About us

What if you didn’t have to learn everything the hard way to land a high-paying job, feel good about your work, and know that you’re making a positive impact?

We help people become leading web developers without the jargon, isolation, or burnout.

You’re done settling for “good enough” or an “ok career.” You want to create something worthwhile, exciting, and meaningful, but not at the cost of your stability, work/life balance, or current job. 

It’s tough to dive into a new career or pay for a certification when you don’t know the outcome and have other commitments. The competition, technical jargon, and cost associated with becoming a web developer are intimidating. But we know ways around them.

At Debug Academy, you can learn web development whether you’re an experienced developer wanting to level up or a complete beginner making the brave decision to change careers. Drupal developers are in high demand, and if you put in the work, you can make it happen. 

[Image suggestion: Students and Ashraf collaborate on a project, smiling.]

You belong here

It’s daunting to enter an industry where the majority of the people don’t look like you. We know how that feels. We’ve built a community where everyone is already welcome. You can become an outstanding Drupal developer as any gender, any race, or at any age. 

And you don’t have to have a tech background either — successful students have come from careers in environmental science, academia, private investigation and more. 

Here’s what’s most important to us at Debug Academy: 

We build community 

Learning new concepts on your own is hard. Even after you’ve landed your dream job, challenges come up. Being able to collaborate with teammates is invaluable.

We know you have other things on your plate

We know you have other commitments — our courses are designed so you can learn and keep your full-time job at the same time.

We help students get hired

Students who changed careers after taking this course increased their salary by an average of 40%. Unlike most other academies, we are not okay with taking your money at a loss to you. We want you to reach your career goals and see a return on your investment within a year of graduating, so we help you get hired. 

We meet you where you’re at

No one is born a developer. It takes practice and good teachers. That’s why we make sure you apply skills as you learn. We’re experienced developers who save you time learning best practices. 

[IMAGE SUGGESTION: Ashraf collaborating with someone on a project with caption: Ashraf Abed (pronounced ush-rough) - Drupal master and your instructor at Debug Academy] 

I wasn’t born with coding skills either.

I’m Ashraf Abed, Certified Drupal 7 Grand Master, Drupal 8 Grand Master, and a trainer for Drupal and ReactJS. I’m also a former technical architect at Acquia, the company that founded Drupal. 

I became the lead developer for the Obama administration’s White House Petitions site, but I needed support and guidance to get to where I am. 

I taught myself Drupal and worked as a web developer for over 15 years. But once I joined the Acquia Drupal development team, I realized that I hadn’t been using best practices. I was a good developer, but until I joined Acquia (and learned Drupal best practices) I wasn’t doing things the right way: 

I became an instructor because I wanted to help new developers avoid the painful mistakes I made when I was starting out.

I designed the web development courses I wish I could have taken

When creating the courses for Debug Academy, I left out the jargon and brought in collaboration to teach web development in a logical order, with straightforward language.

Our courses teach you what you need to be able to land high-paying development jobs at big companies — and enjoy your work. 

We’ve seen Drupal transform students’ lives, help them get their dream careers — even save up enough to buy a house in just a few years after the course. 

This is why we show up to work every day.