Colleges no longer have a monopoly on education, and programming is no exception. The organizations can teach you to program just the way you like it: free or paid, online or offline, hands-on or hands-off.

Rather than threaten you with a bad grade, they entice passionate students with the promise of a new skill, a new community, and maybe some cute badges.

• Github
• Code.org
• American Health Information Management Association
• Girl Develop It
• AAPC
• Hackbright Academy
• Girls Who Code
• Women Who Code
• Black Girls Code
• Ada Developer Academy
• Centers For Medicare And Medicaid Services
• TechGirlz Charitable Foundation
• MotherCoders
• Ladies Learning Code
• Commission on Accreditation for Health Informatics and Information Management Education
• Code First: Girls
• Pyladies
• Moms Can Code
• CodeNow
• Fullstack Academy
• Flatiron School
• The Coding Network

Github

GitHub is often described as a social network for programmers.  The term “social coding” has even appeared in some of GitHub’s marketing material.  It is a platform meant, specifically, for maximum interaction.

Sure, GitHub is a vehicle for open source contributions, but that’s hardly a difference-maker for them.  SourceForge was around for a long time and it would host source control for open source projects for free.  There have also been other communities oriented around contributions and code sharing, such as Code Project. 

Read Also: Programming Language Websites

GitHub, however, came along and truly married social with coding, introducing feeds, followers, ubiquitous collaboration tools, and even a social network graph.  (Having cute octopus buddies as their mascots probably didn’t hurt matters either.)

The result is an unprecedented amount of enthusiasm for the global sharing of code.  Twenty or even 10 years ago, you probably would have hoarded the source code of a side project.  You wouldn’t have wanted to give away your intellectual property and you’d probably also have been embarrassed until you could tidy it up to put your best foot forward.  Now the default is to throw your side work up on GitHub and show it off for the world and your GitHub followers to see.  Code is being shared like never before.

Code.org

Finding programs and resources that are designed for your child’s demographic can truly make a difference in their experience. For example, even the best high school coding program in the world probably wouldn’t be useful for your 8-year-old.

Fortunately, Code.org does have some range when it comes to age group. Their website is designed for K-12 users, so students of all ages can benefit from the program (and even grow with it as they progress with their education).

While their curriculum is appropriate for all students, they are proud to note that the majority of their students are girls or underrepresented minorities. This is a huge step for diversity in computer science since it targets the earliest points of development and education, making sure all students have an opportunity from the start.

There are a number of different courses on Code.org for different ages and different purposes. This makes it a great resource that can grow alongside the student and really help to give them a thorough, well-rounded coding education all the way through high school.

All of the curriculum resources and tutorials created and supplied by Code.org will always be free to use and openly licensed. This means that not only will the tools they provide be available on their platform, but also that derivative resources can be created by other organizations for non-commercial purposes.

How do they do this? Through the support of generous donors who also believe in the vision of educated young students from all backgrounds in the world of coding. Free educational resources are a key factor in expanding newly critical skills like coding and computer science, so many individuals and organizations are excited to be a part of that ambition.

American Health Information Management Association

The American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) is a professional association for health professionals involved in the health information management needed to deliver quality health care to the public. Traditionally focused mainly on hospitals and paper medical records, the field presently covers all health information technology systems, including electronic health records, clinical decision support systems, and so on, for all segments of health care.

As of 2013, the association has more than 71,000 members in four membership classifications. Each member subsequently belongs to a relevant state chapter. The Journal of AHIMA has a circulation of 61,000 and publishes both peer-reviewed and non–peer-reviewed articles. The association’s women-majority membership is a testament to women’s strong participation in the profession.

AHIMA describes its foundation as a sister organization to the Association for Healthcare Documentation Integrity (AHDI) and states the foundation has a charitable and educational nature. The foundation’s stated mission is to be the pre-eminent foundation recognized for excellence in health information leadership, policy and research for the healthcare industry and the public. The foundation formulates and issues opinions, supports education, conducts research and compiles its contributions into the AHIMA BoK (body of knowledge).

Girl Develop It

Girl Develop It (GDI) is a nonprofit organization devoted to getting women the materials they need to pursue careers in software development. Founded in 2010 in New York City, GDI provides affordable programs for adult women interested in learning web and software development in a judgment-free environment.

GDI’s mission is to give women of any income level, nationality, education level, and upbringing an environment in which to learn the skills to build websites and learn code to build programs with hands-on classes. Although at one time active in both the United States and Canada, GDI currently maintains active community chapters exclusively in the United States.

