The Holberton School team began in 2016

Founded in 2016 in San Francisco, the Holberton school continues to grow. The structure that trains computer engineers opened in France on September 7, to the delight of its French co-founders, Sylvain Kalache and Julien Barbier. ” We have French DNA and it is therefore not a classic launch. It warms our hearts to develop in France! ” says Julien Barbier, also CEO.

The school was planning to move to Paris in 2021, but news has accelerated the process. First of all, the bankruptcy of SUPINFO (a higher IT school in Paris, from which Sylvain Kalache, co-founder, and Julien Cyr, director of operations), encouraged the team to mobilize. ” We made a takeover offer and we wanted to offer SUPINFO students to join Holberton for free »Says Julien Cyr.

Help and train through practice

Then, the crisis linked to Covid-19 motivated an early opening. ” Unemployment has increased a lot in France and our school offers the possibility of finding a job with a fast and practical training. Engineers are today’s petroleum and France is lagging behind. We wanted to help. We worked a lot and we managed to convince the board to invest a million euros in the project ” explains Julien Barbier. A sum allowing some 160 students to benefit from a first year of free education.

With this new opening, Holberton now has 13 campuses in 7 countries. To their list: the United States, Colombia, Mexico, Uruguay, Puerto Rico, Tunisia and Lebanon. And Julien Barbier to complete: “ We will be heading further and further east, to Asia, and touring the world! We have a lot of requests to replicate our model “. A new model that places practice at the heart of learning. No classroom or teachers, but collaborative projects between students and a very structured structure.

The objective: to train talents capable of adapting to the technologies of tomorrow. ” If our parents had only one job, today it’s impossible. The 4th industrial revolution is happening through digital transformation and it’s going very quickly. You have to adapt. Trades change or disappear. At Holberton, students are therefore taught to learn. It makes the difference »Says CEO Julien Barbier.

1 million engineers by 2030

12 and 18 month programs train future engineers in the field of tech. Artificial intelligence, virtual reality or web development… The training courses include 9 months of fundamentals followed by specializations. “ And even before the end of the course, some students find jobs with salaries equivalent to those leaving Harvard »Assures Julien Barbier.

The talents, selected using an automated software algorithm, have diverse profiles. ” We filter on motivation and there are musicians, Uber drivers, young people who are just starting out, people in retraining … this is what makes promotions so rich »Specifies the CEO who adds:« the aim is to train one million engineers by 2030.

Another notable feature: students pay for their tuition through the ISA (Income Share Agreement) system. No need to get into debt upstream, they undertake to pay back 17% of their salary upon leaving. And this for 3 and a half years. An approach that is attracting more and more, but remains illegal in France for the moment. ” We provide an alternative to traditional educational models while bringing economic growth to the regions. OWe are still looking for solutions to make this model work in France! We have collaborated with companies as well as governments, we are open to collaborate with the French government ! ” explains Julien Barbier.

An answer to unemployment

Many renowned tech investors and players support their idea and are behind the school’s success. From Jeff Weiner, former CEO of Linkedin to Jerry Jang, founder of Yahoo! By opening a subsidiary in France, the Holberton team wishes to bring all this expertise to French students who will join students from other countries online.

Holberton nurtures the ambition to fill in the gaps and to offer a response to current issues of economy, development and training. ” We would be happy to add our contribution to the building. Especially since our model proves that iIt is possible to combine quality and quantity. We have succeeded in making the American system move in 5 years… So anything is possible, you just have to dream very hard »Concludes the co-founder Julien Barbier. His hope? To be able to effectively relieve future job losses.

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