Episode 25: February 2018 Bootcamp News

A lot happened in the world of technology education in February 2018! In case you missed it, we put together a roundup of all the coding bootcamp news we found interesting at Course Report. We read about government support for bootcamps and vocational education, we heard about companies training their employees at bootcamps, we saw coverage on the debate between colleges and bootcamps, and there was an in-depth article about the pros and cons of income sharing agreements. We also enjoyed hearing about the achievement of bootcamp grads, and what sort of initiatives are helping underrepresented groups get into tech! Plus, check out our updates about new bootcamps and campuses.
 

Government Support for Bootcamps

• Education Dive noted that President Trump mentioned vocational education in his state of the union address, and posited that this reference included coding bootcamps.
• According to Credible, the PROSPER Act, which would permit noninstitutional education providers like bootcamps to execute and teach 100 percent of a college’s program, has been approved by the House Education Committee and is on track for a vote in the House of Representatives.
• The New Hampshire Business Review reports that U.S. Representative Annie Kuster has re-introduced The Coding Technology Improvement Act, legislation which would allow coding technology programs to receive funding through the department of education and apply for federal education grants.

Companies Using Bootcamps to Upskill the Workforce

• An article in Harvard Business Review looks at how the demand for coding skills is outstripping supply, how tech companies themselves can help upskill the US workforce, and why they should broaden their screening criteria to accept applicants who have taken coding bootcamps, rather than just 4-year-degree grads.
• According to Deadline Detroit, health insurance company Meridian, in Detroit, sponsors a free bootcamp each year taught by Grand Circus, and then hires at least five graduates who pass screening interviews. Apply by Monday, March 12.
• Business Insider profiled a robot pizza-delivery company based in Silicon Valley, Zume Pizza, which pays for their employees to go to coding bootcamp and other training courses.

Demand for Developers

• The Software Development Times covered HackerRank’s Developer Skills Report which found 81 percent of recruiters primarily use resumes to assess developers, but predicts that will start to change in 2018, and that developers are turning to coding boot camps to extend their skill sets.
• Time Magazine’s Money section looks at why software developers got “best job of 2018” in recent lists, and mentions that the mere existence of coding bootcamps is a testament to the demand for software developers.
• A former Google employee and software developer told The Next Web that although bootcamps provide an adequate amount of education for someone to become a junior developer, students don’t learn enough about analyzing algorithms, so they should continue their education and learn more about data structures, algorithms, probability, and statistics.
• In an Information Week podcast episode, executive recruiter, Linda Burtch says that software developers must invest in education to keep up with the latest tools, and do research on bootcamps based on your own skills gaps.

Bootcamps versus College

• EducationDive looks at whether universities can keep up with the rapidly changing tech education landscape that includes coding bootcamps, and mentions Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak’s Woz U, an online learning platform, as well as Coursera, which has partnered with Google for a new IT program.
• Inside Higher Ed looks at whether bootcamps could start competing with graduate schools, and how traditional higher education is increasingly absorbing aspects of the short-term training model like Northeastern University starting a data analytics bootcamp.
• EdSurge looks at how colleges are facing increased competition from bootcamps, how the number of enrollments at bootcamps are increasing, and predicts that more coding bootcamps will crop up in 2018.
• An opinion piece on Zimbabwean tech news site Techzim looked at whether you can become a software developer without a college degree, and how all developers have to constantly keep learning new tech.
• Quartz looks at the history of income sharing agreements, how bootcamps and colleges are using them, and whether they are a good deal for students.
• EdSurge and FastCompany reported that online bootcamp Lambda School raised $4 million in February to expand their income sharing options for students.

Bootcamp Success Stories

• A General Assembly Web Development bootcamp grad launched a non-profit named JOURNi in Detroit, Michigan to teach youth from his community, who are generally underrepresented in tech, about technology, coding and life skills.
• The Gazette reports that Delta V Code School’s first grads in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, have all found jobs within two months of graduating.
• ELearning Inside profiled Social Hackers Academy, a coding bootcamp in Athens and Crete, Greece teaching refugees and displaced migrants how to code.
• Grand Canyon University’s newspaper profiled GCU’s 15-week coding bootcamp which focuses on Java, and looks at how the diversity split of students is pretty even, and ages range from under 25 to over 35.
• 10tv profiled Tech Elevator, the demand for coding in Columbus, Ohio, and student, Jessica Parent, who graduated 10 months ago and says she increased her salary by $25,000.

Initiatives to Expand Tech Opportunities

• Flatiron School is launching a deferred tuition program for low-income New Yorkers at a new campus in Brooklyn.
• Manchester, England based coding bootcamp Northcoders is partnering with Thoughtworks to offer full scholarships to 4 women to go through the 12-week program.
• Nonprofit Patriot Bootcamp is hosting technology workshops in San Antonio, Texas to introduce veterans and military spouses to coding.
• An article from ArabNews.com looks at how Fereshteh Forough, the founder of Code to Inspire, a coding school for girls in Afghanistan, is a finalist for the 2018 Index on Censorship Freedom of Expression Awards Fellowship.
• Ghanaian bootcamp founder Ivy Barley was named as a Top 50 Most Influential Young Ghanaian in 2017, and won a $10,000 investment. She started Developers in Vogue, a coding bootcamp and mentoring organization for women aged 16 and older.

