March 2023 Coding Bootcamp News

Table of Contents

• $80M IN BOOTCAMP FUNDRAISES
• SKILLS-BASED TECH HIRING TRENDS
• AFFORDABILITY FOR CAREER CHANGERS
• DIVERSIFYING TECH TALENT
• THE LATEST ON ISAs, OPMs, ACCREDITATION
• NEW BOOTCAMP COURSE OFFERINGS
• 2 FAVORITE PIECES ON THE BLOG

Happy Women’s History Month! This March on International Women’s Day, we hosted a live Q&A with four bootcamp alumnae to hear about their career changes into tech and their tips for other women considering pivoting into tech. Layoffs at big tech companies continued through March, but despite this turbulence, IT hiring predictions for Q2 2023 are looking strong. The popular veterans benefit, VET TEC will wrap up at the end of 2023, and we’re sharing latest from Capitol Hill about whether this program will gain permanent funding. Plus, find out which 5 new coding bootcamps we added to the Course Report directory in March.

🏆 This March, we also released 2023’s Best Cybersecurity Bootcamps, Best Digital Marketing Bootcamps, Best Tech Sales Bootcamps, and Best Product Management Bootcamps!

Curious about what happened in February? Check out last month’s episode to hear our February coding bootcamp news roundup!

$80M IN BOOTCAMP FUNDRAISES

• TechCrunch reports that Bitwise Industries, which operates Geekwise Academy, landed $80M to expand its software development business. 
• According to EdScoop, Pearson announced that it’s selling its OPM business, Pearson Online Learning Services to the private equity firm, Regent LP. 

SKILLS-BASED TECH HIRING TRENDS

• In Course Report’s Ask a Career Coach series, Springboard career coach & tech recruiter Johnny Borchardt shares that tech hiring is still very much happening for bootcampers, but it’s gotten more competitive. 
• HR Dive dove into the latest ManpowerGroup Employment Outlook Survey, finding that employers remain optimistic about their hiring plans for the second quarter of 2023.
• CNBC covered a recent General Assembly survey of one thousand hiring managers that found that HR professionals are having trouble finding and retaining tech talent. 
• VentureBeat estimates that you need to perform 15% better in a technical interview now because of competition in the market, and recommends enrolling at a bootcamp like Codesmith or Tech Elevator to properly prepare.

AFFORDABILITY FOR CAREER CHANGERS

• FutureScot reports that nonprofit organization CodeClan released the results of their recent survey on bootcamp tuition affordability, which found that nine out of ten students could not afford digital skills courses without funding from the industry or government. 
• According to UKFundraising, School of Code has a new partnership with blockchain company, Binance Charity, which will allow it to remove the hiring fee for companies like nonprofits interested in their graduates. 
• KTAL News in Louisiana reports that Operation Spark is offering a 9-day coding course for Orleans Parish teachers. The early bird registration deadline is May 3, but the final deadline is June 30.
• According to the Federal Times, House Republican leaders want to permanently extend the VET TEC program before it expires at the end of this year.

DIVERSIFYING TECH TALENT

• On International Women’s Day, Course Report hosted a live Q&A with four bootcamp alumnae from General Assembly, Sabio, LearningFuze, and Skillcrush about being a woman in tech today.
• The Record reported a new cybersecurity internship program in New York City that aims to diversify the city’s tech pipeline, where many of the interns will be coming from Fullstack Academy. 

THE LATEST ON ISAs, OPMs, ACCREDITATION

• According to Higher Ed Dive and ClassAction.org, BloomTech (formerly Lambda School) is facing a class action lawsuit about their Income Share Agreements from students who have backing from the National Student Legal Defense Network.
• Olivia Sanchez published a critical piece about OPMs offering unaccredited bootcamps through colleges that was featured in The Hechinger Report.  
• Le Wagon’s UK Web Development and Data Science Courses have been awarded BCS Accreditation.

NEW BOOTCAMP COURSE OFFERINGS

• Code Fellows announced they are leaning into AI-powered tech by adding AI like ChatGPT to their bootcamps. 
• edX announced the official launch of its new MicroBootCamps, which are aimed at its corporate training offerings. 

5 NEW SCHOOLS ADDED TO COURSE REPORT

• Starta Institute
• Phangan Coder Academy
• Manhattan Institute of Management (MIM) 
• Reforge 
• Astoria Lab Bootcamp

2 FAVORITE PIECES ON THE BLOG

Jess loved speaking with Shay, a graduate from Code Fellows, who is now working in cybersecurity at Amazon. When Shay was laid off from her job as a paralegal, she was able to reskill and make a career change into cybersecurity through a workforce development grant that covered her Code Fellows tuition!

This March marks three years since the Covid-19 pandemic began, and we have begun seeing more on-campus learning opportunities. Liz was excited to release our In-Person Bootcamp roundup, which includes 32 schools that have a real campus in the U.S. and offering bootcamp cohorts this year.