Digital Inclusion Centres
Portugal
The local projects financed by Choices Programme are defined by local consortia of partners (schools, NGOs, municipalities, etc.) and divided …
Good practice
Imported
★ 76
★ 76
★ 52
★ 76
Powercoders Italy
· Bern · Transnational · See the Bern profile
Evidence: Descriptive / self-reported Top 50% 72/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice
Powercoders is a coding academy for refugees. It was funded in 2017 by Christian Hirsig, a swiss tech entrepreneur. Powercoders aims to have a positive impact on the lives of refugees in Europe by teaching them how to code and them connecting them to IT industies. Powercoders off
more than 200
Refugees trained
90 %
Trainees who started an internship
more than 60 %
Trainees now working in the IT sector
Details
- Maturity
- Established
- Promoter
- Powercoders — website
- Type
- Policy
- Status
- Ongoing
- Target groups
- Migrants
- People reached
- 200
- People targeted
- 80
- Period
- 2020-08-08 – 2030-01-06
- Keywords
- Information Technology, Digital Inclusion, Coding for Refugees
Context
Powercoders was founded in 2017 by Swiss tech entrepreneur Christian Hirsig, inspired by a US coding academy for women and a cooking school for refugees, amid Europe's refugee crisis, with the aim of giving refugees independence, reducing social welfare costs and addressing IT-sector talent shortages.
Objectives
Powercoders aims to have a positive impact on the lives of refugees in Europe by teaching them to code and connecting them to the IT industry.
Activities
Powercoders runs a 3-month intensive coding bootcamp (HTML, CSS, JavaScript) followed by paid internships in the IT sector, alongside a soft-skills development programme. It operates permanent school centres in Switzerland (Bern, Lausanne, Zurich) and Italy (Milan, Turin), supported by stakeholders including the Reale Foundation, Fondazione Italiana Accenture and UNHCR.
Results
So far, Powercoders has trained more than 200 refugees across Switzerland and Italy, of whom 90% started an internship and more than 60% are now working in the IT sector.
Implementation
Implementation detail (cost, timeline, staffing, conditions for success) is not yet available for this practice.
Commonly funded by
Philanthropic / foundation funding
Indicative funding routes for practices of this type — always check each programme's current calls and eligibility rules.
Do you run this practice? Claim it — verified implementers get a public contact pathway and can propose corrections.
Data sources
Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.
- MEDICI / Digital Inclusion Atlas — accessed 2026-06-14
- Practice website — accessed 2026-06-14
Similar practices you may find useful
The Escolhas School Programme
Portugal
A country-wide initiative in Portugal is providing thousands of disadvantaged children and young people with the opportunity to build a …
Digital Tools for Inclusion of Refugees, Asylum Seekers and Migrants
Spain
The Digital Inclusion project focuses on the priority of Inclusive education, training and youth. The project aims to: • Strengthen …
TecnoLab
Spain
TecnoLab’s main focus is to provide employable skills and resources, using a digital maker approach, to young participants who are …