Apprenticeship program aims to fill demand for coders, programmers
PETOSKEY — A first-of-its-kind apprenticeship program in Northern Michigan will help a Petoskey software company train its employees to become coders or programmers.
The Pesto Group, in partnership with Northwest Michigan Works!, has launched a U.S. Department of Labor registered apprenticeship. The Pesto Group is providing seven apprentices with 12 months of on-the-job learning along with a minimum of 200 hours of related education.
The job search site Indeed defines a coder as a professional who understands and writes in programming languages that can command a computer to perform specific tasks.
"When you go to Facebook you see a web site. Underneath that web site are thousands of lines of programming logic that someone wrote to make the website behave in the way it does," said Jesse Raleigh, CEO of the Pesto Group. "All of the information (code) that allows the website to display information is written by programmers and coders."
Petoskey-based Pesto Group has been around for several years and according to Raleigh, "one of the main things we work on is a point of sale and ERP (accounting software) system for hardware stores."
Raleigh said his company got the idea for coding training when it was trying to help a client that was having troubling transitioning to a new accounting software.
"They asked us to build (a system) from scratch for them," he said.
Raleigh and his team have developed an apprenticeship program to take people with varied backgrounds and turn them into successful coders or programmers within a year. Right now Pesto is training seven individuals to complete the process.
One of the seven previously worked as a coffee barista and another was an oil-change technician. They start out earning about $20 an hour, plus health insurance. By the end of the training, they will earn about $30 an hour. The training is provided at no cost to the participant.
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Once they have completed the training, they will earn a certificate and be able to gain employment as a coder or programmer earning a salary ranging from about $65,000 annually to $85,000 according to Raleigh.
Pesto plans to hire all seven. “We are pioneering a return to apprenticeship training within the Software Development spaces in developing a comprehensive program which we intend to expand for other employers through our non-profit entity, the Pesto Academy," Raleigh said.
Raleigh said the demand for coding jobs is growing and depending on future business developments, Pesto may need additional coders. Those who are interested in the program are encouraged to send a resume to jkorz@thepestogroup.com.
— Contact Paul Welitzkin at pwelitzkin@gaylordheraldtimes.com.
This article originally appeared on The Petoskey News-Review: Apprenticeship program aims to fill demand for coders, programmers
