Today, Dev Bootcamp, the original immersive software developer bootcamp, and Pivotal, the company accelerating digital transformation for enterprises, announced that they have rolled out 12 Corporate Engineering Empathy training workshops to select audiences across Pivotal. This deployment of Dev Bootcamp’s corporate iteration of its unique and effective student training curriculum marks the organization’s first B2B product venture and the first-of-its-kind training program offered by a coding bootcamp.

Dev Bootcamp-trained facilitators delivered the 12 workshops both in-person and virtually across several Pivotal offices – including its San Francisco headquarters – reaching 135 total employees.

“We’re pleased to be providing this initial training series to a company like Pivotal,” said LaTeesha Thomas, Director of Partnerships and Corporate Training at Dev Bootcamp. “Pivotal and Dev Bootcamp share common values around being more accepting of people with diverse backgrounds and perspectives in order to create more inclusive and productive workplace environments.”

The workshops, a mix of guided discussions and exercises related to day-to-day office interactions via email communication, performance reviews and meeting conduct, tackled issues such as: implicit bias, privilege and “allyship” (the process of building relationships based on trust with marginalized groups of people) as well as provided Pivotal employees with a framework for understanding bias and oppression, a common terminology to discuss microaggressions and other social identity based phenomena and strategies to combat these issues that can prohibit team productivity.

The collaboration with Dev Bootcamp also represents the first time Pivotal has provided this type of extensive training from a third-party partner.

“Empathy is one of the most important attributes we hire for at Pivotal,” said Joe Militello, Chief People Officer at Pivotal. “Pivotal’s mission is to help enterprises transform into software companies capable of moving at start-up speeds. As a result, one-of-a-kind programs such as Corporate Engineering Empathy empowers our employees to help our customers foster a software development culture in their respective organizations that’s optimized for change, and fueled by a diverse set of voices.”

The Corporate Engineering Empathy program, a suite of trainings offered to companies, was born from Dev Bootcamp’s Engineering Empathy (EE) student curriculum created to help students harness the tools they need to work effectively as individuals and on teams. EE is one way that Dev Bootcamp creates a supportive, inclusive onsite campus environment that enables students to learn under pressure, give and receive effective feedback and engage in collaborative learning that builds self-confidence and develops an appreciation for working with others. Pivotal elected the “Creating an Inclusive Work Culture” Corporate Engineering Empathy module to roll out with its employees.

Other modules include: “Navigating Difficult Conversations” dedicated to communication, feedback and tools to navigate difficult conversations; “Counteracting Bias in the Workplace” targeted at managers to help surface and thwart unconscious bias as an essential step towards effective leadership; and “Building Diverse Teams” complete with tactics to ensure recruiters and hiring managers are engaging qualified applicants who represent diverse communities.

“Engineering Empathy, six modules taught onsite as part of our team-building curriculum, is frequently cited by our alumni and employer partners as a standout element of the Dev Bootcamp experience,” said Tarlin Ray, Chief Operating Officer at Dev Bootcamp. “In addition to satisfying requests from alumni to bring EE training to their employers, we launched the Corporate Engineering Empathy suite because it represents a new business development avenue for our company with the intent to improve hiring practices around diversity and increase employee satisfaction, safety and awareness for our customers.”

To learn more about the Corporate Engineering Empathy program and receive additional information about onsite and virtual training workshops, visit here.

About Dev Bootcamp
Dev Bootcamp pioneered the short-term, immersive developer bootcamp, a model that transforms people of all skill levels into highly employable web developers in a matter of months. The 18-week curriculum with integrated career training, creates technical aptitude, along with the interpersonal skills that today’s employers demand. With more than 2,700 graduates to date, and locations open in San Francisco, Chicago, New York City, San Diego, Seattle, and Austin, Dev Bootcamp immerses students in the supportive learning community they need to accelerate and shape their careers. Dev Bootcamp is owned by Kaplan, Inc. For more information, visit devbootcamp.com.

Note to editors: Kaplan is a subsidiary of The Graham Holdings Company (NYSE: GHC)

About Pivotal
Pivotal’s Cloud Native platform drives software innovation for many of the world’s most admired brands. With millions of developers in communities around the world, Pivotal technology touches billions of users every day. After shaping the software development culture of Silicon Valley's most valuable companies for over a decade, today Pivotal leads a global technology movement transforming how the world builds software.