Australian online graphic design and digital assets marketplace Envato is trying to beat the tech skills shortage and increase the diversity of backgrounds of people in technical roles with a new apprenticeship program for would-be developers.
The 12-year old company has become one of the country's most successful tech players and now employs more than 400 people.
However it expects to add another 100 staff this year, and will use its fledgling apprenticeship program to give people a start in the tech industry, without them needing a computer science degree or technical background.
Envato co-founder Collis Ta'eed (left) with head of people and culture Michelle Ridsdale, former apprentice and now junior developer Jaime Gunther, apprentice trainer Mario Visic and junior developer Sharon Vaughan. 
Envato chief executive Collis Ta'eed said an initial trial of the developer apprenticeship program had just produced its first two graduates, who had accepted roles as junior developers at Envato.
"Diversity and inclusion has been a big thing at Envato for some years. It was a ground-up initiative because our team put it on the map and formed a sub group that advocated that it should be one of our values," he said.
"The apprenticeship program was something the engineering team said could help people who wouldn't have had enough experience to be a junior developer, but showed promise."
Its program was developed by Mario Visic, one of its developers, who has teaching experience.
Mr Visic worked with the two apprentices intensively throughout the past year, while also giving them exposure to Envato's various teams.
Former projectionist Sharon Vaughan was one of the initial two Envato apprentices. She had been attempting to teach herself how to code and saw the apprenticeship as a way to pursue a second career.
Ta'eed says the apprenticeship program was created by Envato's engineers. Pat Scala
"I actually did a degree in the '80s in computer science because my mum said the future was computers, but then I went into the art world and became a projectionist," she said.
"People were replaced with machines and I took irony in hand and said I was going to run these computers. [Coding] was fun, creative and challenging and I am a lifelong learner, so it tapped into that."
Envato, which generated $US82.3 million in revenue in the 2017 financial year, has been voted as one of the best employers in the country for three years in a row in an annual Great Places to Work List.
This is down to its flexible working conditions (its employees can work overseas for a few months of the year or from home when they choose) and last year it took the unusual step of giving $1.2 million to its staff in company shares.
Despite this, Mr Ta'eed said not being able to hire enough staff was his biggest concern in terms of executing his vision for Envato.
"We're aiming to grow our staff by about 20 per cent this year and my main worry isn't if our business plan will work, but whether or not we'll have enough people on the ground to execute it," he said.
"The tech world is so full of opportunities and there are more and more companies pushing into this space."
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