In 2018, responding to allegations of racism that had been leveled towards both staff and chapter leaders within the organization, the majority of active chapter leaders, volunteers, and organizers issued a letter to the board demanding a change in leadership and active transparency from the organization.

AAPC

The AAPC, previously known by the full title of the American Academy of Professional Coders, is a professional association for people working in specific areas of administration within healthcare businesses in the United States. 

AAPC is one of a number of providers who offer services such as certification and training to medical coders, medical billers, auditors, compliance managers, and practice managers in the United States. As of April 2019, AAPC has over 190,000 worldwide members,  of which nearly 155,000 are certified.

AAPC provides training, certification, and other services to individuals and organizations across medical coding, medical billing, auditing, compliance, and practice management. These services include networking events such as medical coding seminars and conferences.

Certifications

AAPC offers a number of certifications for healthcare professionals, including:

Medical coding and medical billing, including stand-alone certifications in over 20 specialty areas,

Medical auditing

Medical compliance

Physician practice management

Hackbright Academy

Hackbright Academy is an all-women software engineering bootcamp offering 12-week full-time and 24-week part-time programs in San Francisco. Their curriculum centers around Python but also covers technologies like JavaScript, Flask, Jinja, and PostgreSQL.

Girls Who Code

Girls Who Code is a nonprofit organization which aims to support and increase the number of women in computer science by equipping young women with the necessary computing skills to pursue 21st century opportunities.

The organization works toward closing the gender employment difference in technology, and to change the image of what a programmer looks like. They host a seven-week Summer Immersion Program, a two-week specialized Campus Program, after school Clubs, and a New York Times best-selling Penguin 13-book series.

The organization runs programs during the academic year teaching high school girls computing skills like programming, robotics, and web design, with sessions including projects and trips to companies like Twitter and Facebook. 

There are now over 1500 Girls Who Code clubs across America, with the organization aiming to teach one million girls to code by 2020. By December 2014, three thousand students had completed a Girls Who Code program, 95% of whom went on to major in computer science at university.

The organization is sponsored by a number of software and technology companies including AOL, Google, and Microsoft, and in August 2014 received a $1 million contribution from AT&T.

Women Who Code

Women Who Code is an international non-profit organization that provides services for women pursuing technology careers and a job board for companies seeking coding professionals.

The company aims to provide an avenue into the technology world by evaluating and assisting women developing technical skills. In addition to training, professional evaluations, meetings, and scholarships, Women Who Code offers networking and mentorship.

As of 2018, the organization has executed more than 8,000 free events around the world, built a membership of over 167,000, and has locations in 60 cities in over 20 countries.

Women Who Code takes action in:

•Providing free technical study groups (Ruby, Javascript, iOS, Android, Python, Algorithms) •Connecting our community with influential tech experts and investors •Offering career and leadership development •Increasing female speakers and judges at conferences and hackathons •Increasing participation in the tech community.

Black Girls Code

Black Girls Code (BGC) is a not-for-profit organization that focuses on providing technology education for African-American girls. Kimberly Bryant, an electrical engineer who had worked in biotech for over 20 years, founded Black Girls Code in 2011 to rectify the underrepresentation of African-American girls and women in the technology industry. 

The organization offers programs in computer programming, coding, as well as website, robot, and mobile application-building, with the goal of providing African-American youth with the skills to occupy some of the 1.4 million computing job openings expected to be available in the U.S. in 2020.

Professionals from the IT sector share their expertise with the young students, helping them get acquainted with the fundamentals of software design in languages such as Scratch or Ruby on Rails. After school activities are alternated with day-long workshops; an extended course is held during the summer.

BGC primarily relies on donations to fund its activities; 75% students are currently on scholarships.

The motto of the Black Girls Code is: “Imagine. Build. Create. – Imagine a world where everyone is given the tools to succeed, and then help us build ways for everyone to access information and create a new age of women of color in technology”.

Ada Developer Academy

Ada Developers Academy (Ada) is a year-long intensive school in software development for women and gender diverse people with no previous professional experience in computer programming. The program is tuition-free, and students can apply for a low-interest microloan to meet living expenses during the year.

The program is divided into 6 months of classroom instruction and a 5-month paid internship with a Seattle tech company. The first six months in the classroom focuses on Ruby, Ruby on Rails, JavaScript (including AngularJS), HTML and CSS, and computer science fundamentals.

