Episode 19: October 2017 Bootcamp News

October 2017 was a busy month for the coding bootcamp industry with news about growing pains in bootcamp outcomes, mergers, acquisitions, investments, a trend towards bootcamp B2B training, and diversity initiatives. To help you out, we’ve collected all the most important news in this blog post and podcast. Plus, we added 12 new schools from around the world to the Course Report school directory! Read below or listen to our latest Coding Bootcamp News Roundup Podcast.

Top News

Listen: 1:35

• Course Report published our Top 49 Coding Bootcamps for 2017.
• The Attorney General of New York announced a $375,000 settlement with Flatiron School. According to the Attorney General’s investigation, Flatiron operated without a license and didn’t “clearly and conspicuously” advertise job placement information. This was also covered by MarketWatch, ELearningInside, and NY Daily News
• WeWork has acquired Flatiron School. The Next Web looked at how Flatiron School can now upskill WeWork members and use the close connection to startup companies as a way to place students in jobs. Publications like Inc, Fast Company, CNN, TechCrunch and more covered this story.  
• The New York Times reports that African coding training program Andela has raised $40 million in series C funding.
• Galvanize has raised $7 million of a $12 million target from investors including ABS Capital Partners and University Ventures. This comes after Galvanize announced in August that it was laying off 11 percent of its workforce.
• And according to TechCrunch, Holberton School has now added a few big names to their board: Docker founder Solomon Hykes, Upwork CEO Stephane Kasriel and CloudNOW CEO Jocelyn DeGance Graham. In addition, LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner is now an advisor and investor.
• Strayer Education and Capella Education have announced they are going to merge in a $1.9 billion deal, to create one of the country’s largest for-profit education companies: Strategic Education Inc. Strayer owns New York Code and Design Academy, and Capella owns Hackbright Academy and DevMountain coding bootcamps, which combined now owns bootcamps in New York, San Francisco, DC, Philadelphia, Salt Lake City, Phoenix, and Dallas.
   

The Current Status of the Bootcamp Industry

Listen: 9:08

• Research analysts forecast the global coding bootcamp market to grow at a CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of 10.96% during the period 2017-2021.
• TechCrunch contributor Ben Johnson says that people such as truck drivers who may soon lose their jobs because of AI, could retrain as coders.
• CLO Media reports on a trend of companies like General Assembly and Galvanize realizing that employers see value in retraining employees rather than recruiting, so they are ramping up their B2B ventures.
• GeekWire included coding bootcamp Coding Dojo in the GeekWire 200 rankings of the hottest startups. They ranked number 100 this year. Coding Dojo also announced that they now produce more grads than the University of California at San Diego’s computer science program.
• ELearningInside criticized the apparent lack of support systems at some online learning portals. They mainly talked about massive online open courses (moocs) but touched on bootcamps as well.
• Atomic Object managing Partner Jonah Bailey writes that the fundamental problem with coding bootcamps is that “I don’t believe you can learn all the foundational cs concepts to become a software engineer in 12-15 weeks.”
   

Life After Bootcamp – Stories About Getting a Job and Companies Who Hire Bootcampers

Listen: 13:50

• An article in Tech.co looked at how entrepreneurship has changed since 2000, including how access to talent is more widely available because of coding bootcamps.
• GreenBiz published an excerpt of #yeswecode founder Van Jones’ book “Beyond the Messy Truth” in which he discusses how Silicon Valley companies are embracing diversity, and mentions bootcamps in relation to “thinking beyond college”.
• Tech.co looks at how employers are slowly getting on board with hiring people for tech jobs who don’t have degrees; and at coding bootcamps and the sorts of skills an employer should look for in a new hire instead of or as well as a degree.
• Fast Company reports that Pinterest, Airbnb, and LinkedIn are giving apprentice engineers with non traditional backgrounds an opportunity to learn and prove themselves. And profiles C4Q Access Code student Madelyn Tavarez who started out as an apprentice at Pinterest.
   

