Episode 42: June 2019 Bootcamp News

June 2019: a coding bootcamp fundraise, an interesting acquisition, and great new initiatives to encourage more women and underrepresented groups to get into tech. In this month’s podcast, we talk about the status of the tech skills shortage, what is happening to fill the gaps in areas like data science and cybersecurity, and the ongoing conversation around ISAs (income share agreements). Plus, the CEOs of huge companies like Intuit, Upwork, and IBM share their opinions of bootcamps. And we’ll give you the scoop on new campuses and 7 new schools in the Course Report directory.

Fundraises, Acquisitions, and More

• Bitwise, the parent company of coding bootcamp Geekwise in Fresno, CA, raised $27 million of series A funding in June, according to an article in The Atlantic 
• Coding bootcamp loan provider, Skills Fund, has been acquired by Goal Structured Solutions, a San Diego-based third-party student loan services provider. The acquisition sales price was not disclosed.
• Toronto, Canada-based coding bootcamp HackerYou has been accepted to Y-Combinator, a few months after launching an income share agreement.
• South African coding bootcamp ATA Coding Bootcamp has been selected to take part in a business accelerator program in Cape Town called Akra Accelerate.
• Telco Orange in Sierra Leone has committed 2.75 billion leones (USD$303,000) towards the creation of the region’s first free coding school.

Encouraging Women and Underrepresented Groups in Tech

• Built in Chicago highlights 6 women engineers and how they forged their careers, including one woman, Jen Trudell, who went to a coding bootcamp.
• Business Cloud reports that UK-based Coding bootcamp Northcoders is partnering with global technology consultancy ThoughtWorks to offer scholarships to underrepresented women and gender minorities.
• The BBC in London is offering a free 14-week coding course to women to prepare them for a software engineering career.  All successful graduates will have the opportunity to apply for an Associate Software Engineer role with BBC’s Design and Engineering arm.
• Tech World profiles Code Your Future, a free, part-time coding bootcamp for refugees in the UK which teaches classes in London, Glasgow, and Manchester. 
• Market Watch looks at 5 coding schools and bootcamps that have initiatives to help women and underrepresented groups get into tech. 
• Bollywood actress Priyanka Chopra talks about why she invested in Holberton School, and why it’s important for more women to get into tech.

Tech Skills Shortage Update

• An Article in IT Pro looks at the digital skills crisis and the various things being done to upskill current employees. 
• CIO Dive contributor Naomi Eide looks at the short shelf life of skills, and how companies are working to find ways to upskill their employees with the example of WeWork’s acquisition of Flatiron School, and Microsoft’s partnership with General Assembly.
• Forbes contributor Marc Fisher of Dogtown Media suggests employers short on talent should try recruiting from a digital bootcamp. 

Getting into Data Science and Cybersecurity

• All Together profiles Natee Johnson who was selected for a data science fellowship at Flatiron School’s DC campus to upskill for her role as a research associate at The Institute for Defense Analyses.
• A General Assembly grad, Chua Chin Hon, who recently finished the 12-week data science bootcamp, writes a blog post for Towards Data Science about how to make the most of your data science bootcamp.
• Security boulevard looks at the skills gap for cybersecurity, attributes part of the problem to the lack of women in cybersecurity roles, and looks at tips for launching a cybersecurity career.
• The Harvard Business review profiles Cyber NYC, a partnership between the New York City Economic Development Corporation, and education partners like CUNY and Fullstack Academy. And an article in StateScoop looks at what the Cyber Bootcamp covers.

Tips and Advice for Breaking into Tech

• INSEAD talks to 3 executives who went to coding bootcamps to get their stories and tips, including a Treasury specialist, a front-end developer, and a software developer.
• Technically Philly talks to successful technologists who look at skills they learned on the job that may not be covered in bootcamp or in a CS degree. 
• Sameer Kotian from Tech Shout writes about how to choose between a front end and back end bootcamp
• Forbes Contributor Tom Vander Ark gives advice to students thinking about their next steps after high school, with suggestions on how to choose whether to go to college, what other options there are, like bootcamps.
• And in IDG Connect, the CEO of Intuit, Atticus Tysen, talks about tips for breaking into tech including whether he would recommend a coding bootcamp or a computer science degree. 

