This article is courtesy of Delaware Public Media.

Zip Code Wilmington, a bootcamp to train coders, has achieved a hundred percent job placement for its first round of graduates.

The 16 graduates learned how to code in Java and Javascript over the course of 12 weeks, which was completed last Friday. Tuition costs $2,000, but is paid back through apprenticeships with local companies. Tech Impact, a nonprofit that manages the program, offered full tuition scholarships to seven students who earned less than $28,000 prior to entering the course.

Zip Code Wilmington co-founder and president Jim Stewart says

the heads of local companies often have to look outside Delaware to find skilled coders.

“The whole reason for having this [program] is to help Wilmington. And we knew there were a lot of these tech jobs available locally that couldn’t be filled because of the lack of skilled people,” said Stewart.

The students averaged a salary of under $25,000 before entering the program. In their new jobs, they will be paid an average of nearly $55,000. Their employers include JP Morgan Chase, Capital One, Bank of America and various others.

“The employers are very impressed with the quality of training and with the quality of people. A number of the graduates got multiple offers,” said Stewart.

Zip Code Wilmington will admit more students next year and hope to place at least 100 of them in local IT jobs. They also will hold summer courses aimed at high schoolers.

Stewart added they’ve already received about 200 applications for its next 12-week course in January.

The program is part of the Tech Hire initiative, an effort started earlier this year by Gov. Jack Markell to prepare workers for high-demand jobs in information technology.