September 2, 2016 – Redding, California – The mission of the Cloud Wise Academy course, “Websites for Beginners,” is to teach smart and talented people in northern California how to build websites. The first students of the Websites for Beginners just graduated from their six-week course on August 25th.
As testimony to the power of the training, one of the school’s students has already sold their first website. Jake Hinton, one of the students, sold his first site to his current employer, Wagner Electric.
Jake, an electrician for Wagner, had decided to build a new website for his boss in the second week of the course. “I saw the old site,” he says, “I knew he was losing business because of his site, and I just thought it would be a nice thing to do. Even if he said no, I would have built it anyway, for the real-world experience. I didn’t see any downside to it.”
Web development course for beginners teaches fundamentals
The Websites for Beginners course was held every Tuesday and Thursday for three hours in the evening. Students were taught the fundamentals of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Even though these are just the basic tools of web development, Jake’s website looks professional. As an artist, he prides himself on knowing how to build something visually appealing. Furthermore, he expects that as he takes the second course and gains more knowledge the site will “really start to shine.”
When asked whether he expected that he would be able to sell the website, Jake exclaimed, “I had no idea!” He says, “I was actually going to do the website for free, because I thought that was the best type of experience I could get. My boss did some research into what it would normally cost to have something like this done, and decided that he should pay me. At a discount, of course, because I’m a student.”
His boss was also pleased to have the new website built, as Jake tells it. “He’s excited, I think, to be making this change.”
Later, when contacted for comment, Bob Wagner used more memorable language, saying, “I didn’t want people to look at our website and think we are a bunch of hillbillies who don’t know what we are doing. I want a website that looks professional and communicates that we are professional.” He also mentioned that Wagner Electric had recently hired a new employee to maintain their website and handle their other technology needs at a high level.
Overall, Jake is quite happy with the way events have unfolded, especially as he transitions from work as an electrician into the field of web development. Starting in the next few weeks he will be working as an intern for Joe Mckenna, CEO and co-founder of Cloud Wise Academy. As Jake says, “It’s really exciting.”
“I would encourage everyone who’s taking the class in the future to see if they know a business owner who could use a hand, because I’d say 90% of them do,” Jake advises. “Not only are you gaining real-world experience, that experience that could get you paid. It really is an in-demand market.
“Oh! And set outrageous goals for yourself,” he adds. “I set the outrageous goal of telling my boss, ‘Hey, I can have a new website for you in six weeks.’ That really drove me to create the best website I could. If I hadn’t talked to my boss up front, I might not have gotten this far. I might not have taken it seriously.”
“This opportunity for both students and businesses didn’t exist two months ago. Cloud Wise has and will continue to hasten the pace of growth in our community. They are doing this by building the technology talent base, helping companies improve their market presence, and creating new career paths for motivated individuals looking to improve their lives by embracing the digital revolution,” was the comment offered by Tony Giovaniello, Shasta EDC President. He went on to add, “Congratulations to Jake and all of the others that graduated last week.”
The Cloud Wise Academy second course, “Advanced Web Development – Learning the WordPress Ecosystem,” begins on September 13th. Prices are intentionally affordable; only $275 per class. Scholarships are available. For more information about applying for a scholarship, see the scholarship information page. Interested students can register for courses at CloudWiseAcademy.com.
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Cloud Wise Academy was founded in 2016 to teach high-demand technology skills. The Academy works closely with businesses in the area to make sure that the courses teach skills that companies are hiring for. A sister company to Cloud Wise Academy is 24-Hour Cloud Support, which helps company managers solve web, cloud, and e-commerce problems, on-demand. www.cloudwiseacademy.com
Cloud Wise Academy
4300 Caterpillar Road
Redding, CA 96003
Joe Mckenna, CEO, Cloud Wise Academy
530.515.9851 info@cloudwiseacademy.com
The EDC of Shasta County is a 501(c)(3) California Non-Profit Public Benefit Corporation focused on growing, diversifying and maintaining a balanced economy, leading to more economic stability and sustainability for our region in the primary industries and technology sectors.
www.shastausa.com
Economic Development Corporation of Shasta County Shasta Venture Hub
4300 Caterpillar Road
Redding, CA 96003
Tony Giovaniello, President, Shasta EDC
530.224.4920
tony@shastaedc.org