[vorg]

> Despite hours of studying and tutoring, most of these underperforming students struggle with, and many ultimately give up on, programming as a career

They should follow the lead of those who figure out earlier they're not cut out for programming: embellish the CV with fake study, and go straight into the workforce as a programmer. Or they could get transferred into programming from some user department pitching to bring a "valuable user perspective" to IT. Or grease up some IT manager after-hours who'll bring them in as contractor with "special skills not readily available in the labor market" to bypass the usual HR checks and aptitude filters. Or if they're not of the same ethnicity as the HR personnel, send in a double to sit the aptitude test for them, knowing HR staff don't check applicant ID's too closely because they know no-one's going to make it through to an IT interview if they do. Most HR staff and IT managers just want the staff count up, they don't care whether they're productive or detrimental to the projects. If they have staff they have people to blame.