Silicon Valley startup school brings its engineer training know-how to Singapore

Image credit: Make School.

US programming and product development school Make School is coming to Singapore, in what is its first-ever international subsidiary in the city-state, it announced this week. It has raised a seed round from Singapore-based venture builder Tri5 Ventures.

Make School runs summer courses on iOS programming, aimed at helping students design, program, and launch iOS apps. It also provides a two-year university alternative program. The curriculum covers engineering courses, but also product development, design, marketing, and business skills. The school says its graduates have gone on to internships and full-time positions at Silicon Valley heavy hitters like Apple, Tesla, Facebook, and Google, as well as up-and-comers like Snapchat and Square.

Make School also helped shape the mobile app development curriculum that MIT and Carnegie Mellon University use.

Training tomorrow’s tech pros

In Singapore, the school will launch a pilot for its seven-week summer program toward late June 2016. This will be followed by a four-week intermediate course and a seven-week advanced course that will run throughout the year. Programs that are currently developed at the school in San Francisco, including a virtual reality course using the Unity development engine, will also roll out in Singapore afterwards.

The announcement coincides with the Singaporean government’s renewed affirmation to nurture local technical talent in the Lion City.

Make School helps students design, program, and launch iOS apps.

“We are excited to educate both students who have never programmed before as well as those with a year or more of experience ready to equip themselves with the latest tools, technologies, and know-how from industry partners,” co-founder of Make School Jeremy Rossmann says in a statement.

Tri5 managing partner Christopher Quek says this investment is of “national strategic importance” in view of Singapore’s manpower needs in the engineering sector. The venture firm says it will help connect Make School graduates in Singapore with prospective employers.

“Having visited the Bay Area in San Francisco, Singaporean software engineers whom we met have attested that the frameworks and skillsets in Singapore are at least 2 generations behind,” he says in a statement. “This is our way of continued efforts to support Singapore’s technology companies in being competitive regionally and globally.”