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The biggest cloud hanging over the Estonian tech sector – a shortage of ICT professionals – is being tackled at Jõhvi coding school (known as kood/Jõhvi in Estonia), in the true spirit of the startup sector, guided by an ethos of learning on the go and aiming high. Tejas Anil Shah reports on the past, present and future of the bootcamp style coding school that opened its doors in the predominantly Russian-speaking Ida-Virumaa region in 2021.

“The newest innovation in the Estonian education system” is a headline often ascribed to the Jõhvi coding school (known as kood/Jõhvi in Estonia), and one that underpins its numerous awards on both the national and European level. But how does the school actually function? And can you learn computer programming without traditional classrooms?

0"> Founders of the school (from left to right) Maarja Pehk, Rainer Sternfeld, Merlin Seeman, Marek Kiisa, Mari-Liis Kitter, Taavet Hinrikus and Ede Tamkivi on the roof of the future school building in Jõhvi. Martin Villig is missing from the picture. Source: Jõhvi Coding School. Jõhvi Coding School is the first Estonian program focused on retraining the workforce for software development, based on a novel computer-guided peer-to-peer learning concept. The first st...