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Upscale your coding skills in the Caribbean this winter

Torn between upscaling your digital skills and spending the winter somewhere warm and sunny? We have some good news -- there’s a way you can do both.

Published: 12 October 2017 09:28 CEST
Upscale your coding skills in the Caribbean this winter
Photo: kjorgen/Depositphotos

Opportunities for iOS app developers are on the rise, so you budding coders should start learning your way around the operating system. With Apple accounting for 33 percent of the mobile market, there’s never been a better time to add a new string to your digital bow.

The good news is you can pick up the skills you need to start developing iOS apps in just eight weeks at The App Academy’s “Coding on the Beach” bootcamp. It’s an advanced project-based course so you will need some digital experience and knowledge of a programming language like Java, Python, or PHP.

But don’t count yourself out if you don’t have any coding experience. There’s still time to take a beginner’s course and get up to speed by the time the bootcamp kicks off in February. So if you want to code by day and spend your spare time chilling with a beer on a Caribbean beach, this could be just what you’re looking for this winter.

Go with a friend to coding bootcamp and save an additional 20%

The intensive eight-week bootcamp takes place on Curacao, an idyllic Dutch Caribbean island. Known for its creamy-sanded beaches and colourful waterfront buildings built in the style of Amsterdam’s canal houses, you can skip the year’s coldest season on a small paradise anchored in the Caribbean sea.

Photo: zmtanya/Depositphotos

It’s also the chance for you to upscale your skills and get an edge on other developers and coders. You’ll go to daily lectures and workshops where you’ll learn more about mobile technology —  the fastest growing area in the software industry.

The curriculum has been designed by expert software developers and designers based on their years of professional experience in mobile app development, UX design, and product strategy.

You’ll learn to write Swift code — the programming language used for macOS, iOS, watchOS, and tvOS — as well as other areas of app development, including rapid prototyping and augmented reality. From week five, you’ll work on your final project and attend workshops designed to help you master Server-side Swift, ARKit, Core ML, Core Animation, and SiriKit.

Save an additional 20% when you attend coding bootcamp with a friend

You’ll spend 50 hours per week on-site, so by the time you graduate you’ll be an autonomous iOS developer with over 400 hours of practical experience. All this hands-on training means you can instantly take that often elusive next step in your career as well as upgrading your hourly rate — the course practically pays for itself.

There are two bootcamp packages to choose from depending on how much of the experience you want to organise yourself. And if you book with a friend you'll save an additional 20 percent.

All you have to do is send an email to [email protected] and tell them you're a reader of The Local.

For €7,950 you can attend the course and arrange your own flights and accommodation, or for just €2,000 extra (and 100 percent less stress), you can choose the Exclusive Bootcamp package. This includes everything that comes as part of the standard package, as well as a room in the hotel resort, a breakfast buffet, and an invite to the weekly Friday cocktail and barbecue party.

The weekends are yours to spend how you like, and there’s no shortage of things to do! Relax on the beach, go scuba diving, visit the two nearby islands of Aruba and Bonaire, or just lay under a palm tree sipping a cold drink.

When you think of the comparative living costs (and incomparable lifestyle) of winter in chilly Europe, it’s a no-brainer to spend that time learning to code in the Caribbean instead. So what are you waiting for?

Fulfil your 2018 resolution and take the first step to becoming the next superstar iOS app developer! Email the App Academy team today at [email protected] and mention The Local “bring a friend” discount.

Attend App Academy bootcamp with a friend and save another 20%

This article was produced by The Local Client Studio and sponsored by The App Academy.

TRAVEL NEWS

German train strike wave to end following new labour agreement

Germany's Deutsche Bahn rail operator and the GDL train drivers' union have reached a deal in a wage dispute that has caused months of crippling strikes in the country, the union said.

Published: 26 March 2024 09:55 CET
German train strike wave to end following new labour agreement

“The German Train Drivers’ Union (GDL) and Deutsche Bahn have reached a wage agreement,” GDL said in a statement.

Further details will be announced in a press conference on Tuesday, the union said. A spokesman for Deutsche Bahn also confirmed that an agreement had been reached.

Train drivers have walked out six times since November, causing disruption for huge numbers of passengers.

The strikes have often lasted for several days and have also caused disruption to freight traffic, with the most recent walkout in mid-March.

In late January, rail traffic was paralysed for five days on the national network in one of the longest strikes in Deutsche Bahn’s history.

READ ALSO: Why are German train drivers launching more strike action?

Europe’s largest economy has faced industrial action for months as workers and management across multiple sectors wrestle over terms amid high inflation and weak business activity.

The strikes have exacerbated an already gloomy economic picture, with the German economy shrinking 0.3 percent across the whole of last year.

What we know about the new offer so far

Through the new agreement, there will be optional reduction of a work week to 36 hours at the start of 2027, 35.5 hours from 2028 and then 35 hours from 2029. For the last three stages, employees must notify their employer themselves if they wish to take advantage of the reduction steps.

However, they can also opt to work the same or more hours – up to 40 hours per week are possible in under the new “optional model”.

“One thing is clear: if you work more, you get more money,” said Deutsche Bahn spokesperson Martin Seiler. Accordingly, employees will receive 2.7 percent more pay for each additional or unchanged working hour.

According to Deutsche Bahn, other parts of the agreement included a pay increase of €420 per month in two stages, a tax and duty-free inflation adjustment bonus of €2,850 and a term of 26 months.

Growing pressure

Last year’s walkouts cost Deutsche Bahn some €200 million, according to estimates by the operator, which overall recorded a net loss for 2023 of €2.35 billion.

Germany has historically been among the countries in Europe where workers went on strike the least.

But since the end of 2022, the country has seen growing labour unrest, while real wages have fallen by four percent since the start of the war in Ukraine.

German airline Lufthansa is also locked in wage disputes with ground staff and cabin crew.

Several strikes have severely disrupted the group’s business in recent weeks and will weigh on first-quarter results, according to the group’s management.

Airport security staff have also staged several walkouts since January.

Some politicians have called for Germany to put in place rules to restrict critical infrastructure like rail transport from industrial action.

But Chancellor Olaf Scholz has rejected the calls, arguing that “the right to strike is written in the constitution… and that is a democratic right for which unions and workers have fought”.

The strikes have piled growing pressure on the coalition government between Scholz’s Social Democrats, the Greens and the pro-business FDP, which has scored dismally in recent opinion polls.

The far-right AfD has been enjoying a boost in popularity amid the unrest with elections in three key former East German states due to take place later this year.

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