 The last five months is an internship placement. Interns are placed at sponsor companies including Amazon, Chef, Concur, EMC² Isilon Storage Division, EnergySavvy, Expedia, Getty Images, Marchex, Microsoft, Moz, Nordstrom, Redfin, Tune, Substantial, Zillow, and more.

In its first cohort, 2013-2014, Ada Developers Academy took on 16 students. All of the first cohort obtained full-time job offers in software development before the course ended, and two of them received job offers from Amazon.com. Salaries for the job offers the students received averaged $75,000.

Ada began as a project of Seattle’s Technology Alliance and is funded through company sponsorship, individual donors, and public sources. Ada now operates as a non-profit through its financial sponsor, Third Sector New England. 

Ada’s company sponsors include Amazon.com, Expedia, Zillow, and Chef. Sponsors provide input into the course’s curriculum, and mentoring and internships for the students. Sponsoring companies such as Expedia stated that they participate in the program in order to recruit great talent, and also in order to improve their diversity.

Centers For Medicare And Medicaid Services

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), is a federal agency within the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that administers the Medicare program and works in partnership with state governments to administer Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), and health insurance portability standards.

In addition to these programs, CMS has other responsibilities, including the administrative simplification standards from the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), quality standards in long-term care facilities (more commonly referred to as nursing homes) through its survey and certification process, clinical laboratory quality standards under the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments, and oversight of HealthCare.gov. CMS was previously known as the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) until 2001.

TechGirlz Charitable Foundation

TechGirlz is a nonprofit program of Creating IT Futures, a 501(c)3 nonprofit of CompTIA, that inspires middle school girls to explore the possibilities of technology to empower their future careers.

TechGirlz is accomplishing its mission through the creation of free, fun, interactive “TechShopz” led by industry professionals, leaders and students. They share their free workshop curriculum with companies, organizations, schools and community groups so they can inspire girls around the world with technology.

Their vision is to create a world where girls have a lifelong passion and confidence in their use of technology throughout their careers.

MotherCoders

MotherCoders is a non-profit that helps women with kids on-ramp to careers in technology.

They offer a tech orientation program that provides on-site childcare for mothers who want to learn basic coding, gain a deeper understanding of the technology landscape, and network with peers and industry professionals. In doing so, we’re working to expand the tech talent pool by activating women who can help drive economic growth and innovation.

Ladies Learning Code

Ladies Learning Code, now a program of Canada Learning Code, is a federally registered charitable organization in Canada aimed at promoting collaborative, technological learning among women and youth. This program seeks to close the gender gap among those adept at technology by offering courses and workshops to empower and educate women in particular.

Ladies Learning Code has attracted roughly 17,500 participants and held over 600 events such as workshops and courses since 2011. This program seeks to provide adults with the opportunity to learn technological skills such as HTML and CSS, Python, and Ruby.

In addition, students can also learn web design techniques and familiarize themselves with online blogging sites such as WordPress. These events are open to all adults, regardless of prior experience with or knowledge of course material.

Canada Learning Code claims a 4:1 ratio of students to volunteer mentors in each of the five programs, which allows them to learn through a more personalized experience and individual attention. Scholarships for select events are available to those in need of financial assistance.

Commission on Accreditation for Health Informatics and Information Management Education

The Commission on Accreditation for Health Informatics and Information Management Education (CAHIIM) is the accrediting organization for degree-granting programs in health informatics and health information management. 

Its Board of Commissions is made up of 12 volunteers, 8 of which are elected by the general membership of CAHIIM’s sponsor, American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA). 

CAHIIM is recognized by CHEA as an organization that accredits associate and baccalaureate degree programs in health information management and master’s degree programs in health informatics and health information management professions in the United States and Puerto Rico.

Code First: Girls

Code First: Girls is a Not for Profit Social Enterprise that trains women in IT skills and helps companies to develop more female‑friendly recruitment policies.

The organisation promotes gender diversity and female participation in the technology sector by offering free and paid training and courses for students and professional women. It also supports businesses to train staff and develop talent management policies.

As of 2020, Code First: Girls is reported to have provided in excess of £6 million worth of free coding courses to more than 10,000 women since 2013.

In 2017, Code First: Girls announced the launch of the “Code First: Girls 20:20 campaign” with the aim to “train 20,000 women to code for free by the end of 2020”. As of 2018, Code First: Girls have announced “2020 campaign partnerships” with the following companies: Bank of America Merrill Lynch; Goldman Sachs; KKR; Trainline; and OVH. The organisation announced Baroness Lane-Fox and Dame Stephanie Shirley as supporting the campaign as ambassadors.

