Ask the EduSource owners what three things they hold dear above all else, and here will be the answer: People, Culture, and Training.
EduSource (which got its name from being an alternative to outsourcing software design overseas, through the local education community) has always put the vast majority of its resources toward two things: training employees and student apprentices, and salaries and benefits for employees. This all works hand-in-hand with a new grant from the Indiana Economic Development Corporation (IEDC), which will provide EduSource with up to $300,000 in conditional tax credits for hiring up to 30 new employees and up to $120,000 in training grants in the next two years. (Here’s the article the Indiana Business Journal published about it on Monday. And another from a website called areadevelopment.com.)
That’s pretty darn exciting for us. It means we get financial help in doing what we love to do anyway — help our employees become the best they can be. The grant has helped bring to reality a dream that we’ve held for a long time: EduSource U. What is EduSource U? As a small, privately-owned company, we’ve always believed in just getting started — not waiting until things are perfect. That’s what we did with EduSource U in March. Its first iteration is simply a more formalized method for training employees. Every Friday morning, EduSource employees gather in a local classroom for training on a specific topic. The topics range from leadership lessons to business development to advanced technology. Most are taught by internal employees with an expert-level specialization in a certain area. For some topics, we bring in outside experts. But it’s been a great start to set aside one hour each Friday morning simply to learn and grow.
We have lots of ideas for the future of EduSource U. One is our new location (which we are planning to move into in late August) will have a large room dedicated to training, so we won’t have to rent space any longer. Having this space built right into our facility will enable us to expand EduSource U and incorporate some of the next-level ideas. We have ideas that include hack-a-thons for local colleges and symposiums for women in technology and more. One thing our staff never lacks is creativity.
In a month, the stakes rise when our 12 summer apprentices show up at the office. Throughout the summer, the EduSource U sessions will be focused on turning college juniors and seniors into software engineering professionals. In addition to the formalized training, each of our apprentices have a professional coach to help prepare them for their careers and plus plenty of interaction and mentorship from other EduSource employees. On top of all that, our apprentices get to learning basic “adulting” skills by coming to employees’ houses weekly for game night and observing behavior. We strongly believe that building relationships is one of the best way to train young developers.
So we’ll be busy for the next few years — growing new employees and training current ones to be the best they can be. We’re up for the challenge.
And that’s it for today. We just wanted to share our good news with you. Here’s to the future!
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