Reprogramming Higher Education with CodePath
Jobs that require a computing degree are a top source of new wages and an effective path to economic mobility in the United States. Yet the tech industry still has a staggering lack of diversity — with Black employees making up only 8% of the tech workforce, for instance, and similarly low numbers for individuals with Latino, Indigenous, and low-income backgrounds.
While more underrepresented students are choosing computing majors than ever before, we must ensure they leave college equipped with the technical skills, experience, and connections to succeed in an industry from which they have been historically excluded. That is why we’re very excited to partner with CodePath to help reprogram higher education and create the most diverse generation of engineers, CTOs, and founders.
CodePath delivers industry-vetted courses and career support centered on the needs of Black, Latino/a, Indigenous, and low-income students. Their students train with senior engineers, intern at top companies, and rise together to become the tech leaders of tomorrow. With nearly 20,000 students and alumni from 500 colleges now working at 2,000 companies, CodePath is reshaping the tech workforce and the industries of the future.
We’re delighted to partner with CodePath to support 500-600 computing students at institutions across the United States. With this grant, CodePath will upgrade and expand its industry-leading Technical Interview Prep courses, which correlate with high levels of internship and technical job attainment, ensuring that students access high-wage career trajectories. The organization will also continue to invest in additional data and evaluation capabilities to build evidence of the efficacy of its interventions.
“I don't think I would have gotten the jobs available to me now before enrolling in CodePath's courses. For example, I got a new-grad offer from Disney+, and internship offers from LinkedIn and Meta — all of which would not have been available to me without CodePath,” said Kat Kime, a CodePath alumna. “What I loved about [my Technical Internship Program instructors] was that both of them were women — one of them was a Black woman, and it was great seeing people that looked like me in this industry presenting this technical information.”
This is just one of the ways Gitlab Foundation is investing in the next generation of tech leaders, improving people’s lifetime earnings through access to opportunities and realizing a shared vision of a world in which one million more people can afford a better life.
The projected ROI for this grant is $114 of increased earnings for every dollar we invest.
