Why we're investing in the next generation of tech talent

Treehouse is an online learning platform that teaches coding, web development, design, AI, and data science. With over 1.2 million students worldwide, it's helping people gain in-demand tech skills and launch careers in tech, regardless of their background, skillset, or where they're based.

We ran a giveaway offering three Silver annual Treehouse memberships to people we felt would benefit the most.

We didn't set any strict criteria. We simply asked people to tell us in 140 characters how a Treehouse subscription would help them. And the response was overwhelming. We had hundreds of stories pouring in, each one more compelling than the last. Narrowing it down to three was tough, but we wanted to make sure these memberships genuinely made a difference.

One story stood out.

Casey (@misteroptimist) is a volunteer in Battambang, Cambodia, teaching two web development classes, CSS and HTML Foundations, plus Ruby on Rails and basic web application development.

We caught up with Casey to see how the Treehouse membership was going. Here's what he told us: “The Treehouse membership has opened up a lot of opportunities to learn, for both my students and myself. Being a self-taught developer, I find myself researching hours each night for the following day to be able to teach my students what I’m learning or what I’ve learned so far. Treehouse has answered so many questions for me, making my job a little bit easier. I’ve also been able to play different videos during our class, and the students are loving it. Currently, I’ve been picking and choosing between the different CSS videos depending on what we’re teaching that day.

I received the Treehouse membership right near the end of our teaching quarter, but this upcoming quarter I plan to follow the lesson plans that Treehouse has set up with my new class. I’m very excited, and so are my students. The videos really help them visualise what they’re doing and why they’re doing it – there’s also always a confused laugh when Jason Seifer does that goofy little smile at the end of the videos.

Si digital and Treehouse, you guys have made it possible to help better educate youth in the area of Web Design/Development in developing countries. On behalf of me and my students, we thank you!”

Supporting our industry and emerging talent matters to us. Hearing that Casey and his students are loving Treehouse, and that we could help make it happen, is exactly why we did this.

Those three memberships were just the beginning. We want to do more to help our industry grow, and we're always looking for new ways to make an impact.