The life changing opportunity to leave prison as a Software Developer

About our talk

The general consensus is that prison is a bad place full of bad people. The first part of statement is largely true, the latter somewhat of a misconception.

Prison is a bad place full of deprived people. There are very few opportunities for the average prisoner to turn their life around and a necessity for our prison system and prison education programs to address this problem. Being in desirable employment is all it will take for a large percentage of our 83,000 prisoners to stop reoffending.

This talk is about something which actually has the potential to make a difference to two socio-economic problems in the UK; the rate of reoffending prisoners and the inadequate supply of software developers.

Code 4000 is a prison-based program which equips inmates with the necessary opportunities to be released into quality employment within the tech industry.

About our speaker

Josh is a former prisoner who while in custody engaged in an initiative which teaches inmates to code: Code 4000.

As a result of his hard work and competence, the scheme was able to look for employment opportunities for Josh ahead of his release. This has led to Josh starting work as a Junior Java Developer at Metro Bank in Central London exactly one week after being released from prison earlier this year.

Because of his back story, he is very aware of the potential for tech talent to be found from all walks of life and with a range of backgrounds. As well as the talent in general which exists within the UK prison system. Josh wants to make people aware of the positive impact of Code 4000 in order to generate new stakeholders and employment opportunities for other ex-prisoners going forward.

About our venue

Our meetup will take place at our usual venue, Union St.

After the meetup, we’ll be heading to The Devonshire Cat for drinks and a chat.