DevelopingSoftwareDevelopersA story about apprenticeship programsby @DaveHoover

My Story

A child and family therapist from 1996-2000

Learned HTML in 1999

Joined Edventions in 2000, learned Perl to keep my job

Started “apprenticing” in 2002

Wrote a book about “apprenticing” in 2005

Started Obtiva’s apprenticeship program in 2007

Grew the program at Groupon in 2011-2012

Friday was my last day at Groupon

Finally published in 2009

Why apprenticeship?

Mainstream hiring models are too narrow

Untold thousands of high potential, low credential, underemployed people available

Grow people into your culture

Engenders loyalty in both your apprentices and your mentors

Seeds a culture of learning inside your teams

Viable Cultures of Learning?

Ideal Competency Continuum

How does it work?

An experienced practitioner, willing to mentor

A team and project, within reach

Emphasis on culture over curriculum, surrounded by growth

Contributing in the trenches

Pet project for safe exploration

Structured feedback loops at multiple levels

Results

From Obtiva, Groupon, Hashrocket, 8th Light

58 apprentices

54 succeeded, 93% success rate

80% still with the companies after 5 years

Starting salary: $73k (Chicago, Jacksonville)

Age range: 19-42, typically early/mid-20’s

Lessons Learned

Timeboxing into milestones

Scheduled decision points

1:1 ratio, 1:1 relationship

Organic curriculum

Still need to crack the inclusion nut

Next steps

Critically high US un/under-employment for those under age 25

50% of US employers cannot fill skilled roles

Goal: Help start 1000 apprenticeship programs inside of businesses and organizations across the country

Paper: https://s3.amazonaws.com/apprentice.us/Apprenticeship-Programs.pdf

Read this.

Thanks for listening.

@DaveHoover