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.
And on Course Report...
- 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.
- 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.
- We published the annual 2017 Course Report Market Growth Report. Highlights include:
- The coding bootcamp market has grown 10.5x since 2012 when the first bootcamps launched.
- There will be an estimated 22,949 bootcamp grads in 2017 compared with 15,077 in 2016.
- In 2017 there are 95 full-time schools compared with 91 in 2016.
- Full Stack JavaScript is the most common teaching language.
- 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.
- On the Course Report blog, we learned how to kick imposter syndrome with The Grace Hopper Program Dean of Students, Meg Kelly.
- Tech Republic looked at a report showing 80% of US tech hiring managers and recruiters have hired a coding bootcamp graduate, and Forbes talked to a number of employers about why they like to hire from 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.
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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.
December
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Thinkful acquired Viking Code School and the Odin Project.
- Former staff from The Iron Yard have now announced that they’re launching two new bootcamps: Carolina Code School and Momentum.
- CBS looks at why government-funded bootcamp Mined Mines is being sued via a class action lawsuit after students did not get the jobs they were promised.
- On Course Report, we published our 2017 Outcomes and Demographics Report. Highlights include:
- 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.
FURTHER READING
About The Author
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.
