North Dakota’s State Board for Career and Technical Education has authorized the operating license for Emerging Prairie’s Emerging Digital Academy–making it North Dakota’s first authorized coding academy.
Emerging Prairie Co-Founder and Executive Director, Greg Tehven, shares the impact this will have for our entire region: “This is a game-changer for North Dakota. Established companies and early-stage companies all need talent and have struggled to find enough software engineering candidates.” Tehven added, “We couldn’t have done this without strong support from our Advisory Board, led by Byron Snider, and from our Founding Partners–which include Bushel, Microsoft, Scheels, OnSharp and Sycorr.” Also providing support for the academy are AT&T, Codelation, Stoneridge Software, and Network Center.
Emerging Digital Academy’s Director, Blaine Booher, worked daily to ensure the licensure was in place before students were officially enrolled or before classes started. “Being the first program of this kind in North Dakota, ongoing communication was needed to make this happen. The team at North Dakota’s Department of Career and Technical Education were great about giving us the guidance needed to reach this important milestone in the best interest of students.”
Emerging Digital Academy was launched in December to help solve North Dakota’s technology skills hiring gap by graduating dozens of junior software engineers each year. Emerging Digital Academy will also work with area employers to place students into hundreds of open technology positions throughout the state. The academy is part of Emerging Prairie’s Grand Farm Initiative. The academy shares a curriculum with Minneapolis’s Prime Digital Academy, which places 85% of its graduates within six months of graduation.
Classes will begin (now 100% online for the first cohort) in April. Applications are welcomed now for a second cohort scheduled to begin July 27.
For more information about Emerging Digital Academy, please visit EmergingAcademy.org.
