A woman in a green headscarf works through an exercise on her laptop at a table
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course

Keep what works. Rewrite the rest.

You don't start from zero. Eleven years on a ward, a decade of lesson plans, a career of reconciled accounts: that is tested code. We help you restructure it around a new language.

Book a free taster

Our graduates now ship at

  • Halyard
  • Tollgate Health
  • Brindle
  • quaywise
  • Fernmoor Data

Your first career isn't dead code.

Every adult who joins brings years of tested habits. The course keeps them and points them somewhere new. Six of last year's graduates, before and after:

  1. Was: Ward nurse, eleven years

    Now: QA engineer, patient records software

    Kept checking twice before anything reaches a patient.

  2. Was: Secondary maths teacher

    Now: Developer advocate at an API company

    Kept explaining one idea five different ways.

  3. Was: Pastry chef

    Now: Front-end developer, booking systems

    Kept precision with a timer running.

  4. Was: Payroll accountant

    Now: Data engineer for a housing association

    Kept never trusting a total nobody reconciled.

  5. Was: Lorry driver, eighteen years

    Now: Back-end developer, route planning

    Kept knowing the road from the cab.

  6. Was: Session drummer

    Now: Software tester for audio plug-ins

    Kept keeping time for everyone else.

Twenty-four weeks. Five modules. One real product.

Each module ends with something that works and that someone outside the school uses. There are no exams; you ship.

  1. Weeks 1–5

    Foundations

    HTML, CSS and JavaScript from the first line, with a mentor beside you on the very first night.

    You buildA page for a real local shop, live by week five.

    Close-up of a screen of JavaScript in a code editor
  2. Weeks 6–10

    Interfaces

    React, accessibility and design systems, tested with real people rather than with a checklist.

    You buildA booking flow that works with a screen reader.

    A wall of sticky notes mapping the screens of an app
  3. Weeks 11–15

    Data & servers

    Node, SQL, APIs and sign-in: the half of the work nobody sees until it breaks.

    You buildThe back end your booking flow has been waiting for.

    A monitor full of server logs in a dim room
  4. Weeks 16–19

    Working in a team

    Git, code review, testing and two-week sprints with a product owner who changes her mind.

    You buildA feature inside a codebase you didn't write.

    A woman sorts sticky notes on a glass wall during a planning session
  5. Weeks 20–24

    Capstone

    Four of you, one real client from Sheffield, five weeks, and a demo night in front of employers.

    You buildSoftware an organisation keeps using after you've gone.

    An audience in a darkened room watches a project on a big screen

Week oneDemo night

Built around the job you still have.

Three fixed sessions a week, the same for all twenty-four weeks, so the rest of your life can plan around them. Then about six hours on your own, whenever the house is quiet.

  1. Tuesday

    A mentor talks a class of adults through an idea at long desks

    18:30–21:00 · Live class

    A mentor teaches the week's idea to twelve of you, in the room or on a call. Recorded, in case the bus is late.

  2. Thursday

    Two classmates share one laptop at a table

    18:30–21:00 · Pairing night

    You and one classmate, one problem, one keyboard, swapping every twenty minutes. The quickest way we know to stop being stuck.

  3. Saturday

    Three learners laugh over their laptops around a round table

    10:00–15:00 · Studio day

    Build the week's project with mentors walking the room. Lunch is on us, and children are welcome in the quiet room.

Mentors who made the same jump.

Every mentor changed careers after thirty. Each teaches the module closest to the work they do now, and each remembers their own first week.

Portrait of Ruth Okafor in warm low light
Portrait of Martin Hale, grey-bearded, looking out of a car window
Portrait of Dev Raman in glasses and a green sweater
Portrait of Carol Webb, long grey hair, standing in a colonnade

Ruth Okafor

Was
Midwife for fourteen years
Now
Senior front-end engineer, Tollgate Health

Ruth wrote her first function on a night-shift break. She teaches accessibility as if every user were a patient at four in the morning, which, she says, some of them are.

Teaches Interfaces

Martin Hale

Was
Bus mechanic
Now
Back-end lead, Halyard

Martin still diagnoses servers like engines: listen first, replace parts last. He runs the Thursday pairing nights and brings the biscuits.

Teaches Data & servers

Dev Raman

Was
Chemistry teacher
Now
Staff engineer, Brindle

Dev left the classroom at forty-one and came back to one at forty-four. His first-night lesson has kept more people on the course than any brochure.

