Upping the game

IN an increasingly competitive workplace, graduating with a diploma or degree might not be enough.
Even with a degree in one particular field, employees might want a bit more from their employees.
In this time and age where IT and computers are becoming a norm in the workplace, knowing computer coding could be the competitive edge needed by employees.
Asia Developers Academy (ADA), a coding academy under Brickfields Asia College (BAC) and mobile app development training group iTrain Malaysia, aims to teach programming language and coding to students.
ADA co-founder Bikesh Lakhmichand said iTrain Malaysia started with teaching short-term training programmes between five and 10 days.
"We teach corporate people, government officers, teachers and event students who want to learn about programming language.
"But we decided to go a step further by establishing an academy which can train people for a certain time period, and help them earn a certificate in coding in the process," he said in an interview recently.
Bikesh said the course is open to a range of people, including school leavers, university students and working adults, who are keen in learning coding and advance in their career.
"Students will learn about basic web development, back-end programming, databases, Web API (application programming interface) and front-end systems," he said, noting that even those with no knowledge about coding could learn the basics from this programme.
Those interested to join can either opt for the three-month full-time programme, or its six-month part-time programme.
"At the moment, we have 10 part-time programme students with us, and they are a mix of university graduates from BAC and working adults," Bikesh said.
He noted that those who graduate from this programme could enter the workforce as a programme developer in a company.
"They would be able to play a supporting role and employ troubleshooting tactics in the system in the company," he added.
Bikesh also said that ADA plans to help its graduates to develop programmes which could help other small companies.
"If there are companies looking for software solutions, and the graduates are interested in developing such programmes, the academy may even consider investing and funding the idea," he said.
He also noted that ADA's doors are open to not just Malaysians, but foreigners as well.
"We are looking towards expanding throughout the region in the near future," he said.
Bikesh noted that the next intake will take place in May.