August 2019 Coding Bootcamp News Roundup

Coding bootcamps are ramping up as we get closer to fall – in August we published our latest market growth report (23,000 grads expected in 2019), Flatiron School acquired a cybersecurity bootcamp, and companies like LinkedIn and JPMorgan Chase hired bootcamp graduates! We chat about the history of income share agreements, coding bootcamps for social good, women in tech, and companies hiring from (and vouching for) coding bootcamps. Plus, we tell you about the 9 newest tech bootcamps that opened in August!

But First, 2 Course Report Updates!

• We just published our 2019 Market Sizing Report which measures the growth of the bootcamp industry and was covered by Campus Technology, Education Dive, and Dice.
• This year’s Alumni Outcomes and Demographics Survey is now open. It’s anonymous and anyone who takes the survey by October 11th will be entered to win a $500 Amazon Giftcard! 

Acquisitions & Business News

• Flatiron School announced that they’ll acquire SecureSet cybersecurity bootcamp. That means that Flatiron now teaches Web Development, Data Science, UX Design, and Cybersecurity.
• Flatiron is also launching a 10-month online bootcamp at UC Irvine in California, according to an article in Yahoo Finance.
• As Flatiron’s parent company, WeWork, files for its initial public offering, EdSurge looked at WeWork’s IPO filing documents which show that WeWork paid $28 million for Flatiron School which included $15 million in cash and the rest in stock. The article also looks at the growth of Flatiron and its tenfold revenue increase. 
• The Chronicle of Higher Education wrote about 2U, which recently acquired Trilogy Education, and how its shares dropped from $36 to under $14, which has been loosely attributed to 2U’s spending spree on Trilogy (they spent $750MM). 
• Education Dive reports that Strategic Education which owns for-profit universities and bootcamps, like Hackbright Academy and DevMountain, reported growth in their short-term programs like coding bootcamps and software design programs.

Graduate Outcomes – Two New Approaches

• Bootcamp loan provider Climb Credit has launched a badge system to signify schools and coding bootcamps they believe will actually benefit students and help them reach their career goals. It doesn’t look like Climb will be sharing actual data about the bootcamps; bootcamp outcomes reports are currently available through the Council on Integrity in Results Reporting
• Coding bootcamp Code Fellows launched a new outcomes reporting rubric for themselves and their partner schools including DeltaV, Alchemy Code Lab, Code Partners, DevStation, Source Code Developer Academy, and Luminus Technical University College. 

Income Share Agreements: August Updates

• Gonzalo Sanchez from Sifted.eu looks at how ISAs have the potential to help fix the tech talent shortage in Europe and talks about schools like Lambda School and Microverse, which have brought ISAs to Europe.
• Market Watch reporter Jillian Berman wrote an analysis on the landscape of income share agreements, how some advocates are suggesting ISAs as a potential solution to the student debt crisis, while others worry ISAs could discriminate against women and students of color, and pander to private investors. She also looks at the details of a bipartisan bill to regulate ISAs.
• Austen Allred, the CEO of Lambda School this month, wrote an opinion piece for Wired, looking at whether ISAs could solve the student debt crisis.
• Forbes writer Gregory Ferenstein, wrote a piece about the history of ISAs in higher education, going all the way back to Socrates, and quoting a 19th century Harvard professor.

Partnering with Companies for Real-World Experience 

• Grand Circus is partnering with the city of Grand Rapids to launch a 24-week Front End After Hours Bootcamp, during which, students will develop apps to leverage open-source city data, and work with city officials. 
• According to Coin Telegraph, Lambda School is partnering with Blockstack to give students real-world work experience. Blockstack is a privacy-centric computing network and app ecosystem.
• UK coding bootcamp Northcoders is partnering with mobile tech company Apadmi so that students can work on projects designed by a real tech company. 
• Sal Rodriguez for CNBC profiles LinkedIn’s REACH initiative where they hire coding bootcamp grads and other nontraditional applicants for internships.
• The Inquirer highlights a visit that JPMorgan Chief Executive Jamie Dimon paid to Zip Code Wilmington coding bootcamp in Wilmington, Delaware, noting that JP Morgan has hired 135 Zip Code graduates, and Zip Code has also reskilled 185 incumbent JP Morgan employees with software engineering skills. 
  • Delaware Business Times announced that Zip Code Wilmington has appointed their first female board member – Teri Quinn Gray, Ph.D.
  • Technically Delaware wrote about GitCute, a podcast about breaking into tech hosted by Zip Code Wilmington graduate Jocelyn Harper.

