Episode 12: March 2017 Bootcamp News

Haven’t had time to keep up with all the coding bootcamp news this March? Not to worry– we’ve compiled it for you in a handy blog post and podcast. This month, we read a lot about CIRR and student outcomes reporting, we heard from reporters and coding bootcamp students about getting hired after coding bootcamp, a number of schools announced exciting diversity initiatives, and we added a handful of new schools to the Course Report school directory! Read below or listen to our latest Coding Bootcamp News Roundup Podcast.

CIRR + Student Outcomes

Listen: 01:46

• CIRR (Council on Integrity in Results Reporting) has officially launched and there has a been a lot of press about it from Tech Crunch, Wall St Journal, Chicago Tribune and more.
• It’s a coalition of schools that have announced their commitment to publish student graduation and job placement data in a single, standardized framework.

Related: CIRR: Job Placement Data for Bootcamps

 

Getting Hired in a Changing Workforce

Listen: 04:33

• CIO Dive writes about the changing tech workforce, the need for coders outside of tech hubs, and how, thanks to coding bootcamps, technology worker stereotypes may soon become less accurate.
• A USA Today article digs into the fact that Trump is focusing on creating new jobs, by bringing back coal etc, despite the thousands of unfilled jobs in the tech sector. The article says there are 500,000 open computing jobs nationwide, with only 43,000 CS majors graduating per year.
• In February we talked about this Wired article about coding being the new “blue collar” job and how folks in towns hit by deindustrialization can potentially be retrained. In March the Sydney Morning Herald did a follow up saying that the same principle applies in Australia - loss of manufacturing/mining jobs means people out of work could be trained to be coders.
• HackerRank found that alternatives to 4-year computer science degrees like bootcamps are starting to be seen as viable sources of talent by employers.
• A Tech Republic reporter claims that there is only shaky evidence that MOOCs (massive open online courses) and coding bootcamps help graduates into a programming career.
• Doug Belkin of the Wall Street Journal covered a handful of bootcamps that are building tuition back guarantees into their business models, mainly mentioning online bootcamps.
• A General Assembly grad outlines six ways make sure you are successful after bootcamp including planning, practice, self-confidence, and networking. (via dev.to)

 

Student + Alumni Experiences

Listen: 15:33

• A Galvanize San Francisco graduate wrote a guest post for Tech.co about her background in biology research, the intensity of the bootcamp, and her job search. She now she works at Redfin.
• DC Inno talked to six coding bootcamp grads in the Washington DC area to hear about their experiences and outcomes, including five General Assembly grads, and a graduate of The Iron Yard, who had jobs at the Department of Commerce, The Washington Post, IT Concepts, Calibre Systems, and Skyline Technology Systems.
• Inc Magazine highlighted co-founder and CTO of Baron Fig, Adam Kornfield about how he learned to code at TurnToTech so he could talk the talk with his engineers.
• KQED News profiled a student at relatively new coding school Learners Guild in Oakland, CA. Vashti talks about how the payment plan and stipend at Learner’s Guild meant she could actually afford to learn to code.

Related: Alumni Spotlight: Laurel of Hackbright Academy

Related: Alumni Spotlight: Adam Kornfield of TurnToTech

 

Bootcamp Staff/Founder Profiles

Listen: 20:16

• The Breaking into Startups podcast interviewed Michael Jay Walker, who is the chief academic officer and campus director of Dev Bootcamp. He talks about how he quit his as a CMO at age 50 to learn to code. Tech Crunch also covered this.
• Confluence Cast podcast interviewed Tech Elevator CEO Anthony Hughes about the program, how employers see Tech Elevator grads as equivalent to CS grads, and why Columbus is a good market for them.

