Ahmed M: Our First Refugee Student Graduates from Makers Academy Remote!
Over a year ago, frustrated and upset by the growing refugee crisis, I turned to Facebook to vent my feelings. In a matter of minutes, Evgeny, our CEO, came over to my desk.
“We might not be able to change the system”, he said, “but maybe we can start somewhere”.
We threw some ideas around, and decided we would offer a free spot at Makers Academy to a refugee who had made it to the UK. We teamed up with Breaking Barriers — who were amazing in helping us spread the word about the scholarship — and soon enough, we were interviewing our first group of students. I’m delighted to say that this project has now come to fruition — our first Refugee Scholar started in July and has now graduated from Makers Academy Remote.
It’s my pleasure to introduce Ahmed M. While we can’t publish any pics or his real name due to security concerns, Ahmed M has been kind enough to allow me to share his story with the world and his experience on Makers Academy remote.
“I’m 28, and, to be honest, I had a good life in my country before the Revolutions. Once it started, I couldn’t sit idly by and do nothing. I attended demonstrations. I became an activist. When the government started hunting down activists, for the first time ever, I genuinely started to fear for my life.
Back home, I had a small business, working as a graphic/UX designer with my business partner and friend, a talented developer. In spite of the dangers, I didn’t want to leave my home, my family, my friends… But soon, those very friends were being arrested, imprisoned without charge, and it was with great reluctance that, in 2014, I fled to the UK and applied for asylum, with the help and support of a small group of my British friends.
I got lucky. A few more days, and I would very likely have gone down the same path as my friends… into oblivion. That might sound like hyperbole, but it’s true. My business partner was arrested soon after I left my country, and no-one has heard from him or seen him since.
Once I got to the UK and applied for asylum, I did everything I could to get my life back on track. Without asylum status, I was unable to further my education through traditional means. I started freelancing to earn money for food and rent. I’ve always been interested in coding but have never managed to get my head around it through my own study. As an asylum seeker there’s no way I could get the loan to attend a school like Makers Academy, but when I heard about the scholarship, I was delighted. I want to contribute to the UK economy, and this will hopefully will allow me to get my life back on track.”
Ahmed M has now completed the course so we caught up to see how he found it:
“I found Pair-programming to be very practical and enjoyed it remotely. I managed to meet other remote students in real life too. I really enjoyed the course and found the atmosphere for Makers Academy Remote to be very friendly. I’ve been told the remote students are much more collaborative than onsite students. We have a special bond and often I found myself in a place where I didn’t know how to go forward and my classmates would just reach out to me over DM with pointers.
I was given a free place on Makers Academy Remote course in conjunction with charity Breaking Barriers but at the start I struggled with committing myself fully as I was concerned with money so I tried to carry on doing some freelance work interpreting but I soon realised I was falling behind very quickly and not taking the full opportunity seriously so I quit the freelance work and threw myself in completely.
The course gave me a sense of purpose, I woke up everyday looking forward to learning to code and my biggest achievement so far has been I now feel it’s possible for me to pick up any programming language. The course has finished but I’ve already started to dabble in Java and C#.
As a refugee from a middle eastern country one of the biggest challenges I faced during the course was that due to english not being my first language I sometimes struggled with taking the information in.
Despite the challenges however learning to code with Makers Academy Remote has changed my life for the better. I lost most my money in my country and although in my country I had my own web agency right now I’d like to explore getting a job as a Junior Developer in a company that TDDs and has XP Values.. The careers team has been super friendly and supportive and now I have a CV in english that is readable. Right now I’m job hunting while part-time working as an interpreter. I feel like I have enough tools now to eventually get a job in a company I would like and yes maybe one day I’d like to go down the entrepreneurial route again.
How can you help?
Are you a VC? A politician? Do you work in a big corporation looking to do good CSR? We hope Ahmed M will be the first of many students to be helped back on their feet through our course. If you have funds available, please get in touch. We’ve created our own fund to do more like this — we’d like to do everything we can to make a positive difference in the world.
More information:
Makers Academy is a fully immersive, full-time 12 week computer programming bootcamp. With our help, students learn the principles of software craftsmanship and we’ll also help them get their first job. We’ve graduated over 600 students into their dream jobs as junior developers. Makers Academy Remote is a version of the course can be done from any location with a good internet connection. It runs on GMT time so refugees in other European countries can take part.
Breaking Barriers is a unique organisation, providing an innovative solution to the resettlement and integration of refugees. Breaking Barriers partners with training providers and private sector organisations to find alternative routes into employment for an undeniably skilled and hard-working population. We have successfully supported over 160 refugees into employment over the last 18 months and forged relationships with dozens of businesses.
