Students looking for an opportunity to contribute to open source development and work with the best on a great content management system: this article’s for you. People who know their way around Joomla’s code and want to share their knowledge and help shape Joomla’s future: this article is for you. Read all about the Joomla Academy coming to life!

Last October, we introduced the Joomla Academy, a unique opportunity for students to contribute to open source and help shape the future of Joomla. And now, February 2025, the Academy is ready for take off! JCM had a chat with Philip Walton, SD Williams and Gary Barclay.

The Academy starts with two innovative projects. One of them is Enhanced SEO Integration. Could you tell me a little bit about that?

Philip: During Google Summer of Code, Alisha Kamat worked on a SEO project (https://community.joomla.org/gsoc-2022/gsoc-project-alisha-kamat-seo.html). It made a lot of progress, but it still needed to be finished. It was mostly there, and we demonstrated it several times at Joomla London, but it has to be turned into plugins that can be switched on or off depending on what aspects of the SEO project you want.

Some of the project was attempting to bring into core some tools which I think are really missing; the Open Graph aspect was well thought through and worked nicely as well as the SEO reminders.
I was a mentor for Alisha so it will be great to see this project to a conclusion.

The second Academy project are Advanced Migration Tools. What does that entail?

Philip: I have not been involved with this tool much but it is an exciting project. It's a tool to allow you to bring a site that is written into another CMS into Joomla.
The first example is Wordpress. I could have done with such a tool when years ago I had to move several hundreds of Wordpress sites into one Joomla site!

That site is still going. But a systematic way to convert sites would allow me to take on failing projects built in Wordpress and bring them up to date in a modern and fast CMS.

What do these two projects mean for Joomla?

Philip: The SEO is definitely a missing core feature. What site doesn't have a blog or news page that could do with Open Graph or clear and helpful SEO data? So this should be in core.

The migration tool is definitely a tool that will not be in core as it's only needed in some cases, but it could be such an asset for web agencies and other website builders who are worried about the ongoing issues with Wordpress and want to avoid a CMS that looks to be about to fork.

And for the students working on them?

Philip: I hope they will gain a good grounding in web development and character-shaping tuition from the mentors that could make a big difference to their working lives.
With the GSoC program, many have gone on to do great things and likewise with the Academy it could be a real boost to the career prospects of any student.

What do we need for this to happen? What is already there?

Philip: Well at DACH in October (that’s JoomlaDay in the German speaking community), I asked for pledges of $12k and came away with actual money that totalled over $16k
So money is there and promised.
We have had a struggle getting people to come forward as mentors, especially coding mentors, but that seems to be changing, although more is better.

So anyone with PHP or Javascript experience willing to share their knowledge: please do get in touch with me on Mattermost.

In general, how does the Joomla Academy work?

Philip: We are just finalising mentors and starting to ask students to come forward.
We will then see how many we get and then do a series of activities to help highlight their skills and demonstrate each student's commitment and dedication.

Usually, you have to pay for education, but here, there will be mentors, and if selected and put in the time and effort, the student can earn up to $3000, so it's a really valuable experience.

Nice. As a student, how can I apply for the Joomla Academy? And what would you expect from me?

Philip: You can apply by joining Mattermost and putting your name in the Joomla Academy  Students channel.

https://joomlacommunity.cloud.mattermost.com/main/channels/ja-students 

I would expect honesty. In the past, we have had to fail students who were not realistic or not entirely truthful about their time commitments and tried to do too many things, which resulted in poor attendance and a lack of commitment.
We are looking for students who will put in the hours, message in their channel daily, and ask questions when needed.
We would ask you to commit your code regularly so the mentors can monitor your progress and ensure you are on the right track.

If I missed the deadline for the application period, what should I do?

Philip: We will be looking to do a new stream of students every 6 months, so if you cannot make it for this intake, there is another in 6 months' time. That gives you ample time to test some pull requests (PRs), read documentation, and get used to Joomla and how it works.

This will all help you when the time comes, and you are up against others vying for a place.

And if I want to be a mentor, what should I bring, and what will I do?

Philip: Mentors are like gold dust at the moment. We need people who are comfortable with coding and also people who can think through a problem. Ideally, people who have perhaps written extensions before and have a good understanding of Joomla 5
You will be imparting your knowledge to students, so it would be helpful if you could show patience, understanding, guidance, and pleasure in nurturing new talent.

You will need to check in regularly to get to know the students. We have welfare mentors who will help keep us all in check but a few hours a week every week would really help to make a difference.

This is the next generation of Joomla developers and maintainers that are being produced so it is a worthwhile way to spend your time.

Gary Barclay and SD Williams, you’re both brand new mentors for the Academy, what are you looking forward to?

Gary: I’m looking forward to providing guidance around task management, communications, fulfilling expectations but I won’t know what’s needed until the projects get started.

SD: I’m looking forward to aiding the other mentors in the care and wellbeing of the students. This is something new for me, to be a part of a team that recognizes the need to support the whole student, not just their coding.  

How to get in touch

For students and potential mentors, joining Mattermost is the first step. You need to have an account at Joomla's Identity Portal for this. This helpful article shows you how to setup your account and join us: https://magazine.joomla.org/all-issues/november-2022/getting-the-most-out-of-mattermost 

Once you're on Mattermost, find the right channel. The student channel is called ~ja-students, the mentor channel is called ~ja-mentors.

Get in touch and before you know it, you'll be one of those people who shape Joomla's future!