Meet the man on a mission to make a career in coding open for all

Chris Meah walked into class on the first day of his computer studies degree at University of Birmingham and noticed a complete and utter lack of diversity - just a room full of mainly young men who had been into computing since childhood. There were not many others who strayed too far from this stereotype. "I have four sisters which is more women than there were in my class and my family is also mixed race so there's more diversity at home than there was on my course," he quipped. It was this observation that sent him on a journey to launching a free bootcamp for would-be software coders in Birmingham called School of Code which is now set to embark on a nationwide expansion. And the 32 year old credits being a winner at our first two West Midlands Tech Awards with helping to boost the visibility and credibility of the school to businesses and potential students (2021 entry details below and categories at the bottom).