Baidam and Deadly Coders sign MOU to close digital skills gap for Indigenous People

Baidam will fund student placements in Deadly Coders' job-skilling bootcamps, removing financial barriers for aspiring Indigenous technologists.

First Nations IT provider Baidam has signed a new memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Deadly Coders in a move to close the digital skills gap for Indigenous People across Australia.

Deadly Coders is an Indigenous-owned NFP that helps Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders students engage in STEM.

This new MOU also helps give Indigenous people sustainable career pathways.

According to the ITSP, Baidam will leverage its commercial recruitment arm to fund student placements in Deadly Coders' job-skilling bootcamps, removing financial barriers for aspiring Indigenous technologists.

For every 10 job placements made by Baidam’s recruitment team, one student placement in the Deadly Coders Academy, valued at $20,000, will be funded.

The collaboration addresses a critical need for alternative pathways into the technology sector, focusing on identifying talent through non-traditional routes where attitude and aptitude are valued.

Beau Hodge, CEO at Baidam told CRN Australia that this MOU enables them to formalise additional educational pathways for First Nations students, alongside those who receive their scholarships.

“It also allows us to lift up other Indigenous organisations who are doing great things within our corporate client base, and hopefully drive greater social impacts beyond what Baidam does,” he said.

Hodge said while they haven’t set a particular number of people they want to put through the program, they will be focusing on ensuring all their customers understand the program and the opportunity to collectively drive impacts from their spend.

“At the same time we’ll introduce Deadly Coders directly to those clients so that they can engage directly and drive more impact,” he added.

For this year, Hodge said Baidam wants to to enable more First Nation People to participate in the Deadly Coders Programs/Bootcamps and enter the ICT Industry.

“By partnering with Deadly Coders (and Baidam's customers), Baidam is able to support, enable and influence our supportive customers to drive more First Nation impacts,” he said.

Deadly Coders has a mission to deliver digital technologies education to every Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander student in Australia within the next decade.