AFTER spending more than a decade at IBM, latterly in a global vice president role, Melinda Mathews Clarkson is a getting used life on a smaller scale as chief executive of CodeClan.

It is a role she is well-suited for. Not only does she have a background in technology; a degree in marketing, sales and education; but Ms Mathews Clarkson’s father was a headmaster.

“The whole thought of going back to my roots and driving an educational agenda, was pretty exciting,” she says. “Getting people into digital tech has always been a passion, especially driving women and people who just don’t think they like tech. It’s cool for my moral compass.”

CodeClan is a digital skills academy, launched in Edinburgh in 2015 with the objective of helping fill the digital skills gap through a rolling 16-week software development and coding course.

Having expanded into Glasgow in 2017, the social enterprise celebrated its second anniversary in December by announcing that more than 200 graduates had found employment in technology-based roles.

The month before, Ms Matthews Clarkson was drafted in and charged with expanding the number of courses, and the number of graduates.

Revenue is around £2m – with support coming from the Scottish Government, ScotlandIS and Skills Development Scotland. While profitability is pursued, any surpluses are reinvested back into the business.

“It’s just the right size and shape,” says Ms Matthews Clarkson. “After being in a big global VP role it can be hard to make your mark in Edinburgh, but what a great foothold this is to start with.”

An American citizen, she has been based in Edinburgh for ten years and admits the chance to walk to the office is another plus point. “I’m local and it feels wonderful,” she says. “The challenges are pretty much the same [as at IBM], just not on the same global scale. I love the fact I can influence a business now as opposed to maintaining a business. You’re not going to change the brand, the structure at IBM. This is still mouldable.”

Among her first moves was a plan to address the gender gap in technology. This led to the launch in January of a Digital Women’s Group, the aim of which is to make bursaries available for women to take part in the £5,500 16-week course, and ultimately increase the number of female graduates.

Current numbers show one quarter of graduates placed in tech roles have been female, and CodeClan has set a target of women to total 40 per cent of graduating classes by 2020.

Ms Matthews Clarkson says the environment being social and collaborative helps draw more females in. “We want to attract women into the tech industry, we’re saying come on down it’s okay, demystifying it,” she says.

Kim Watson, former talent acquisition manager at Skyscanner joined as head of career development to help drive this.

Another target is to expand the partnership programme. This element is crucial to CodeClan. It involves commercial partners funding the business, helping shape the courses, and in return being introduced to graduates who could work for them.

Graduates should not be confused with those graduating university. Those leaving CodeClan with a new set of skills are a mixed age, and from a mixed background – many are looking to reskill after becoming redundant.

Ms Matthews Clarkson describes the course as “intensive”.

“If I sent you to learn languages you’d learn the format of Germanic or Latin first. The first few weeks here is about structuring [coding] language so they can get the process in their head and then they can dive into Javascript. It’s intensive, it’s collaborative.”

Broken into three modules, the first is an introduction to computing languages; the second moves onto the more complex Javascript where they build a program; the third is a group project.

The cohorts are also given classes in identifying what they want and how to prepare for that, from maximising their social media profiles to identifying whether they would fit better at a start-up or a large established business.

“Our ultimate goal is to match the passion of that person to the company that needs them. I wouldn’t say we’re a match.com for tech, but that’s what we try to do.”

Short courses of three days up to two weeks are also available to help people develop new skills.

The target set by Ms Matthews Clarkson is to place 1,000 people in jobs by 2020.

Part of this target is being aided by the recent move to Clockwise, a shared working space in Glasgow which has allowed CodeClan to run two concurrent courses – or cohorts as it calls them, instantly doubling the intake. At its Edinburgh headquarters, three cohorts run concurrently.

“The buzz there with all the other companies there is fabulous,” she says. “The look and feel of Clockwise will also raise our profile. We’ve been in Glasgow a year and so we’re ready now to grow.”

There are also plans to expand into other cities.

One of the challenges faced by CodeClan is the pace of change within the digital world. That is why an enhanced alliance with partners is so important. It will allow CodeClan to change its courses as required, from being in constant dialogue with businesses and knowing precisely where the gaps are, as they appear.

For example, this could be responding to the growth in artificial intelligence (AI). “AI is taking jobs away from people so people then have to upskill to take care of the robots,” she says. “These people then learn to do data analytics, a job which never previously existed.”

However, she believes industry will always be playing catch up with technology. “Unless you’re taking a rocket to moon, jet propulsion is at its limit,” she says. “With digital technology, you have to think about whether automated cars will take over, how kids have backpacks which can be tracked, so many things.”