Makers Academy is a highly selective, tech program which teaches Software Engineering, Data Analytics, DevOps (or Cloud), and Test Engineering online and in hybrid cohorts at their campus in London, England. Makers Academy is creating a new generation of tech talent who are skilled and ready for the changing world of work. The academy is inspired by the idea of discovering and unlocking potential in people for the benefit of the 21st-century business and society. At the core, Makers combines tech education with employment possibilities that transform lives. The academy accepts only exceptional applicants into the course. While they are highly selective, they focus on a student's passion for becoming a developer by gauging their coding experience. Makers Academy offers apprenticeships through their bootcamps.
The course has been designed by a team of inspirational software engineers with strong backgrounds in educational psychology, enabling students to master any technology in today's marketplace. As big believers in self-directed learning, students will finish the course as a confident and independent software engineer ready to hit the ground running. There's a focus on life-long learning skills, while the course includes technical tests, working on open-source code or even working with the Makers engineering team on live, real-world, production code.
With one of the UK’s largest careers team dedicated to finding students a job after the end of the course, Makers Academy will introduce students to over 250 of London’s top technology companies looking to hire, including but not limited to: Deliveroo, British Gas, Starling Bank, Financial Times, Compare The Market.com, and Tesco.
Makers is intense, hard and fun, but rewarding doesn't come close to expressing the feeling you will have both when you finish and when you find a job.
Why I chose Makers: Once I had visited Makers I felt almost drawn to it. Unlike most (or maybe all?) of the other bootcamps, Makers was offering one course, available in one location. This gave me the feeling that their angle was more "we will do one thing but do it better than anybody ...
Makers is intense, hard and fun, but rewarding doesn't come close to expressing the feeling you will have both when you finish and when you find a job.
Why I chose Makers: Once I had visited Makers I felt almost drawn to it. Unlike most (or maybe all?) of the other bootcamps, Makers was offering one course, available in one location. This gave me the feeling that their angle was more "we will do one thing but do it better than anybody else" than "we will offer a huge range of things across many places in the world". Although drawn to it, exactly what that "thing" is didn't become fully clear until doing the course and after finishing, so I will attempt to describe it here:
1. Intimate - one course in one location has an intimate we're-all-in-this-together feel to it. Every 4 weeks a new cohort starts, so around you there are people simultaneously at varying stages of the course. The feeling instilled is that these people are not your competitors, but rather your peers. People willing to help you with any aspect of the experience, be it coding or indeed emotional support that you need.
2. Holistic - Makers is NOT about coding coding coding, it is about the whole picture - your well-being, your readiness for your first job, your ability to work with others and your ability to take an unknown concept and know how to approach it and understand it. Software development is a career in which you will never stop learning. Being aware that this is the case, and knowing how to manage it is paramount to success. In addition, the 2nd half of the course is set up to imitate what dya to day work life might be like - Agile methodologies, team work, XP values, advanced use of Git. It is not only about TDD (test-driven development) and OO (object orientated) principles. This means that by the time you're attending interviews, you are prepared with first hand experience you can use to show off your skills.
3. End-to-end support - From onboarding to pre-course to full-time course to the job hunt, Makers is equipped to offer help with whatever aspect is troubling you. Dana, the well-being officer, is fantastic for advice on all things not coding, and the coaches are all on hand, approachable and supportive in everything else. Once you have finished the course, the careers team are an incredible group of people who work extrememly hard to help you find work.
4. Makers leads by example - everything is learning and feedback contributes in a major way to improvement. Makers is constantly checking and re-checking their processes, improving things off the back of feedback, and providing feedback whenever sought. If you can buy into and do this too, you will be a successful coder.
Finally, it's a lot of fun!
Makers is an intense bootcamp. It requires you to be self-motivated, prepared to learn and explore for yourself and not rely on being spoon fed. If you are willing to put in that effort, and are not deterred when you come up against a bit of a wall, then Makers could be the course for you.
It is worth noting that the key thing that you learn at Makers is a process, not any particular language. This can lead to some frustrations along the way, but once it clicks you a...
Makers is an intense bootcamp. It requires you to be self-motivated, prepared to learn and explore for yourself and not rely on being spoon fed. If you are willing to put in that effort, and are not deterred when you come up against a bit of a wall, then Makers could be the course for you.
