Lighthouse Labs cofounder Jeremy Shaki points out that, at the time when his startup first launched back in 2013, a typical program to become a professional software developer took an average of three years.
“That’s way too long for adults who are looking to make big changes in their lives,” he argues. “We can’t all take three years to change up a career when we need income, have lives and children, and a lot of other things going on that we can’t just put on hold.”
Thus Lighthouse launched in Vancouver with the goal of putting together programs as short as 12 weeks. The other goal? To actually render program graduates employable.
And for the last nine years, “we have succeeded spectacularly in achieving those goals,” Shaki says. Lighthouse Labs students achieve a 96% employment rate yearly across all graduating groups, according to company data.
“Our alumni are everywhere, from budding startups to large enterprises such as Shopify, Nike, and Meta to name a few,” Shaki says. Lighthouse data suggests alumni saw a 15% average hike in compensation, well ahead of typical averages. More than half earn $100,000+ within four years of graduation, according to the company’s 2022 Career Trajectory Report.
The demand for digital skills is ever-increasing, yet the gap remains wide: According to the 2022 Global Digital Skills Index, 86% of Canadians say they are not prepared to meet the digital skills requirements of the future.
Lighthouse Labs “remains the quickest and most effective route to transition into the tech industry,” the company claims. It trains people to fill this ever-increasing demand “while developing the next wave of intermediate and senior tech leaders.”
