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In need of Alexa skills developers, Amazon teams up with Coding Dojo

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Want to work building Alexa skills but don’t know how? Amazon’s Alexa team is collaborating with Coding Dojo to create an in-person class, a video series, and a one-day hackathon, all aimed at training developers to create Alexa “skills.” Skills are code sets that use voice commands to ask Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant to set timers, select and play music, answer questions, and control a growing array of smart home devices, appliances, and systems.

“Alexa gets smarter every day through the skills built by talented developers like the ones trained by Coding Dojo,” said Amazon Alexa director Rob Pulciani. “We are pleased to work with Coding Dojo to train the developer community to create high-quality, creative and unique skills for Alexa.”

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Based on Coding Dojo’s success hosting Alexa workshops in San Jose, California, in August and Belluvue, Washington, in September, the Alexa team decided to collaborate with Coding Dojo for the new trainings. Coding Dojo runs bootcamps based on selections of languages used in major tech companies. An Alexa skill building module will be included in the company’s Python stack, one of three stacks in a 14-week on-site coding bootcamp.

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There will also be a series of Coding Dojo YouTube videos focused on Alexa skill-building. The first in the video series (available by the end of 2016), “How to Build Your First Alexa Skill with Python,” will be free and suitable for both beginners and experienced developers, according to the company. An Alexa skills public hackathon hosted by Coding Dojo and led by Amazon Alexa team members will be held February 20, 2017, in San Jose, California. For information on the hackathon, contact Coding Dojo here.

“At Coding Dojo we want to give people hands-on experience building apps and programs for popular technologies in order to help them further their careers,” said Richard Wang, CEO at Coding Dojo. “The new class, videos and hackathons will give both novice and existing developers invaluable project experience for their resumes and portfolios. With a number of our graduates already working at Amazon, we’re hopeful that these types of real world projects will help more of our students get the opportunity to work on exciting new technology like Alexa.”

To apply for Coding Dojo’s Alexa bootcamp, go here.

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Bruce Brown
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