Should You Go to University or Coding Bootcamp? 

• Upwork CEO Stephane Kasriel writes a guest post for Fortune about why Upwork no longer requires employees to have a college degree, following in the footsteps of Apple and IBM, and says companies should consider graduates of online programs, and computer programming schools like 42 School, Holberton School, and Lambda School.
• In Fortune, the IBM CEO Ginni Rometty writes about why she wants Congress to reform the Higher Education Act (HEA), and make federal student loans available for career-oriented education like part-time coding bootcamps or cybersecurity courses.
• In a Real Clear Education guest post, Entangled Group CEO Paul Freedman looks at why higher education isn’t dead yet, talking about colleges’ ability to adapt to new market needs, and how colleges are launching their own coding bootcamps. 
• Forbes contributor Mark Hall looks at 5 industries being disrupted – one of those being education – his point is that in a world where student debt has surpassed $1.4 Trillion, people don’t need to be paying $100k for an education that gets you a $40k job.

An Update on Income Share Agreements

• Madison.com, Inside Sources, and The Hill covered DevCodeCamp’s new income share agreement, which is the first ISA available to students in Wisconsin.
• Yahoo Finance interviews Austin Allred about online tech bootcamp Lambda School its ISA, and Lambda’s place in solving the student debt crisis 
• UCSD Extension is offering ISAs for their 9 to 12 month tech classes in digital marketing, business intelligence, front-end web design, and Java programming.

Coding Bootcamp News + Updates

• TechCrunch profiles Holberton School’s new Medellin, Colombia campus which just opened in June. 
• SF Chronicle profiles the new Flatiron School campus in a WeWork in San Francisco.
• Al Monitor Profiles 3W Academy Maroc, a 3-month coding school which was originally founded in France, but recently opened a new campus in Casablanca, Morocco.  
• According to the Daily Herald, Judson University in Illinois has launched a data science bootcamp which starts in September.
• Business Cloud announced that Trilogy Education launched their first UK bootcamp at the University of Birmingham.
• And according to campus technology, the University of San Diego is partnering with Thinkful to launch a full stack flex course
• Fox 5 NY profiled Thinkful in an interview with Thinkful CEO Darrell Silver
• University World News and the Times of India both published profiles the founders of Pesto Tech, a startup in India which offers intensive 12-week coding training programs, with income share agreements available for students.
• The Denver Post reports that Galvanize, which runs data science bootcamps and co-working spaces and now owns Hack Reactor, laid off 27 employees (7% of the workforce) in June, and is looking to close one of its Colorado locations.
• UK coding bootcamp Makers Academy has partnered with Accenture to offer an accelerated apprenticeship program for career changers, with no cost for the training.

New Schools on Course Report

• JUMP Training Program, with campuses in New Jersey and Texas
• Reify Academy, an online startup bootcamp
• Summer of Code, in San Francisco
• Boolean Careers, an online bootcamp in Italy
• UTSA Coding Boot Camp, a Trilogy bootcamp in San Antonio, Texas
• allWomen, a coding bootcamp for women in Barcelona, Spain
• WorldQuant University, which offers tuition-free data science bootcamps online

Our Favorite Pieces on the Course Report Blog

• Imogen enjoyed chatting with Stacey, a student at Hackbright Academy, an all women’s bootcamp. Stacey used to be a veterinarian, and is now studying to become a software engineer! During the video interview she shared her screen and demonstrated her awesome final project - an app to help vets calculate drug dosages for animals!
• Liz had fun doing a video interview with three instructors from Tech Elevator who were all women in different cities – Katie Dwyer from Cincinnati, Beth Campbell from Pittsburgh, and Margaret Green from Detroit. They talked about the tech scenes in each of their cities, their teaching styles, and why they’re passionate about ushering more women into the tech space. 

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FURTHER LISTENING

• May 2019 Coding Bootcamp News Roundup + Podcast
• April 2019 Coding Bootcamp News Roundup + Podcast
• March 2019 Coding Bootcamp News Roundup + Podcast

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.