Announcing Salesforce’s Partnership with Girl Develop It

Are you (or a friend, family member, or coworker) considering a career change? Want to join the most energetic, excited, and supportive community in the world and get paid for it? Last year alone, 100,000+ jobs requiring Salesforce skills were created.* To learn more and get connected to the community, kickstart your Salesforce training with a 1-day in-person Intro to App Building class with Girl Develop It (GDI). You’ll learn how to build an enterprise business app from data model design to mobile rollout.

Salesforce – GDI Partnership

On June 7th, 2016 during TrailheaDX‘s keynote, Salesforce’s CEO, Marc Benioff, and GDI’s Executive Director, Corinne Warnshuis, announced Salesforce’s partnership with GDI.

Corinne Warnshuis and Marc Benioff at TrailheaDX Keynote

GDI is the leading nonprofit providing affordable and judgment-free opportunities for adult women interested in learning web and software development. Through accessible in-person classes in 54 cities, GDI helps women from diverse backgrounds achieve their technology goals and build confidence in their careers and everyday lives.

Why is GDI partnering with Salesforce? Corinne explains, “Our missions are aligned, which is why I’m so excited about this partnership. We’ve been teaching women to code HTML,CSS, JavaScript, and more for six years, and with the addition of Salesforce app development classes, we can unlock potential in women who are looking for a career change or to level up in their company and take on a role in the Salesforce ecosystem.”

See the full interview here.

Salesforce Community Volunteers

These classes could not happen without the support of the amazing Salesforce Women in Technology user groups. Salesforce Evangelists Mary Scotton, LeeAnne Templeman, and Gillian Madill are teaching the classes, backed up by Teaching Assistant volunteers from these local user groups. Local volunteers will then teach future classes and sustain the program. As a student, connecting with the local community is just as important as learning the skills, and might just be the bridge to your next career move!

Aleisha Harris (right), Salesforce WIT Boston, helping a GDI student build an app

Kickstarting with Trailhead

In our first classes this year, in NYC, Austin, and Boston, women from all backgrounds and skill levels were building their first Salesforce app: a very important app to manage Battle Station Construction. This Trailhead project is a fun way to learn the basics of Salesforce development: data modeling, user interfaces, business logic, reports, and dashboards. It also demonstrates how every app is a mobile app with Salesforce1.

After class, students are ready to learn more by continuing with Trailhead and tackling the Admin Beginner or Developer Beginner trails to gain the real-world skills they’ll need to land that next job.

When and Where?

Catch a class in one of these GDI Chapters:

• Denver, July 16, 2016
• Chicago, July 23, 2016

Keep your eye out in these GDI Chapters for classes coming soon:

• Atlanta
• Minneapolis
• Philadelphia
• Los Angeles
• San Francisco

Don’t see your city? Let us know that you want an Intro to App Building with Salesforce GDI class in your city by emailing me at mscotton@salesforce.com!

Girl Develop It welcomes all gender identities and backgrounds to classes and events. All attendees are expected to abide by the Girl Develop It Code of Conduct.

*Report obtained under license from Burning Glass Technologies. Data from June 2014-June 2015.