Social Finance is partnering with Alchemy Code Lab, a Portland, OR-based software development school that provides comprehensive technical and career services training; impact investors; and employers on a Career Impact Bond. The project will serve 290 students who are unemployed or underemployed through a 25-week, full-time online training program that will ultimately place students in software engineering jobs with employers such as Nike, Kroger, and Cambia Health.
Alchemy was founded in 2015 to help students access career pathways in the software development industry. The program has strong partnerships with local and national employers and community organizations, which help drive its success with enrollment, completion, and placement.
This Career Impact Bond will allow the program to offer a student-friendly financing option for tuition as well as the option to cover living expenses to support students’ non-tuition financial needs. By eliminating typical financial barriers, this project aims to increase access to software development careers and increase diversity and inclusion in the technology sector, particularly for women and LGBTQIA+ individuals.
Project Goals
Improve career training access: Expand access to industry-recognized software development training and wraparound support services, including covering living expenses, so that people facing barriers to education can build careers as software engineers.
Support measurable career advancement: Help students develop the skills they need to pursue and achieve measurable career advancement in the software development industry.
Catalyze wider economic mobility: Take a strong step toward catalyzing economic mobility at scale by transforming education for people who face barriers to education and employment.
How It Works
Investors
Provide funding to expand Alchemy’s programming and cover students’ tuition.
Alchemy Code Lab
Provides training and wraparound support services to students.
Students
Repay tuition as flat-fee monthly payments if their annual salaries exceed $50,000.
THE STUDENT PERSPECTIVE
Charly
A queer single mom, Charly enrolled in Alchemy Code Lab to start a new life for herself and her son. Now a software engineer at QuoteCenter, Charly is the first female developer hired at her organization and a recipient of the Women Who Code Rising Star Award. “The impact on my life is immeasurable—I’m experiencing a level of security I couldn’t even imagine before.”
Project Partners
- Alchemy Code Lab is providing the training for participants.
- Social Finance is coordinating the project.
- The UP Fund financed the project.
- Vemo Education is managing student repayment.
Project Supporters
- Wilmington Trust serves as fiscal agent and custodian for this project.
- Chapman and Cutler serves as outside legal counsel to Social Finance for the UP Fund.
In the News
- “Alchemy Code Lab snags $5.8 million for tuition financing program,” Portland Business Journal