Ask HN: How to help my friend land a developer job?

Hey folks, I'm a software developer in Canada and have been full time for roughly 3 years. I have a friend who's been trying to become a developer for about 1.5 years after graduating from a college with programming diploma (it's a 2 year long program and not a computer science or university level engineering degree). He's 35 years old, done 2 not-too-impressive co-op terms, and now working part-time (about 15-25 hours per week) at a restaurant. He's quite desperate now, as he interviewed at a number of places but didn't an offer from any of them, but thinks he's too late to search other career paths (I know, it's never too late to start anything, but I can understand him when I think about all those years on college and studies, besides I can't think of anything else in particular he excels at or enjoys). And to be honest, I don't think he has enough technical or problem solving skills to qualify for a full time developer position. That's why I haven't referred him to my employer yet. So I'd really love to help him get those skills needed to land on a developer position. I'm hesitant to tell him to just work hard, because he needs a good direction he can commit to. Should I tell him to complete a not-so-trivial application development project? Or should I tell him to work on theories (data structures, algorithms, OOP, design patterns)? He's been learning React and done a few tiny projects in it. He lacks practical skills in general, but lacks theoretical knowledge even more.

I'm really hoping he will make his way. These days I'm starting to even worry about his mental health. Any advice will be a huge help!!