According to the Code First: Girls website, the organisation offers free and paid for in-person coding courses for women, as well as for companies across the UK and Ireland.

Free Community Courses

Code First: Girls runs free part-time coding courses for female/non binary identifying young individuals across the UK and Ireland.

Individual joining for courses at a university are required to be a student at the host university. General coding courses are also delivered at corporate locations and are open to women with the following eligibility: Aged between 18-23; or Aged 18+ and currently studying; or Aged 18+ and completed their studies in the past 2 years.

Code First: Professionals

Code First: Professionals women’s courses are fee paying. These courses are targeted at female professionals and teach participants to make a website from scratch.

Pyladies

PyLadies is an international mentorship group which focuses on helping more women become active participants in the Python open-source community. It is part of the Python Software Foundation. It was started in Los Angeles in 2011. The mission of the group is to create a diverse Python community through outreach, education, conferences and social gatherings.

PyLadies also provides funding for women to attend open source conferences. The aim of PyLadies is increasing the participation of women in computing. PyLadies became a multi-chapter organization with the founding of the Washington (D.C.) chapter in August 2011. The group currently has more than 40 chapters around the world.

PyLadies has conducted outreach events for both beginners and experienced users. PyLadies has conducted hackathons, social nights and workshops for Python enthusiasts.

PyLadies is an international mentorship group which focuses on helping more women become active participants in the Python open-source community. It is part of the Python Software Foundation. It was started in Los Angeles in 2011.

The mission of the group is to create a diverse Python community through outreach, education, conferences and social gatherings. PyLadies also provides funding for women to attend open source conferences.

The aim of PyLadies is increasing the participation of women in computing. PyLadies became a multi-chapter organization with the founding of the Washington (D.C.) chapter in August 2011. The group currently has more than 40 chapters around the world.

Moms Can Code

Moms Can Code is a community for moms learning how to code. We provide opportunities for Moms to connect offline and online, learning resources, and real-life inspiration.

Circles are small groups of women who come together—online or offline—for real talk and peer support.

CodeNow

CodeNow is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit transforming high school students into coders, designers, and product managers. By helping students unlock their intrinsic motivations, they are learning to solve meaningful problems in their communities with software.

Fullstack Academy

Fullstack Academy is an immersive software engineering coding bootcamp located in New York City and Chicago. Students of the full-time flagship course learn full stack JavaScript over the course of a 13-week, on-campus program.

Fullstack Academy offers beginner courses in Javascript (JavaScript Jumpstart) and front-end development, as well as a summer program for college-age students (Summer of Code), and a part-time version of their full-time curriculum (Flex).

Fullstack’s flagship immersive course begins with a four-week “foundations” course, to be completed remotely before arriving on-campus. The on-site component of the program involves thirteen weeks of intensive JavaScript education, incorporating a lecture-workshop format, as well as a team-based project phase. 

Back-end languages taught include Node.js/Express; front end languages include React.js/JavaScript MVC, HTML5, and CSS3; and Data Structures taught include MONGODB, NoSQL, and Postgres. Full-time students have access to career assistance following graduation. Tuition for the full-time immersive is $17,610.

The Flex-Immersive is a part-time course covering the same content as Fullstack Academy’s full-time program. The foundations course and career assistance programs are also available to Flex students.

Summer of Code is an immersive course for college and graduate school students with computer science or technically equivalent experience, held each year between June and August. The course is full-time and adheres to the same curriculum and structure as the flagship immersive program.

Flatiron School

Flatiron School is an educational organization founded in 2012 by Adam Enbar and Avi Flombaum. The organization is based in New York City and teaches software engineering, computer programming, data science, and cybersecurity analytics.

Read Also: How Much Money Can You Make Coding?

In 2017, the company was sued for making false statements about the earning potential of its graduates. It was acquired by WeWork in 2017 and subsequently opened campuses in other cities in the USA.

The Coding Network

The Coding Network provides four primary products: remote coding services (ongoing or temporary), coding compliance audits, coding helpline services and provider documentation training. 

Their U.S. based certified coders/auditors provide services in 56 medical specialties, 50 states, 102 academic institutions, 300+ medical billing companies and numerous community-based practices and facilities.

Finally

As they always say, Programming isn’t for everyone, sure. But if it is for you, you’ll find tons of resources to help along the way. Also the organisations mentioned above have done a lot to assist individuals in learning and building a career in the coding industry.