Turn on virtually any home design show, and one is likely hear someone talk about the kitchen as the heart of the house.

In 2012, Cook Systems founder Wayne Cook conceived the idea to create a program to offer software development training — at no cost to the student — in the Memphis area.

A Memphis tech company is training new developers to fill information technology jobs in Williamson County’s tight labor market.

Attracted by the city’s need for tech workers, a Memphis-based company has launched an IT training program in Nashville — and it could eventually move its headquarters here.

Franklin software development firm Pilgrim Consulting is looking to to do its part to fill the local IT talent shortage by teaming up with a Memphis company on a nine-week training class.

Anyone in the technology sector knows there is a national shortage for qualified enterprise-level developers.

According to research earlier this year from The App Association, there are 223,000 job openings for software developers in the U.S. alone. The same report detailed the key factors that hiring managers cite in their inability to hire qualified developers – lack of experience, lack of both hard/technical skills and soft skills/workplace competencies, lack of formal engineering education, and salary expectations.