Emma Dicks

What does your company do?

CodeSpace offers a study program in Software Development that results in a young person being sufficiently skilled to gain a high growth, entry-level tech job. CodeSpace offers young people a study option that is significantly shorter in length than a university degree; and thus significantly cheaper and easier to finance. This means that a high growth tech career is not limited to those who can access university. A common trajectory for a CodeSpace student is to transition from working as a delivery driver, to training to CodeSpace for 6 months, to working as an entry level developer and earning 5 x their previous earnings within 2-3 years.

What is your biggest success?

My greatest sense of achievement is when a CodeSpace graduate lands their first job; gets their first promotion; starts managing their own team; joins their dream company.

What has been your biggest hurdle?

A hurdle has been navigating the complexity of being a business that exists to do good in the world. This duality is a mindset that seems to come very naturally to many women – we naturally steward businesses in a way that is self-reliant and makes the world better for others. Yet the world is set up in a binary way: you’re a business, or you do good.