On this episode of the Bourbon Friday Show, we had the opportunity to talk with Jazmin Olivares, Communications and Community Manager for QDivision.
QDivision—Closing the Agile Skills Gap
While internships and externships are popular ways to learn outside classroom settings, another opportunity seems to be making a comeback.
Apprenticeships, though seemingly old-fashioned, are gaining headway in a society that is slowly becoming disenchanted with rising costs and debt-saddling of post-secondary education.
QDivision, the IT department for moving and logistics industry leader, UniGroup, created an apprenticeship program a little over a year ago to train people in the area of Agile software development—a program developed after facing their own difficulties in creating an Agile team.
“The QTraining Program has been a huge success because it gives us an opportunity to take their skill set to the next level and introduce them into really what it means to be part of an Agile team,” says Olivares.
There are two sections in this apprenticeship program.
The first focuses on enhancing the participant’s Agile skillset and honing the particular skills needed for St. Louis industry and for needs at QDivision. The second part of the apprenticeship gives the participants a real world problem to solve based upon their newfound skills.
What’s unique about this program is that there isn’t any extensive technology or coding requirements to start, notes Olivares.
“You just need to be passionate about technology—you need to be a tinkerer at heart, have that curious mindset, and want to be in a team setting.”
If you want to learn more about the QDivision apprenticeship program, you can go to https://qdivision.io/#QTraining.
Bourbon Innovation
As always, the Bourbon Friday team does their best to choose a fitting drink for the occasion.
This week the drink of choice is Angel’s Envy. This bourbon is produced in Louisville, KY, and what makes this bottle interesting is in fact the barrels that it’s aged in. During the 60’s, a man named Ed McLaughlin completed an apprenticeship in the craft of coopering, or barrel-making. After starting and operating the Kelvin Cooperage in Glasgow for a number of years, he moved his business to Louisville, KY to be closer to the supply of used barrels for Scotch. Due to this they were able to take advantage of the “Bourbon Boom” to become one of the premier cooperages for craft distilleries, including Angel’s Envy.
