kood/Empower bootcamp is under way in Jõhvi – next stop: the Garage48 hackathon

This week the third floor of kood/Jõhvi is full of women writing their first lines of code. From 6 to 9 October, the kood/Empower coding bootcamp is under way – the opening stage of the autumn season of the kood/Garage48 Empowering Women programme. It is free for women from Ida-Virumaa, and no prior IT or business experience is needed.

From a first line of code to an idea of your own

The four days are designed to give participants a real feel for a developer’s working day. Bootcampers learn the basics of programming, explore the different roles in tech and try building simple digital solutions. As always at //kood, there is no teacher at the front of the room – people learn by doing and from each other. By Friday, 25 women from Ida-Virumaa will have completed the kood/Garage48 Empower bootcamp.

Why does this matter in Ida-Virumaa?

Ida-Virumaa’s economy is going through a major transition, and new high-value jobs call for new skills. Those jobs are already arriving: in September 2025, Neo Performance Materials opened its permanent magnet factory in Narva – Europe’s first mass-production plant for rare earth magnets, which go into electric vehicles and wind turbines. The same Narva industrial park is also home to companies such as Hanza and Aquaphor, and in 2026 an industrial incubator for new businesses opened there. Tech offers flexible, well-paid work, yet women are still underrepresented in it. The programme’s first cohort ran from February to May this year and showed strong demand – especially for AI tools and product development, which let participants without a technical background build first working versions of their ideas.

On Wednesday 7 October, Kätlin Merisalu, head of //kood learning centres, hosts a fireside chat with women working in tech: how they found their way into the field, and what they wish someone had told them at the start.

“Overcoming your fears matters even more than building technical skills. During the bootcamp, the women work through their expectations, fears and goals – so the programme builds both tech skills and self-knowledge,” says Kätlin Merisalu.

  • Kätlin Merisalu sitting while looking at presentations in sunshine kood Empower Garage48

Next up: the hackathon, 16–18 October

The bootcamp is followed by the Garage48 Empowering Women hackathon at kood/Jõhvi on 16–18 October. In 48 hours, teams turn a business idea into a first prototype with the help of mentors. It is open both to women who already have an idea and to those still looking for one or wanting to join a team. The top teams continue in an accelerator running from October to December, which ends with a demo day.

  • Participation is free, and accommodation is included.
  • No prior IT or business experience is required.
  • The working language is English, with mentors also supporting participants in Estonian and Russian when needed.

Join the hackathon! More information and registration: garage48.org/events/empoweringwomen. Read more about the kood/Empower programme here.

The project is co-funded by the European Union through the Just Transition Fund, and kood/Empower is additionally supported by Swedbank, the main sponsor of kood/Women.