October 2019 Coding Bootcamp News Roundup

Fundraising Fall kicked off this October with three multi-million dollar bootcamp fundraises (plus one coding bootcamp was put up for sale). We’re also covering news about why companies like IBM and Accenture hire coding bootcamp grads, which companies are partnering with bootcamps to offer scholarships, and why more universities are launching bootcamps. Plus, find out information about the 8 new schools and countless campuses that launched in October!

October Bootcamp Fundraises & Divestitures 

• According to Business Den, Galvanize has raised another $13.44 million from 14 investors. Their CEO, Harsh Patel, said that Galvanize plans to open more locations for its coding school in early-to-mid-2020.

• Online tech sales bootcamp Flockjay has raised $2.98 million in new funding, with celebrity backers such as Will Smith and Serena Williams!

• Momentum coding bootcamp in Durham, North Carolina, has raised $2.75 million in funding from Clarkston Consulting. The funds will go towards strengthening its existing immersive courses, and hiring.

• Yahoo news reports that Edly, the income share agreement (ISA) marketplace, recently closed a debt financing round with Variant Investments. Edly offers liquidity to schools through its capital market of funds and accredited investors and works with bootcamps like Holberton School, V School, Bottega, Sabio, and Claim Academy.

• DevLeague, which is a coding bootcamp in Hawaii, is selling the company. Island Business & Commercial Brokerage has DevLeague listed for sale at $299,000. 

Scholarships and Financial Incentives

• HyperionDev coding bootcamp is offering full scholarships to three South Africans with great tech ideas. To apply, prospective students need to post their idea for a website, game, or app on their social media platforms by October 31.

• Bank Santander is partnering with latin coding school Digital House to deliver a 5 month full stack development course in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The bank will offer 240 full scholarships for the program, and graduates could be invited to interview at Santander.

• Target is donating $250,000 to the University of Minnesota to boost their cybersecurity program. The University offers a cybersecurity bootcamp and a securities degree. The gift from Target will be used for scholarships, fellowships, grants, course curriculum and opportunities to connect with professionals in the field. 

• Galvanize has been approved to accept veterans via the VET TEC program. And a publication called Clearance Jobs looks at the new VET TEC program and dives into coding bootcamps that have been approved so far including Code Platoon and Galvanize. 

• The Black Wall Street Times looks at Holberton School’s new Tulsa campus, and how the school is partnering with local Tulsa organizations to offer a discounted income share agreement, a needs-based living assistance stipend, and subsidized dorms.

• Boston Inno profiles the Founder and Executive director of free coding bootcamp Resilient coders, David Delmar Senties. Resilient Coders is a nonprofit coding boot camp that trains people of color for high growth careers as software engineers, and connects them with full-time jobs

Who is Attending Bootcamps?

• Money.com looks at how older Americans are going to coding bootcamps to switch careers. At Trilogy Education, 18% of its students are over 40. At Rice University’s coding boot camps, about one quarter of students to date are over 40, and at the University of Oregon’s Continuing and Professional Education school, around one fifth of the students are over 40.

• A contributor for Forbes wrote an article about how a woman reconciled her debt and quit her job to go to coding bootcamp. Carmen Perez went to General Assembly and received a full scholarship from the Connecticut Tech Talent Fund. 

• Witbank News highlights a young South African woman, Dimpho Mashile, who has been selected for Academy AI’s Artificial Intelligence Bootcamp in Spain. 

Status of Bootcamp Outcomes Reporting

• 2U just launched a new rubric for reporting outcomes for online program management. The new framework focuses on oversight and accountability, marketplace openness, access, affordability, quality, and outcomes. 2U owns Trilogy Education, which runs coding bootcamps at universities. 

• Tech Republic looks at the impact coding schools are having on the tech industry and also on individuals in tech. It really dives into CIRR outcomes and whether bootcamp job placement claims are real.

Colleges + Coding Bootcamps

• Jon Marcus from the New York Times looks at the survival strategies colleges are using to stay current – including partnering with bootcamps. 

• Goldie Blumenstyk from The Chronicle of Higher Education looks at the current status of coding bootcamps, including which ones are partnering with colleges. She mentions a partnership General Assembly has formed with Noodle Partners to develop bootcamps with colleges including the University of Virginia. 

• Meg Miller from Fast Company really dives into whether traditional design degrees are still relevant, especially in light of Design/UX/UI Bootcamps like GA and Flatiron School. The article mentions that IBM has hired graduates of both General Assembly and Austin Center for Design into UX/UI roles.

Preparing for bootcamp

• Tech Beacon put together a guide to preparing for bootcamp, including an explanation of what bootcamps are, what to look for, and goes through and compares 24 coding bootcamps in terms of their campus options, curriculum, outcomes data, and instructors. 

