It allows previously excluded individuals to quickly access high paying jobs without the need of formal training.

With the shortage of software developers, there is a big opportunity for workforce in low-paying jobs to enter the digital economy. 

Besides the obvious reasons of earning higher income, there's also another mechanism at work. Low-paying jobs are gradually replaced by technology in its various forms - robots, automation, machine learning, IoT. This means that unemployment for this category will skyrocket in the next years, putting a major strain on the economy in social services costs. 

So far, we ran training programs for companies to onboard unskilled workforce into low-code development. We were involved in the recruiting process as well. 

We noticed some groups of people that are more successful than others when it comes to learning how to low-code. The are two groups that stand out. One are the college dropouts that ended up in low-paying jobs. The other category are individuals involved in the shared economy, such as Uber drivers or delivery agents. They are already exposed to technology in their every day job.

With both, we see a higher success rate in females aged 25 to 40.

Our solution is a series of learning courses that trains students in the low-code development space. The courses will be delivered both online though existing e-learning platforms such as Udemy or Coursera and offline in partnership with formal and informal educational institutions. 

Our process starts with getting the student to build the first simple software application within one hour. It then iterates over and over again, introducing increasingly complex concepts that add new features to the initial application. By the end of the 2-week program, the student ends up with a fairly complex application that can be used for showcasing during job interviews.

Additional training courses go into various programming languages that can be used to achieve even more flexibility through low-code. 

The psychology factors come into play as well. By getting quick results, students gain self-confidence and are motivated to complete the training. In contrast with traditional coding courses which generate frustration, our training has a much higher success rate.

The training occurs on a low-code development platform called Plant an App, which is also developed by us. Though initially established in Romania, we've incorporated in the US in November 2019 as being part of a business acceleration program at 500 Startups in San Francisco.

The platform can be used for free by anyone looking to learn or to build self-served software applications. This gives a good model to support the infrastructure for various learning programs.  

Low-code is probably the biggest paradigm shift in software development since Agile. Gartner predicts the market will grow to $52bn within the next 4 years. 

This project will be the first low-code academy. 

Activities:

• Online Low-Code development Courses 
• Plant an App licenses for building applications

Outputs: 

• Working applications built by students
• Knowledge delivery

Short term outcomes:

• Ability to develop working software
• Understanding of software development projects

Medium term outcomes:

• Employment in a software development jobs
• initiatives to build applications that have a real-world impact and/or economical value

Long term outcomes:

• A career in software development
• Succesful start-ups built with the help of low-code

Relevant Research:

- LaunchCode's initiatives for training & placement of software development professionals: https://www.guidestar.org/profile/47-1718432 
- The growth of Online Coding coding bootcamps:  https://www.coursereport.com/r... 
- Whitepaper describing the rising role of the Citizen Developer: https://www2.bettyblocks.com/hubfs/110719-A5-whitepaper-citizendevelopers-online.pdf?utm_campaign=%5Bwhitepaper%5D%20Meet%20Your%20Citizen%20Developer&utm_source=hs_automation&utm_medium=email&utm_content=72524279&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9gk-DjdlP8r5chqz1AQD2gKF0j25ar5J2WNea0Px9UUYKTdELumejlHbUsCw9m83ixbfmJdydfb1_OdIUqqqLm97rpmGAdeYkLi83cBmoTuNa7cvc&_hsmi=72524279
 

1. 100

2. 10,000

3. 200,000

The only barrier we're facing right now is financial in nature. 

We're addressing this in near future by raising money in Silicon Valley. 

Our main activity involves interactions with local partners that use low-code to deliver digital transformation projects for their customers. 

Secondary activities include provide training and support for partners and customers and co-marketing campaigns. 

There are 4 members in our US team handling mostly training, sales and customer success.

We also have 14 members in our Bucharest office handling development.

We are experts in low-code development, both from the perspective of building such a platform at Plant an App and from the perspective of training individuals to use for delivering software applications in response to digital transformation initiatives.

We don't plan to generate revenue with the Low-code Academy directly. The courses will be free as well as the access to the platform.

We do generate revenue from platform licensing costs from organizations that adopt it. There is a per-developer fee that organizations pay to have support under an SLA agreement. There is also a fee per user of the application.

By investing into the Low-code Academy, we're looking to educate the workforce into the opportunities presented by low-code market. The social impact expands beyond education. We'll be able to also promote the graduates to organizations looking for low-code developers based on tests results and job profile. 

Our immediate plans are to raise money in Silicon Valley.

The long-term financial sustainability will be achieved from organizations paying the platform fees and services such as training, support or consultancy. 

The prize money will help move the Low-code Academy faster.

A partnership/integration with ServiceNow would help promote our platform to the customer base.

Mentoring and intros on selling to enterprises would help us accelerate our growth.  

Finally, media attention would boost awareness into what we are doing.

We seek 3 kinds of partnership. 

1. Digital Transformation consultants that use our platform to rapidly deliver software applications with a short feedback loop.

2. Technology partners that are complementary with low-code. For example, we integrated with Twilio for emphasizing our omnichannel use cases and with UiPath for delivering process automation. 

3. Educational Institutions interested in adding low-code to their curriculum.