Teaches Foundations

Carol Webb

Was
Bookkeeper for a builders' merchant
Now
Data engineer, Fernmoor Data

Carol learned version control the hard way, by losing a week of work. She makes sure nobody in her module ever does.

Teaches Working in a team

Capstones that are still running.

In the last five weeks, four graduates take on one real client from Sheffield. Three from last year, all still in daily use:

Volunteers sort tins and fresh food at a food bank table

Abbeydale Food Bank · capstone 2025

A volunteer rota that fills itself

Volunteers swap shifts from their phones, and the coordinator hears about a gap only when nobody has taken it. She got her Sunday evenings back.

Used by 140 volunteers

A male voice choir in blue blazers sings beside an organ

Heeley Male Voice Choir · capstone 2025

Concert tickets without the spreadsheet

Seats picked on a plan of the chapel, payments that reconcile themselves and a door list the treasurer can print. Forty-two singers, no complaints so far.

Sold out three concerts

Bean poles and raised beds on an allotment beside a small shed

Ridgeway Road Allotments · capstone 2025

A waiting list anyone can check

Two hundred households on a list that used to live in one man's notebook. Everyone can now see where they stand, and the notebook has retired too.

Checked weekly by 200 households

What changed, in their words.

I was fifty-two, and people half my age had told me I was too old for this. My mentor was fifty-three. That settled it.

Jan KowalczykWas a printer · now a front-end developer at quaywise
  • The Saturday studio was the only place I was allowed to be stuck. Everywhere else I had to know the answer.

    Aisha BegumWas a pharmacy dispenser · now a QA engineer

  • I did the homework in the van between drops. Thursday pairing is where it finally made sense.

    Lee BarkerWas a courier · now a back-end developer

  • My kids learned the word deploy before I did. They were very proud on demo night.

    Grace MensahWas a school administrator · now a developer at Halyard

  • I came for a new job. I stayed for the people I still argue with about variable names.

    Tom EcclesWas a sound engineer · now a full-stack developer

Not sure yet? Sit in on a real class first.

Taster evenings are free, last two hours and are taught by the mentors you would learn from. Bring nothing; we lend laptops.

Next taster evenings

  • Tue 20 Oct

    18:30 on campus · Foundations with Dev

    Book
  • Thu 29 Oct

    18:30 online · Interfaces with Ruth

    Book
  • Tue 10 Nov

    18:30 on campus · Data & servers with Martin

    Book
  • Sat 21 Nov

    10:00 studio morning · bring the kids

    Book

One fee. Three ways to carry it.

The whole course is £7,200, with a loan laptop, every Saturday lunch and a year of careers support after demo night. The next cohort starts on Tuesday 12 January 2027.

Pay upfront

£6,480once

Save £720 by paying before the first class. Refunded in full if you leave in the first two weeks.

Apply

Pay monthly

£300a month for 24 months

Interest-free, starting the month the course does. You can pause payments once if life gets in the way.

Apply

Funded place

£0for eligible adults

Through regional skills funding or paid by your employer. We check your eligibility with you on a twenty-minute call.

Check eligibility

Questions adults actually ask.

Something else? Call 0114 000 0000 on a weekday evening and a mentor will answer.

I'm fifty-two. Is that too old?

Our oldest graduate was sixty-three when she started, and the average age in the room is thirty-eight. Employers who hire our juniors ask about the work, not the birthday.

Do I need to be good at maths?

No. You need to be able to stay with a problem for twenty minutes before asking for help, and then to ask. That is most of the job.

Can I keep my full-time job?

Most people do. Plan on about fourteen hours a week: the three sessions and roughly six hours on your own.

What computer do I need?

Anything made in the last six years with 8 GB of memory. If you don't have one, we lend you a laptop for the whole course.

What if I fall behind?

Every module has a catch-up Saturday. If life properly happens, you can pause and rejoin the next cohort at the same module, once, at no cost.

Do you help me find work afterwards?

For a year after demo night: CV and portfolio reviews, mock interviews with mentors and introductions to the employers who hired our last cohorts.

Book a taster, or just ask.

Tell us which evening suits you, or what you're unsure about. A mentor calls back within two working days.

Campus
2nd floor, 1 Example Street, Sheffield S3 0ZZ
Open
Tue and Thu 17:00–21:30, Sat 09:30–15:30