Get Inspired by These Student Success Stories

Listen: 16:41

• EdWeek featured a 13-year-old who won a $3500 Discover Your Passion Scholarship for NYC students and used it to enroll at Flatiron School. Emma Yang talks about how she designed an app to help with her grandmother’s Alzheimer's disease in a TedX talk.
• In Texas, 512Tech profiled a bartender with no programming experience who went to a Trilogy coding bootcamp at the University of Texas.
• In it’s spotlight on career changers, the Financial Times talked to App Academy grad Anthony Rondinone who used to be a rock musician, and now hopes to become a junior developer.
• The Iron Yard graduate Bernard Worthy launched Loanable, an app that simplifies the process of borrowing money from friends and family members. He was selected by the Google For Entrepreneurs Exchange Program for Black Founders.
• Fast Company profiled a former janitor who is now a developer at MM La Fleur after attending General Assembly. The article also looks at GA’s partnership with Per Scholas.
• An update on the cab driver in Manila, Philippines who was awarded a coding bootcamp scholarship after he returned forgotten luggage to an Australian businessman. Reggie Cabututan, is now 5 months into Vivixx Academy bootcamp, and is working on an app which aims to help taxi drivers become good tour guides!
   

Growing the Bootcamp Model in Smaller Cities

Listen: 20:49

• OZY looks at the need for tech training in smaller cities, mentioning Columbus Ohio, Portland Oregon, and Wilmington Delaware as new tech hubs, all of which have coding bootcamps.
• Delaware Online profiled Zip Code Wilmington, talking to student, Senator Chris Coons, and governor John Carney.
• Engadget looks at how Grand Rapids is retraining Michiganders who used to work in manufacturing to become coders, and how Facebook offered full scholarships for 25 students.
• Model D looks at the different ways the Detroit community is preparing the region for tech, including Sisters Code, which runs coding classes for women of all ages, and Grand Circus coding bootcamp.
• Inside Indiana Business looked at the future of tech in Indiana, and how there are more than 1000 open jobs in tech for coders. Mentions Kenzie Academy as a potential solution to the problem, and interviews head of curriculum Michael Cammarano. Business Insider also talked to the Kenzie Academy co-founder.
• A number of publications covered the shortage of tech workers in Israel according to Israel Innovation Authority’s latest report, how some firms may be forced to relocate abroad, and how coding bootcamps could help solve the problem.
   

Coding Bootcamps and the Diversity in Tech Debate

Listen: 23:18

• Flatiron School COO Kristi Riordan talks to SearchCIO about cultivating a good environment for women in tech, and to Entrepreneur about preparing for a big career change.
• Flatiron School is also expanding their scholarships for women, with 50% off the online program, and $1000 off for the in person program. And they’re awarding $200,000 in scholarship funds to 50 women for the school’s online web developer program in partnership with women’s investment platform Ellevest.
• Savannah Now columnist Coco Papy tells women that learning to code is the great equalizer and explains how code is used in just about everything these days. She mentions Georgia Tech Coding Bootcamp
• NBC news looks at the lack of Latina engineers in tech, and profiles Medalis Trelles who went to a San Francisco coding bootcamp and found the job search very tough. She recommends non traditional engineers take apprenticeships.
• US Chief Technology Officer Megan Smith talked to SiliconAngle at the Grace Hopper Celebration about government initiatives to encourage people to improve their tech skills, and the pipelines into technology jobs, including TechHire and coding bootcamps.
• Nairobi, Kenya-based software developer accelerator Moringa School is offering 50% off tuition to women.
• Bloc has put $1 million towards their Close the Gap women’s scholarships to give women up to 40% off tuition for the Part-Time Web developer or part-time designer tracks.
• Code Like A Girl launched 3 to 12 month apprenticeships for women to learn to code on the job at Australian tech companies, while having 1-1 coaching sessions with a Code Like a Girl mentor.
• Makers Academy bootcamp in London is launching a fellowship program for women and diverse students which includes free tuition and a job guarantee.
   

Ways to Pay for a Coding Bootcamp (Scholarships!)

