LaunchCode wins MIT Innovation challenge, $150K award

LaunchCode, a nonprofit that bolsters the tech workforces in St. Louis and Kansas City by offering free but rigorous coding courses, was recently recognized for its innovative approach to reinventing the future of work.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology announced that LaunchCode is a grand prize winner of its 2017 Inclusive Innovation Challenge, awarding the nonprofit $150,000. More than 160 judges selected LaunchCode and three other organizations for the grand prizes out a field of more than 1,000 applicants. In total, MIT awarded $1 million to organizations building inclusive innovations for the competition, which aims for “not only prosperity, but shared prosperity,” said MIT Sloan Professor Erik Bryniolfsson, director of the MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy.

Founded in 2013 by Jim McKelvey, LaunchCode arrived in Kansas City in early 2016. Between 2013 and 2016, the organization has made more than 500 direct placements of “LaunchCoders” into apprenticeships or permanent positions, according to LaunchCode’s annual report.

LaunchCode partners with a variety of Kansas City companies — including EyeVerify, UMB, Blooom and Venture360 — and connecting with the region’s developers. The nonprofit’s goal is to support Kansas City’s tech ecosystem and provide a new pipeline of homegrown tech talent.

Here’s more about LaunchCode.

[pullquote]“The growing tech economy is creating a huge number of well-paying, upwardly mobile jobs – far more than colleges, universities, and for-profit bootcamps can fill – which offer immense financial and professional rewards for those equipped to participate. Moreover, coders increasingly have the power to make decisions that shape society’s development. However, most Americans lack access to the training that would allow them to enter tech careers, particularly those with the fewest resources and the most to gain from developing valuable new skills. LaunchCode is solving this disconnect by providing free, accelerated job training using a low-cost, scalable model to quickly replicate in-person coding classes across the country. Additionally, we place our graduates into paid apprenticeships with hundreds of companies to help them transition into full-time employment in tech despite lacking traditional credentials. We partner with employers to determine their needs and establish LaunchCode as a trusted source of talent.”[/pullquote]