In our End of Year Podcast, we're rounding up the most interesting news of 2017 and covering all the trends, thought pieces, controversies and more. Many schools are hitting their 5 year anniversaries – a reminder that although there is a lot going on in this industry, it’s still nascent and there is still room for new innovative approaches to the bootcamp model. We’ve chosen the most defining stories, and it was a very eventful year – a couple of big bootcamps closed, a ton of new bootcamps launched, some schools were acquired, and other bootcamps raised money.
Major 2017 Trends
The major trends in coding schools were: job guarantees, innovative tuition models like Income Sharing Agreements, and internal regulation around student outcomes reporting.
In 2018, we predict that federal regulation over bootcamps will be sparse, but state and internal regulation over student outcomes and tuition offers will continue to evolve; more schools will invest in corporate training; and we'll continue to see consolidation amongst bootcamps.
As we hit 5 years in the bootcamp industry, we’ve seen a bit of a shakeout, but overall, the industry continues to grow and graduates continue to report really strong outcomes.
Bootcamps remained diverse and employers started to take note. With the diversity of thought and backgrounds of students, and we continue to see more veterans retraining in tech.
We also saw several major fundraises: Trilogy Education raised $30 million, Andela raised $40 million, Galvanize raised $7 million, MissionU raised $8.5 million, Holberton School raised $2.3 million, and Kenzie Academy raised $1.6 million.
On the Course Report blog, Lauren published an Ultimate Guide to Mobile Development Bootcamps highlighting the need for professionals with mobile development expertise and which mobile development bootcamps are outfitting students with the necessary skills to succeed.
R&B artist and producer Ne-Yo has invested in Holberton School as part of Holberton's $2.3 million fundraising round (via TechCrunch). Holberton is a school in San Francisco where students learn together through building projects.
On the Course Report blog, Lauren wrote a piece about learning after bootcamp, and covered some ways that bootcamp graduates can keep learning and growing in their first jobs like going to conferences and hackathons.
Trilogy Education raised $30 million in series A funding led by Highland Capital Partners, with Rethink Education and City Light Capital. Trilogy runs 20 bootcamps in collaboration with universities such as the University of Texas and Berkeley.
On the Course Report blog, we published a Guide to Coding Bootcamps with Job Guarantees with a list of the schools that offer guarantees and several things to watch out for when you see a “job guarantee” advertised.
Two established bootcamps with campuses around the US, Dev Bootcamp and The Iron Yard, announced in July that they would both be closing in 2017.
On July 12th, Dev Bootcamp President Tarlin Ray emailed students, and alumni to say that after 5 years the bootcamp was going to cease operations in December 2017.
Since Dev Bootcamp closed, we put together a list of 14 Alternatives to Dev Bootcamp on the Course Report blog; these are schools which could provide similar or equivalent education in the locations where Dev Bootcamp operated.
Politico covered the passing by Congress of a $3 billion expansion of the GI Bill, which aims to give veterans more flexibility to get new skills later in life through higher education and nontraditional education providers like coding bootcamps.
Galvanize, a coding bootcamp with campuses in Austin, Boulder, Denver, New York, Phoenix, San Francisco, and Seattle laid off 11% of its workforce.
We noticed a trend of bootcamps offering deferred tuition and income sharing agreements (ISAs), so Imogen put together a Guide to Deferred Tuition & ISAs at Coding Bootcamp, explaining the difference between the two, and which schools offer which payment option.
The Attorney General of New York announced a $375,000 settlement with Flatiron School because they didn’t clearly and conspicuously disclose the full calculations and methodology when they promoted average salary and job placement rate. Also, Flatiron operated online without a license.
WeWork acquired Flatiron School in an acquisition widely covered by publications like CNN, TechCrunch and more, and The Next Web reporter Matthew Hughes looked at how Flatiron School can now upskill WeWork members.
Liz chatted with Flatiron’s COO for a podcast about Building Diversity in Bootcamps and how Flatiron can continue to increase diversity and access to coding education, especially now since they’ve been acquired by WeWork and can tap into a whole new pool of potential students.
According to Forbes reporter Lauren Gensler, Strayer Education and Capella Education merged in a $1.9 billion deal, to create one of the country’s largest for-profit education companies: Strategic Education Inc. In 2016 Strayer acquired New York Code and Design Academy, and Capella acquired Hackbright Academy and DevMountain coding bootcamps. This company now owns bootcamps in New York, San Francisco, DC, Philadelphia, Salt Lake City, Phoenix, and Dallas.
Course Report published our Top 49 Coding Bootcamps for 2017 including full-time, immersive, in-person web and mobile development bootcamps with transparent student outcomes, multiple campuses, reputable instructors, a commitment to diversity, scholarships or innovative payment plans, and an intentional application process.
On the Course Report blog, Jeff Casimir from Turing School walked Liz through how an application gets developed; from business requirements, to front end to back end, to data and ops.
Coding bootcampers report a $23,724 average salary increase in their first job after graduating. The average post-bootcamp starting salary is $70,698, which is a 51% salary lift.
The typical attendee is 30 years old, has 6 years of work experience, has at least a Bachelor's degree, and has never worked as a programmer.
20% of 2017 alumni report using an external lending partner (compared to just 9% before 2015). The most popular lending partners are Climb Credit and Skills Fund.
Imogen is a writer and content producer who loves writing about technology and education. Her background is in journalism, writing for newspapers and news websites. She grew up in England, Dubai and New Zealand, and now lives in Brooklyn, NY.
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