NEW YORK—Codecademy, the world’s largest online coding education platform, is offering 100,000 free premium Pro memberships (normally $20 per month) to furloughed or unemployed manufacturing industry workers due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Affected workers gain free access for 3 months to Codecademy’s education resources to help them grow their skillset and gain access to new opportunities.
Helpful resources include community support, so workers can connect with other members to share tips, stay motivated, or talk shop; access to thousands of hours of exclusive courses, quizzes, and videos; real-world projects so workers can build up their portfolios with coding projects they can be proud of; and step-by-step guidance in structured Skill Paths, so they know where to start and what to learn next.

One beneficiary of the free membership is Mississippi native Alan, who worked at a car factory prior to the pandemic.

"He's now filling his days learning new valuable skills, and it's giving his life meaning again," says Zach Sims, CEO and co-founder of Codecademy. "He's already starting building things online and already started thinking of what's possible for him for jobs after this pandemic. When I think of great stories its things like that where people take adversity and they turn it into opportunity."