IT bootcamp Mayden Academy has launched a funding scheme to encourage more women to embark on careers in coding.
The scheme will offer female students a 70% reduction in course fees on the academy’s Full Stack Track – an intensive 16-week training course for aspiring developers from non-tech backgrounds. 
The course is designed to cover the most in-demand skills tech companies are looking for and teaches the fundamentals of coding for front and back-end, along with user design and agile project management. Students do not need to have any previous coding experience or a background in tech.
The academy was set up by Bath-based software house Mayden three years ago to help grow and retain developer talent in the Bath area, and ensure it stays at the forefront of digital innovation by training the next generation of software engineers. To date every graduate has been offered a developer role within 90 days of completing the course.
The new scheme aims to address the need for more diversity in the UK tech industry and forms part of the new Women into Digital Jobs, Education and Training (WIDJET) skills programme run by The West of England Combined Authority (WECA), with funding from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS).
The funding is available on Mayden Academy’s Full Stack Track coding course until February next year.
The academy is also offering a series of free coding taster workshops for women to explore whether programming could be the career path for them.
Academy director Mike Oram said: “We are committed to driving diversity in the tech industry and want to support more women into exciting new careers as software developers – where they can be creative, solve problems, and enjoy new challenges every day.
“Programming offers so many opportunities to develop and grow in your career, and we believe those opportunities should be open to everyone.”
Other WIDJET partners include Bath College, Bristol-based creative industries training organisation boomsatsuma, the Knowle West Media Centre in Bristol, and the Dot Project, the Bath-based project working towards a future where people flourish through responsible technology.
West of England Metro Mayor Tim Bowles said: “Tech businesses have a particular need for skilled employees now, and this demand is expected to grow in the future. Women are currently under-represented in digital roles and this new project will seek to tackle this by working with a wide group of women in communities, with the aim of moving us towards more representative and inclusive employment in digital roles across the region.”
Women who would like to take advantage of this opportunity to change their career can find out more at https://mayden.academy/widjet
Mayden specialises in innovative, flexible cloud-based software for the healthcare sector and is the company behind iaptus , the market-leading psychological therapy patient management system.
