REvive Greece

Greece has faced Europe's highest overall unemployment rate (20.1%) and highest youth unemployment (ages 18-25, 43.2%), despite 91.8% of Greek students enrolling in higher education, Europe's second-highest rate. Since 2015, more than 2 million refugees and migrants have arrived in Europe, with almost half entering through Greece, making it a primary entry point, at the same time as demand for computer programmers has been rising across Europe.

Re-skill unemployed Greeks and refugees as computer programmers through blended learning, and connect graduates with ICT-sector companies for interviews and job placement as intern software developers, addressing both domestic unemployment and Europe's shortage of programmers.

REvive Greece, a registered non-profit, runs a code school in Athens combining online and in-person (blended) training, delivered with stakeholders Innovathens, Nevma, Job-pairs and CVexperts, culminating in certification and connections to ICT employers for internships.

Trainees who complete the programme receive certification enabling them to work as programmers; the organisers present the model as potentially replicable elsewhere and note it illustrates how targeting a socially and economically salient issue can help secure private funding.