Indigitek aims to boost the number of Indigenous people entering the tech industry, simultaneously improving diversity and alleviating talent shortages in the sector.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people make up close to zero per cent of the tech industry, whose importance as an employer is set to surge in coming years.

Indigitek, a not-for-profit organisation, has joined forces with course provider General Assembly, which specialises in cultivating diverse tech talent, and built a scholarship program specifically designed to train Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander candidates for tech startup Cash App.

The money transfer application was launched by American businessman and software engineer Bob Lee. The talented and respected tech founder, who was 43 at the time of his death in April, was previously the technology officer at digital payments company Square.

The scholarship program has been designed to create a chance for interested candidates to supercharge their careers in engineering. It's made up of a three-month software engineering immersive course, followed by a six-month internship.

The first successful candidate of the initiative to land full-time work with Cash App is Joshua Towney, who started the journey 18 months ago, and admits he sometimes has to pinch himself to make sure he's not dreaming.

His wife had been encouraging him to look into coding for a decade because he'd always been interested in video games, but he was reluctant to dedicate years to being a struggling student.

"The silver bullet of it only being a short course won me over in the end," he said.

The initiative involved an intensive three-month boot camp followed by a six-month internship at Cash App. He was one of about 15 students in the course. Born and raised in Dubbo, he's part of the Wiradjuri Country.

"The initiative was subsidised by the Indigitek and Cash App partnership, so all costs for the course were covered and was able to take that crucial first step into coding and my first tech job straight out of school," Mr Towney said.

Learning that there are only around 200 Indigenous developers Australia-wide drove home the challenge that exists of getting more Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders into the industry, he added.

"You're required to do around 20 hours of pre-work to self-teach some of the fundamentals to hit the ground running once the course begins. I knew halfway through the pre-work that I was going to love developing.

Each day started with a coding warm-up followed by lessons, and homework most nights. At the end of the course, he started the six-month internship with Cash App where he was immersed in the team and he learned on the job.

"I must have done something right in that period as I was offered full-time employment at the end of it."

Mr Towney said taking the plunge into this career has been his toughest endeavour to date, but he wouldn't trade the experience for anything.

He works on developing the support side of the business which covers areas such as help articles, chat, and phone. Coming from a 20-year retail and call centre career, he's been able to provide valuable insight into the behaviours and idiosyncrasies of the everyday customer.

"The majority of the role is problem-solving, which makes no two work days ever feel the same. Everyone here has been through the struggle of being a fledgling developer, so managers and colleagues alike are all more than happy to pass on their knowledge to help you succeed."