• Tech Republic looks at the best programming languages to learn to land a great job. Joel Spolsky, the Cofounder of Stack Overflow recommends programmers learn a lower-level language, such as C. 

Hiring coding bootcamp grads

• TDWI looks at how to grow a data scientist in the workplace. The article points out that data scientists need technical knowledge and suggests that you can get that through university programs or organized boot camps. 

• James Mason, the CTO of MUSO, tells IDG Connect about an initiative he is using in hiring. Some of his team members have been teaching at coding bootcamp, which led to MUSO hiring and mentoring the course's best students and moving away from 100% recruitment of experienced developers, to start nurturing talent.

• UK coding bootcamp Northcoders is partnering with another coding academy, On the Beach to train students in JavaScript, C# and Ruby. 

• Forbes looks at how offering an objective skills assessment could be the key for companies to hire a more diverse workforce. Contributor Kim Elsesser highlights a graduate of Rithm School who has been hired this way. 

• Built in Chicago looks at how 5 Chicago tech companies are empowering women on their teams, including Docusign, NextCapital, and Flatiron School’s Chicago campus.

New Campuses + Partnerships

• Yahoo Finance reports that a new coding bootcamp is launching in Birmingham, UK to train adults in data and software. The Code Academy is run by AI firm Sidetrade and will be free for 12 students.

• EU Startups looks at the status of tech skills in the European Union. Codecool, a bootcamp with campuses in Poland, Hungary, and Romania published a report which found that in the last 10 years, the number of tech specialists has increased by more than 40%, but there is still high demand for people with tech skills.

• Northeast Iowa Community College and the University of Dubuque are launching an 8-week web design bootcamp

• Yahoo Finance covers Trilogy’s newest bootcamp at Carleton University in Ottawa

• According to 10 News, the University of San Diego is launching a cybersecurity bootcamp, powered by Fullstack Academy

• And finally, Coding Dojo is partnering with Bellevue College to offer a 12-week program of coding classes designed for working professionals.

• South African data science school Explore Data Science Academy has launched a money-back guarantee, and new courses in machine learning and data engineering. Meme Burn reports that the current job placement rate at Explore Data Science Academy is 90%.

• Utah-based VC Paul Ahlstrom wants to bring the Bottega Coding Bootcamp to Jamaica to train 1000 full stack Jamaican developers. 

• With support from the Opportunity Calgary Investment fund, Lighthouse Labs is launching its web development bootcamp in Calgary. Lighthouse Labs currently operates a satellite campus in Calgary, but they hope to graduate 300 software developers by 2021.

Lambda School News

• Dice looked into Lambda School’s fine from the BPPE in California. California ordered Lambda School to cease all operations and pay a $75,000 fine for failing to register as a school. Lambda School CEO Austen Allred told Business Insider the order was “stayed” because Lambda was negotiating with the BPPE.

• YourStory interviewed Lambda School’s CTO Namrata Ganatra, who founded a startup in India and has worked with Microsoft, Facebook, and Paypal. At Lambda, she builds out the technology behind the Lambda platform.

• And then Rosalie Chan from Business Insider published an in-depth article looking at claims from some students that Lambda School’s expectations are unclear and the curriculum is lacking.

8 New Schools on Course Report

• MCC Code School, in Fort Omaha, Nebraska

• Carleton University Coding Bootcamp in Ottawa, Canada

• Tabit Coding Bootcamp in Munich Germany

• SVAcademy, an online business development bootcamp

• Udacity Nanodegrees, which offers numerous online programs

• Lighthouse, a coding bootcamp in Atlanta, Georgia

• Kodiri, a coding bootcamp in London, UK

• Practicum Yandex, an online coding bootcamp

Favorite Articles on the Blog

Liz interviewed Katherine Louie, a Technical Recruiting Manager for Accenture who focuses on diversity and inclusion. Accenture, which is a huge consulting company, partners with Hackbright Academy to hire women software developers – one of their goals is to reach gender parity by 2025. So far, they’ve hired five graduates into their Technology and Consulting Development Programs. Liz asked Katherine about what she looks for in new hires, why bootcamp grads stand out, and what they work on when they get to Accenture. 

Imogen enjoyed interviewing Lighthouse Labs graduate Steve Graves about the final project that he built. The project was a website where you could see which parts of Vancouver were popular or “hotspots” at any time, and it helped Steve and his teammates land jobs when they graduated! A recruiter was at the Lighthouse Labs demo day, and contacted them for job interviews. Steve gives some great tips for people on how to build a final project that will stand out and demonstrate their abilities.