Listen: 27:14

• Nashville Technology council is launching an apprentice program to give free certification education to workers and help fill the gap in the local IT workforce.
• Adobe is partnering with GA, Galvanize and V School in San Francisco and Salt Lake City to provide scholarships to students, and give students the opportunity to apply for 3-month internships with Adobe’s technical team.
• General Assembly is offering web development training to 10 to 15 low income residents of Washington DC, plus $2000 per month living expenses. After graduation students will pay back the tuition via an income sharing agreement.
• Manchester-based coding bootcamp Code Nation is offering former employees of collapsed airline Monarch, free tuition to its intro course.
• HuffPost talks about huge student loan debt crisis and suggests one way to lessen student debt burden and/or get a better ROI on education is to encourage students to enroll in lower cost forms of education like bootcamps.
• Seattle Times looks at how landing a high-paying job doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg, and suggests the benefits of low-cost or free bootcamps, or low-cost college degrees.

Tips, Tricks, and Bootcamp Advice

Listen: 29:45

• Github has released its report of the most widely used programming languages. To build projects on Github. Top is JavaScript at 2.3m pull requests (over double Python) followed by Python, Java, Ruby, PHP, C++, CSS, C#, Go, C
• Tech Juice looks at top programming languages to learn to always have a job, including Ruby, Java, PHP, Python, JavaScript, and mentions that  a lot of coding bootcamps teach JavaScript.
• NodeJS foundation will release a Node.JS developer certification, a test which coding bootcampers could potentially take to validate their knowledge for employers.
   

New Bootcamp Programs + Campuses

Listen: 30:18

• Apple Co-founder Steve Wozniak is launching his own online coding bootcamp, Woz U. The school is already facing criticism for launching in Arizona before attaining required licensing
• Trilogy Education is expanding to Canada and Mexico with Trilogy bootcamps starting in early 2018 at the University of Toronto, Canada and Tecnologico de Monterrey in Mexico. University of Kansas has also launched a Data Analytics Bootcamp in partnership with Trilogy Education.
• Silicon Slopes reports that V School is opening a campus in Ghana, believed to be the first coding bootcamp in the country.
• Hola Code, a 5-month coding bootcamp built in partnership with Hack Reactor, is launching in Mexico.
• OpenClassrooms online coding bootcamp is entering the US market and according to CampusTechnology.com, they are offering discounted premium memberships to people in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals “Dreamers” program.
• A new bootcamp in West Virginia will open in November at the New River Community and Technical College.
• A new coding bootcamp is opening in Burlington Vermont. Burlington Code Academy will offer 12-week immersive programs starting in June 2018.
• Covalence coding bootcamp is expanding to Fort Lauderdale, Florida. They already had a Birmingham, Alabama campus.
• Moringa School is opening a campus in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in Pakistan.
• Yorkshire, UK-based Sparta Global partners with clients and then selects graduates for an 8-12 week intensive training course in specific technologies.
   

New Schools Added to Course Report this Month

• School of Code, Birmingham, England
• Asia Developer Academy, Petaling Jaya, Malaysia
• Kenzie Academy, Indianapolis, Indiana
• Code Nation, Manchester, England
• Nucamp, Tacoma, Washington and online
• Blue Ocean Coding, Columbus and Cleveland, Ohio
• Alchemy Code Lab, Portland, Oregon
• UC Davis Extension Coding Boot Camp, Sacramento, California
• Turn into Coders, Turin, Italy
• University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies Coding Boot Camp, Toronto, Canada
• Reaktor Labs, Budapest, Hungary
• Penn Arts and Sciences Coding Boot Camp, Philadelphia, PA
   

Favorite Pieces on the Blog

Listen: 34:30

Imogen Crispe

• Python: Everything a Beginner Needs to Know with Meggie Mahnken of Hackbright Academy

Lauren Stewart

• Alumni Spotlight with Nicholas Peckham of RED Academy

Liz Eggleston

• 4 Obstacles You’ll Overcome While Learning to Code with Avi Flombaum, the Dean of Flatiron School
   

FURTHER READING

• September 2017 Coding Bootcamp News Roundup + Podcast
• August 2017 Coding Bootcamp News Roundup + Podcast
• July 2017 Coding Bootcamp 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.