The purpose of this project is to support the founding of the Koodi / Sisu coding school in North Savo. The concept for this new school is based on a goal of benefiting our society and the development of the North Savo region by training new talent in the software development sector. This will facilitate business growth in the area, provide solutions to a talent shortage, and bolster the local system of education. The project is also guided in the background by a goal of building a Finnish IT ecosystem with international appeal. This offers a way to meet the demands of service and product digitalization, increasing international competition in attracting IT talent, paradigm shifts in working and learning, responsible operating practices, and ecosystem thinking. A strengthened ecosystem will enable companies, educational institutions, and talent to move, cooperate, and do business as part of a network. The coding school’s operations are built around a curriculum for software development, including student recruitment, enrollment, curriculum implementation, and students graduating. The school provides a new path to continous learning and increases students’ employment opportunities. Its main target group consists of the youth and young adults as well as workers seeking further education and training. Schooling will be tuition-free. The school’s teaching model will be based, for example, on the 01 Edu System license. The training will utilize a novel, working-life-centered model of peer learning, “practical coding in practice,” in which students learn from each other without teacher-led instruction. The school facilitates a flexible and practical way to learn coding skills, and this will serve, among others, students who have been excluded from the system of higher education. The business-based model will also facilitate specialized training for real-world needs. Each student will complete their studies at the coding school, on average, in two years. Students will get accepted into the program through a selection bootcamp, and they will specialize in a particular area of coding near the end of their studies. The learning is based on solving real business cases with partner companies, and the program also allows students to participate in internships. Furthermore, the school’s core operations entail partner and ecosystem collaborations, which include sales, marketing, communications, and event organization. The coding school provides excellent support for the goals of the business clusters in Kuopio’s Savilahti area and the Upper Savonia region. Additionally, the school will promote business growth on a larger scale, far beyond these two areas. A coding school can bring vitality to the entire region of Eastern Finland. To operate the coding school, a new Koodi / Sisu ry association was established in December 2022. The association’s mission is to found the school and manage its operations. Founding members include the following organizations: KPY Novapolis Oy, Ponsse Oyj, Normet Oy, Istekki Oy, Osuma Henkilöstöpalvelut Oy, the Kuopio Region Chamber of Commerce, and the Ylä-Savo Municipal Federation of Education. Operations will be governed by a board of founding members, with Anssi Lehikoinen of KPY Novapolis as the chair and Miika Soininen of Ponsse as the vice-chair. This project will launch the coding school’s operations in stages. It will build a base for the management of operations, recruitment of coding school staff, student search and enrollment, teaching, engagement of partners and stakeholders, efforts in marketing, events, and communications, as well as pilot tests for company-specific teaching modules and the school’s recruitment environment.