On April 24th, 2020, we proudly celebrated the graduation of our first Dev Degree program cohort. This milestone holds a special place in Shopify history because it’s a day born out of trial and error, experimentation, iteration, and hustle. The 2016 cohort had the honor and challenge of being our first class, lived through the churn and pivots of a newly designed program, and completed their education during a worldwide pandemic, thrust into remote learning and work. The students’ success is a testament to their dedication, adaptability, and grit. It’s also the product of a thoughtfully designed program and a high-functioning Dev Degree team. What does it take to create an environment where students can thrive and develop into work-ready employees in four years? We’ve achieved this mission with the Dev Degree program. The key to our success is our learning structure and multidisciplinary team. With our model, students master development skills faster than traditional methods. The Dev Degree Program Structure When we set out to shake-up software education in 2016, we had no prescriptive blueprint to guide us and no tried-and-true best practices. Still, we embraced the opportunity to forge a new path in partnership with trusted university advisors and experienced internal educators at Shopify. Our vision was to create an alternative to the traditional co-op model that alternates between university studies and work placements. In Dev Degree, students receive four years of continual hands-on developer experience at Shopify, through skills training and team placements, in parallel to attending university classes. This model accelerates understanding and allows students to apply classroom theory to real-life product development across a breadth of technology. Dev Degree Timeline While computer science and technology are at the core of our learning model, what elevates the program is the focus on personal growth, actionable feedback loops, and the opportunity to make an impact on the company, coworkers, and merchants. University Course Curriculum The Dev Degree program leads to an accredited Computer Science degree, which is
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