 

How Bootcamps Impact Diversity in Tech

Listen: 22:40

• A new Howard University campus is opening at Google’s Mountain View headquarters as part of an initiative to encourage black and Latinx students to consider coding as a career. The campus will offer a 12-week program to Howard juniors and seniors who are majoring in CS. The program will be taught by Google engineers and Howard faculty staff and cover the latest advancements in technology
• A Guardian reporter explores the theory that by occupying certain tech roles, women are devaluing them. Miriam Posner talks about the hierarchy between front-end and back-end roles and how women are typecast as front end developers.
• The Last Mile, a coding bootcamp inside San Quentin Prison in San Francisco, graduated its third cohort in March. 18 prisoners graduated from the three tracks the program offers, including Thomas Winfrey who studied two tracks simultaneously. (via Tech Crunch)
• An article looked at veterans getting into tech through coding bootcamps, with a focus on Code Platoon which teaches veterans how to code at a discounted rate of $2500 (compared with an average tuition on our report of $11,450)

 

Bootcamps in their Communities

Listen: 31:50

• Business Insider covered Swedish startup Tjejer Kodar which offers week-long coding trips abroad for women. Founded by Hanna Petterson in 2015, ladies go to places like Barcelona and Berlin to learn how to code and visit local tech companies.
• The Street looks at how bootcamps teach more than coding now, including data science and cyber security. Their main source of data is Course Report’s Rise of the Bootcamp Model study.
• Lighthouse Labs held it’s annual HTML500 event on March 11 in Vancouver. 500 people learned how to build a personal website using HTML and CSS, and about rubber duck debugging.
• The #yeswecode fund was announced at SXSW this month! This $100 million fund will give coding bootcamp scholarships to women and minorities with financial needs.

Related: Scholarships We Love: #Yeswecode Fund

 

Universities & Bootcamp Partnerships

Listen: 36:11

• DevPoint Labs has partnered with the University of Utah to offer their full-time 11-week bootcamp for college students and grads on campus. (via Silicon Slopes)
• The University of Kansas in Overland Park is launching bootcamp in partnership with Trilogy Education.
• Software Guild has announced its partnership with Kent State University, Oregon State University and the University of Georgia, to offer a 10-14 month online program taught by Software Guild instructors.

Related: Alumni Spotlight: Sarah Abbett of Software Guild

 

Bootcamp Growth + Downsizing

Listen: 39:12

• A new tech training center has opened in Milwaukee, Wisconsin to offer intensive 10-week coding courses through Employ Milwaukee's new TechHire IT training program.
• Coding Dojo has cut 10 jobs in line with their goal to shift to “a leaner organizational structure”, despite claiming to have experienced “significant growth” and plans to expand to more cities. According to SocalTech, Coding Dojo has also delayed the opening of a new campus in Orange County.
• The Iron Yard is closing its San Antonio Location. The last cohort graduated on Feb 24. The school recently announced it has reduced the number of campuses from 20 to 15, including Minneapolis-St Paul, Minnesota; Columbia, South Carolina, and Cincinnati, Ohio. (via TPR)

 

New Bootcamps in March:

Listen: 41:36

• Accelerate, Hong Kong
• Lambda School, online
• Mindteck Academy, online
• Coding School at ThoughtSTEM, San Diego
• University of Kansas Coding Bootcamp, Overland Park
• University of Utah Professional Education Coding Boot Camp, Sandy
• Hunter Business School, Long Island
• Q College, Victoria, BC
• GTT Academy, various cities across the U.S., Canada, Europe, South Africa, and India

 

Our Favorite Articles on The Course Report Blog

Listen: 42:19

Lauren Stewart

• Startup Institute graduate Susan Gleason had a computer science degree and 15 years of industry experience but she left the workforce to care for her family. She talks about the challenges of re-entering the workforce, and the need to upskill.

Liz Eggleston

• I got to talk with a little panel about the Metis application process. If you’ve ever had questions about how to apply to the data science bootcamp or what it takes to get accepted, check out the video.

Imogen Crispe

• I interviewed Syrian refugee Sendus, who is at a coding bootcamp in Beirut, Lebanon. She escaped from Syria aged 14, and now at 18 she is studying physics at college, and learning to code part time at V School.

 

FURTHER READING

• February 2017 Coding Bootcamp News Roundup + Podcast
• January 2017 Coding Bootcamp News Roundup + Podcast
• November 2016 Coding Bootcamp News Roundup + Podcast