We are pleased to announce that we are setting up a Grants Programme to support selected Hackership students. Are you interested to sponsor the next generation of learning? We would love to hear from you!

Earlier this week we opened applications for the next Batch, running January - March 2015. The applications have already started flowing in and we couldn’t be more excited!

For this Batch and beyond, companies and interested communities can now support Hackership and its learners through the Grants Programme.

What is the Grants Programme?

The Grants Programme will offer full and/or partial grants to eligible students. We aim to raise 5000 Eur per sponsored seat. This will cover the tuition fees, and provide a stipend for accommodation and living costs for the period that the selected student attends Hackership.

We will be offering grants under two streams:

• Promoting diversity in technology
• For the study of specific technologies

As the donor, you can decide to bind the grant to the learners focussing on a certain technology or assign it to those who are underrepresented in tech.

Why do this?

Because diversity rocks. We strive to have a truly diverse group of students, meaning that different age groups, genders and cultural backgrounds are represented. Our alumni is 40% female to date and we want to keep and improve this ratio. In order to make it easier for groups who are traditionally underrepresented in programming to join, we need grants.

Because learning is a necessity not a luxury. Hackership is an intense, unique experience. We expect our learners to be fully available to focus on their study. No freelancing. Taking time out to do this can be difficult or unaffordable, even feel like a luxury. But continued learning is an essential part of being a good programmer, where the knowledge and tools used on a day-to-day basis are rarely static. We want to offer grants so that the Hackership experience remains accessible and open to everyone.

Because Hackership works. We’ll be honest. When we first started Hackership, we made some assumptions. That self-directed, hands-on learning was the best approach. That students would learn from each other as well as the Hackers-in Residence. That choosing what you want to learn and figuring out how to best make that happen is far more motivating than following a tutorial or pre-set ‘crash course’. That building something is the best way to start. That you don’t need an end-of-module test to see progress.

Did we actually know if any of this was true? Hell no. It was a learning experiment. We took the combined learnings of the OpenTechSchool Community and went for it.

But as we start to see the fruits of Batch-0 and Batch-1, it seems that yes, mostly, we were right. Hackership works! Eureka!

We’ve seen our students build fun and useful learner projects, have a blast and accelerate their learning at a seriously impressive rate. We’ve felt the buzz in the room and seen the results. Alumni tell us their employment options have substantially changed for the better as a direct result of what they learnt at Hackership, and that they have gone onto get jobs and work in new areas they want to be in. Also that they gained a lot from the experience on a personal note, helping each other and developing their soft skills. Their feedback, as well as giving us a warm, fuzzy feeling, has convinced us to run Batches more regularly and offer more seats. Grants will help us do this.

Sounds great! What can the Hackership offer Sponsors?

If you are wondering whether Hackership is the right initiative for your company or community to get involved with, we would be happy to explain more on exactly how Hackership works, and what we can offer sponsors. Drop Charlotte: charlotte@hackership.org an email. Or register your interest through the short form on our website.

Care about better education? Care about Diversity? Passionate about a specific technology? We are looking for supporters for our Grants Programme now and would love to hear from you.

Thanks, Hackership Team.

Thanks to Ken Lund for publishing this lovely picture under Creative Commons.