Coding Bootcamps Filling Talent Shortages

• Executive Magazine looks at the coding bootcamp and tech landscape in Lebanon, profiling several bootcamps like SE Factory, Codi, and Torch Academy. 
• Nigerian code school F of x Academy in Lagos is partnering with BizSkills Academy, a school for digital skills, to provide students with entrepreneurial skills to help them launch new businesses.
• Near Shore Americas looks at whether coding bootcamps will solve the tech labor shortage in Latin American countries, concluding that bootcamps are few and far between in Latin America so far.
• Irish Tech News reports that Talent Garden, a tech bootcamp in Dublin, is launching a part-time Data Science Bootcamp, in anticipation of Ireland becoming the only English speaking country in the EU. 

Coding Bootcamps for Social Good

• A coding school for survivors of domestic violence and sex trafficking is opening in Oklahoma City, a partnership between Ctrl + Shift Code School and the Palomar Family Justice Center, to help victims begin new careers in tech and escape their abusers.
• Google is funding coding classes at the Iowa Correctional Institute for Women in Mitchellville, Iowa, with curriculum from coding bootcamps NewBoCo and Delta V.
• 19 students have graduated from a free coding bootcamp in Chicago – a partnership between the City of Chicago, Coding Dojo, and The Chicago Cook Workforce, which aims to provide access to technology training for those who need it most in underserved communities. 
• After 3 years of operation, Molengeek, a coding bootcamp in the impoverished Belgian neighborhood of Molenbeek, has the backing of multinational tech companies like Samsung and Google and offers coworking space, coding courses and a startup business incubator.
• The Chicago Defender looks at a report that says Chicago needs to become more inclusive to grow the tech talent economy, and looks at the effectiveness of Chicago coding bootcamps in their ability to place black students and women in tech companies.
• The News Observer looks at the representation of women in computer science in the North Carolina region, talks to women in tech, and mentions coding school Momentum, where women graduates are getting higher salary offers than men.

Advice for Careers after Bootcamp

• Vartika Manasvi of StackRaft writes an opinion article for CNBCTV18 looking at why it’s so hard to hire software engineers, and why coding bootcamp grads are a safe bet. 
• SF Gate looks at whether coding bootcamps are worth it – and gives suggestions on how to prepare to be successful at bootcamp

New Campuses + Curriculum Updates

• Technically Baltimore reports on a new online programming bootcamp which will be streamed via Twitch twice a week, available to anyone with a Twitch subscription to watch. It’s called MASTERMND Academy and launched August 12.
• August Trilogy Education launched a coding bootcamp at the University of Texas San Antonio, a data science bootcamp at Butler University, and a cybersecurity bootcamp at the University of Pennsylvania.
• BizJournals reports that Woz U is ending their coding school efforts, but not closing. Instead, they are pivoting to education services for businesses and universities
• Coding Bootcamp DigitalCrafts made Inc.com’s list of 5000 fastest-growing privately held companies in the US. DigitalCrafts, which has campuses in Atlanta, Houston, and recently announced a new campus in Tampa, was ranked 117 on the top 5000 companies, and number one in the education category of that list. 

New Schools on Course Report in August

• CEI Bootcamp, a 7-month JavaScript bootcamp with campuses in Spain and Portugal
• Wcoding, a 12-week coding bootcamp in Seoul, Korea
• Code Belgium, a 9-week coding bootcamp in Brussels, Belgium
• Adalab, a 12-week coding bootcamp for women in Madrid, Spain
• DataFlair, an online data science school with 2 and 3-month courses
• Nexul Academy, which offers full time and part-time coding bootcamps in St Louis, Missouri
• Akademy.AI, a 10-week artificial intelligence school in Barcelona, Spain
• UCI x Flatiron School, a partnership between UC Irvine and Flatiron School which offers full time and self-paced online courses.
• Pesto, a 12-week coding bootcamp in Delhi, India

Our Favorite Articles on the Blog

• We’ve been working on more Final Project spotlights recently, because seeing what a bootcamper can actually build is a great way to understand the quality of a bootcamp. Liz talked to DevMountain UX Design student Katie Stakland who created a roommate communication app called Gabble! Katie got to collaborate with iOS developers on this group project – and wrote a Medium article about it that has 15,000 reads!
• Imogen enjoyed chatting with three part-time DigitalCrafts students who all learned to code and upgraded their careers without quitting their jobs or compromising parental duties. Nick was working as an IT rep and juggling family responsibilities while at DigitalCrafts, and is now a fully-fledged software engineer. Mom to a 2-year old, Sarah, relied on support from her husband so she could learn to code in the evenings and on weekends. Lizzy’s employer paid for her to do the part-time course so she could upskill and contribute more to her team! They gave some great tips for juggling a career change while still carrying on with life!

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FURTHER LISTENING

• July 2019 Coding Bootcamp News Roundup + Podcast
• June 2019 Coding Bootcamp News Roundup + Podcast
• May 2019 Coding Bootcamp News Roundup + Podcast