Digital media and technology school RED Academy opens this summer

With the arrival of Microsoft, Facebook and Amazon, Vancouver’s rapidly growing tech industry has poised our city as the next digital hub. This budding community brings plenty of opportunity with it, and for those looking to dive into tech careers, the options are abundant. In fact, British Columbia’s statistical agency tallied 9,010 tech companies and 84,070 jobs across the province, according to an April 2014 report.

Image: Red Academy

In the next four years, there will be 15,500 jobs that need to be filled by skilled, qualified tech professionals. Finding them, however, may be a greater challenge. With little educational resources for budding IT’ers to learn industry-needed skills, honing local talent has become a concern for the west coast’s Silicon Valley.

That’s why local tech professionals have launched RED Academy. Founded by some of Western Canada’s leading digital agencies, they’ve developed a unique program with curriculum that caters directly to industry needs. All of the instructors are experienced tech professionals, and know exactly what tech sector companies are looking for.

Image: Red Academy

“We’ve done a ton of research into the current Vancouver job market,” says Colin Mansell, Managing Director of RED Academy. “Our team has surveyed more than 700 job positions as well as worked with our network of hiring partners to help put together the learning programs.”

RED Academy will offer full-time and part-time programs that specialize in Web Development, UX and Web Design and Digital Marketing. Evening and weekend programs are also available, with the addition of Branding, Graphics and eCommerce courses.

“Being veterans of the tech industry, we understand what the industry needs from our students when they join the real world. We’re also introducing mentorship programs and have a network of community partnerships so that students are immersed in real projects and working in real client situations. The aim is to have graduates who can seamlessly transition into jobs in B.C.’s fast-growing tech sector.”

RED, whose tagline is ‘Redesign Your Career’, emphasizes self-directed, project-centric learning with small class sizes and teams of six students per instructor.

Image: Red Academy

Located on the corner of West Broadway and Granville, RED is now accepting applicants for their four-week summer programs in July and August, as well as their Professional Programs which are set to start in September.

To learn more, visit www.redacademy.com.