Bootcamp Updates and New Campuses

• The Software Guild News
  • According to Crain’s Cleveland, The Software Guild founders are launching a new education company called DriveIT for working IT professionals who want to upskill.
  • The Software Guild announced that they now accept the GI Bill for their full-time coding bootcamp.
  • According to WKYU, there are Software Guild students in rural Kentucky who are learning to code at a coworking space called The Hub.  
• Le Wagon News
  • A Bloomberg article interviews French co-founder of Le Wagon Boris Paillard about why he left banking to start a coding bootcamp.
  • The Australian and other Australian news websites announced that Le Wagon is opening two new campuses in Melbourne and Sydney, Australia.
  • Le Wagon is also launching in Casablanca, Morocco! The Arab Weekly profiles the program manager and why Morocco needs this kind of tech education.
• Miami-based coding bootcamp Wyncode launched a new product design UX/UI program with a deferred tuition model.
• Reuters, FastCompany, and EdSurge report that General Assembly is exploring a potential sale, according to CEO Jake Schwartz. The company is currently valued at $425 million.
• Flatiron School has opened a new campus in Washington DC in a WeWork building right across from the White House! Every woman accepted into the first class will receive a $5000 scholarship! We also profiled the new DC campus on Course Report.
• Andrew Zaleski from Technically DC looks at the future of DC coding schools for 2018, and how a new round of expansions coming to the District means bootcamp business models are adapting.
• General Provision, a coworking space and business incubator in Fort Lauderdale, Florida's FAT Village, has begun offering intensive software development training in collaboration with Covalence Coding Academy.
• Momentum Learning, the coding school founded and led by former Iron Yard executives, officially launched this month in Durham.
• The University of Texas has announced it is partnering with Revature, a company which provides no-cost immersive software development training, and hires graduates to work on client projects.
• The Albuquerque Journal did a piece on how Albuquerque, New Mexico-based school Cultivating Coders is launching a 6-week program to train high school teachers to teach coding and computer science in their own classrooms.
• According to ABC7, a new free, 5-month iOS coding bootcamp in Chicago is now accepting applications. This is City Colleges of Chicago’s iOS bootcamp, and it’s held at Truman College and Kennedy King College.
• Academy - School of Blockchain has acquired SoftUni, an eastern european IT education platform. The School of Blockchain offers a 6-week immersive Blockchain program, and a 1-year immersive coders academy, online and in Bulgaria and Singapore.
• Redding.com announced that Coder Camps has partnered with Shasta County, California based-Bethel church to offer a 24-week online program which combines coding with religious training.
• The Las Vegas Review Journal profiles the status of the Vegas startup scene, and a new coding school called PunchCode.

New Bootcamps in February 2018

• CVCC Coding Bootcamp in Cleveland, Ohio
• Spectrum in Hong Kong, China
• Tecnológico de Monterrey Coding Boot Camp in Monterrey, Mexico
• Ikigai Dojo in Manila, Philippines.
• Neoland in Madrid, Spain
• Learn to Code NJ in Madison, New Jersey
• GreyAtom School of Data Science in Mumbai, India
• PunchCode in Las Vegas, Nevada
• Washington University Data Analytics Boot Camp in St. Louis, Missouri.
• Function Camp, online
• Ahyoxsoft Technology in Lagos, Nigeria
• Social Hackers Academy in Athens and Crete, Greece
• Intela Education in Los Angeles and San Jose, California, and Calgary, Canada.
• Resilient Coders in Boston, Massachusetts

Favorite Articles on the Blog

Imogen Crispe

• Imogen enjoyed editing a podcast on gender at coding bootcamps, which Liz hosted with two women from Fullstack Academy and The Grace Hopper Program! The podcast looks at whether women learn better in an all-women’s coding bootcamp environment, and why, growing up, women have often perceived coding to be a man’s job. Both women had some very inspiring things to say.

Liz Eggleston

• Liz loved interviewing Scot Sustad, who runs Digital Hot Sauce in Vancouver and hires digital marketers from RED Academy. She also got to talk with Hack Reactor consultant Brian Sweeney about the bootcamp’s new Blockchain curriculum, who actually explains blockchain in a really reasonable way – not just in the context of cryptocurrency.

Lauren Stewart

• Lauren enjoyed putting together an ultimate guide to digital marketing bootcamps! Check it out to learn about what’s going on in the digital marketing landscape and see what bootcamps are your best bet to learning digital marketing.

FURTHER READING/LISTENING

• Podcast: All Women's Coding Bootcamps
• January 2017 End of Year News Roundup + Podcast
• 2017 End of Year News Roundup + Podcast

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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.