Thunder Bay is the perfect location for a new coding bootcamp aimed at increasing diversity in the tech industry, organizers say.

Canada Learning Code and BrainStation are officially launching the new bootcamps on Thursday afternoon, with a networking event at the Northwestern Ontario Innovation Centre.

“Our goal at Canada Learning Code is to support the diversification of tech as an industry,” said Charlotte Nurse, Canada Learning Code’s director of programs. “We want to alleviate barrier barriers to marginalized communities, and Thunder Bay is sort of a growing hub already.”

“In northwestern Ontario, there are a number of marginalized communities, particularly Indigenous communities that deserve access and to be brought opportunities. And so it was really important to us to work with community leaders, and to work with local community to figure out where some of the needs are, where some of the skills gaps are.

“Thunder Bay was just a perfect choice for one of our our regional hubs.”

Nurse said the bootcamps themselves will be intensive, running Monday-to-Friday, with homework, for 12 weeks.

“It is a fairly-short turnaround for a career-changing certificate,” Nurse said. “Afterwards there is job support, as well.”

Nurse said participants will learn “foundational software engineering skills,” preparing them for such roles as entry-level software engineers, web developers, or software developers.

Thunder Bay Public Library CEO Richard Togman said there aren’t currently too many opportunities for people in the city to develop coding skills.

“It’s a great, livable community that has a high quality of life, and where people with all kinds of talents can really further their careers,” he said. “And we know coding is one of those perfect jobs that fits into that perspective, right? You can generally code from anywhere.

“Those STEM kinds of careers are a lot of the careers of the future.”

However, Togman noted, there’s often a high barrier of entry to coding education.

“A lot of it is around thinking that computers and technology and coding isn’t for them,” he said. “It’s for other people. It’s for people in big cities, or maybe people in the States living near Silicon Valley.”

Togman said he hopes the bootcamps will help develop a mid-level tech workforce in the city.

“When we look at the spectrum of tech skills in the community, there’s clearly the highly-trained graduates that come out of [Lakehead University’s] computer science program, or even some of the programs at the college in multimedia design or graphic design that are really needed for tech companies moving forward,” he said.

“But there’s a really big and expansive middle ground and this encompasses a lot of small businesses, a lot of local business, a lot of regional businesses and even businesses in other parts of the country and internationally, that maybe don’t need the most cutting-edge computer programmers, or the highest-end graphic designers.”

“You can start to upskill with these boot camps, maybe qualify for some online learning courses once you’ve got your basics down and really provide a lot of that missing middle talent that is the cornerstone of most businesses. Everyone needs a website, everyone in retail needs some kind of e-commerce integration.”

Alyson MacKay, manager of Lakehead University’s student business incubator Ingenuity, said Thunder Bay’s tech sector is not as big as it could be, despite the fact that there are incubators like Ingenuity or the Innovation Centre’s Costarter program, and funding available to support them..

“It’s nurturing, for sure,” she said. “I think a lot of it also compounds to other things.”

“Someone’s got this great idea, they can do it, but is there enough staff to house it as well?” she said. “The space, the mentorship, the clients, does that exist here?”

MacKay echoed concerns over a lack of opportunities to learn coding in Thunder Bay.

“There are some things that go on in the high schools, and there’s even some things that go on in the elementary schools, but it’s kind of, again, these these one-offs, right?” MacKay said. “The college obviously has some programming that supports it as well. The university has it, and then the Innovation Centre has run a kids code camp as well.”

“I can tell you, from personal experience, I have a lot of students who are in business who would love to know a little bit more about coding, but they’re not going to change their whole program to do that,” she said. “If it could get into elementary schools and kind of continue up the ranks, I think that’s how we build more of that techie city, if you will.”

More information about the bootcamps can be found at the Canada Learning Code website.

Thursday’s launch event runs from 4-6 p.m. at the Northwestern Ontario Innovation Centre, and will feature a panel discussion on making tech skills accessible to all.