As digital literacy becomes as important as reading and writing to securing a job in the modern workplace, one Toronto coding school has taken a significant step towards becoming Canada's de facto place to learn how to code.
On December 18, the
Konrad Group, a local digital consulting firm that counts the CBC, Nestle and Salesforce as some of its clients, announced that it had acquired Toronto-based coding academy
BrainStation for an undisclosed sum.
According to Jason Field, one of BrainStation's co-founders, the company plans to use its newfound resources to expand into five other Canadian cities by the end of 2015. First on the list are other cities in Ontario like Waterloo, London and Ottawa.
But that's not all. With it's new owner boasting a presence in the United States and Costa Rica, BrainStation also has the opportunity to become a global brand down the line should its owners decide that's the path they'd like to follow.
Additionally, Field says the school plans refocus its efforts on becoming a go-to centre for digital literacy, not just a place where someone can learn to code.
“Now that we have the financial capability, we’re going to build our programs to be not just about coding, but about digital literacy in general,” he says.
“Each community needs different things, and as we continue to develop we envision that we’ll have eight to ten curricula built out. Depending on the city, maybe web development is the only one that's feasible, but it’s still something that community should have access to. It shouldn’t be the most populated cities getting all the love.”
BrainStation is
hosting an open house on January 13 at its new space to talk about some of its plans for the new year.
Source: BrainStation