K Cube Ventures has announced an investment of 400 million won (USD $351,000) in CodeSquad, a platform for learning coding.
CodeSquad was founded at the end of 2016 by lecturers from Naver’s non-profit educational institute NHN Next, and aims to train and produce software professionals which are sorely needed in the local tech industry. The service provides coaching and lessons based on students’ progress and knowledge — covering mobile, cloud, and web service software development.
With global interest about coding in schools growing over recent years, Korea is also set to implement programming as a core subject from 2018 in elementary, middle and high schools. CodeSquad is jumping onto the trend, with plans to produce leading educational models for the software market to help boost the number of developers in Korea.
The platform offers a variety of online and offline educational programs which stray away from the common method of ‘rote learning’ in Korea.
Its ‘Shared CTO’ program is an external consulting service for startups which provides diagnosis and support for technical issues. Staff education, alternative technology proposals and connecting companies to skilled engineers is also part of the package.
Alternatively – the ‘Master’s Course’ – is aimed at individuals and based around practical projects which can be used right away. Split into three stages, students receive lessons and mentoring as they move through each one. CodeSquad’s PBL (Problem-Based Learning) course has also received a positive response as students can select the topic of their projects themselves.
Unlike many other code teaching platforms, CodeSquad has a large focus on B2B services and is currently in negotiations with various organizations and educational programs. The company will also begin offering services to major companies from this year, including programs for staff and interns, and consulting.
“Up until now there has been a real gap in Korea between software development and the educational system,” said Jung Kim. “Going forward, we will introduce various new learning models and content. Through the latest investment, we plan to bring top quality software education to more academic institutions.”