It is worth noting that the key thing that you learn at Makers is a process, not any particular language. This can lead to some frustrations along the way, but once it clicks you are left with a skill that is far more valuable than proficiency in one language - you are left with a proven method of learning any language. This approach means that you shouldn't end up being fazed by new problems - just apply the process and you can do it!
I did not have any serious coding experience before undertaking the course, instead having had a ten year career in an unrelated field. The prospect of starting a new career at 38 was both exciting and a little daunting. The careers team at Makers were brilliant, both before I had any interviews and then in helping me prepare once I had an interview. In my case, I had a six-month gap between completing the course and starting to job hunt (self-granted paternity leave!), and the team were always available to check in with and then to reassure me that all would not be lost once I started the job hunt.
I decided at the beginning of 2019 to leave my career as a criminal solicitor and attempt to become a software developer instead. I knew absolutely zero about coding so it was quite a big step for me.
Fast forward 5 months and I'm now about to start my first role as a software developer so Makers has certainly done the job, and to be honest I never thought I'd be in this position so quickly.
The course was intense and requires a lot of work, both onsite at Makers and ...
I decided at the beginning of 2019 to leave my career as a criminal solicitor and attempt to become a software developer instead. I knew absolutely zero about coding so it was quite a big step for me.
Fast forward 5 months and I'm now about to start my first role as a software developer so Makers has certainly done the job, and to be honest I never thought I'd be in this position so quickly.
The course was intense and requires a lot of work, both onsite at Makers and in your free time, so you can't sign up half-heartedly. However, because of this you do learn a crazy amount in a short period of time. I enjoyed every day of the course and haven't once regretted my decision to leave my previous job. In addition to being a great learning experience, it was also really fun. I met some great people in my cohort and there was a lot of socialising which meant that our group projects towards the end of the course didn't feel like work at all. The standard of work that our cohort produced by the end of the 12 weeks was pretty impressive.
I feel that some of the course materials are slightly outdated (which I imagine is difficult to avoid with coding languages that dip in and out of popularity constantly), but it meant that I felt a bit on the backfoot when it came to interviews and I wasn't using the most up to date version of javascript for example. I would advise any new starters to find out whether there is a more modern version of the language you're learning, which is used in the industry, and to brush up on that as well as what you learn at Makers.
At one point we were told that we should expect to find a job within 3-6 months after completing the course which terrified a few people, but it turns out a good handful of our cohort had jobs within 4 weeks. However, I would advise budgeting for the full 6 months, or having a back-up plan, just in case. The careers team are very helpful and supportive and the careers fair which is held every month generates some good opportunities.
IMO the things that work most in Makers' favour are:
- careers support
- behaviours practiced during the course
- momentum of exposure to technical content
- the community
Most important is behaviours, you will leave Makers with plenty of experience working in successful and challenging team/pair situations, and hours of pairing and collaboration on tech projects. Doing these things well and with purpose I think is one of the hardest things to achieve learnin...
IMO the things that work most in Makers' favour are:
- careers support
- behaviours practiced during the course
- momentum of exposure to technical content
- the community
Most important is behaviours, you will leave Makers with plenty of experience working in successful and challenging team/pair situations, and hours of pairing and collaboration on tech projects. Doing these things well and with purpose I think is one of the hardest things to achieve learning on your own, and additional support from Dana the Joy Officer at Makers is excellent.
The curriculum gives students wide exposure to a range of technologies and tools _quickly_. A lot of students felt like this learning style was too fast and surface level understanding. It's only 12 weeks!
My experience at Makers was heavily impacted by my cohort. If you are not lucky to have open diligent learners around you there may be additional challenges to be ready for. Students should be prepared for self-directed learning; Makers doesn't 'teach' you to code - pro-actively get what you need from the coaches to meet your goals.
I attended Makers as a Fellow: there were no course fees, and I found a job on the Pathway which is a fixed salary 12month contract with a Makers hiring partner. I wouldn't do it a second time!! But, I would recommend the fellowship to those getting started in coding careers.
PROS
- the careers team is super competent, they work really hard to get good companies to come to the careers fair and help motivate you after the course is done. I would say that this proactive careers service is a lot of what justifies the course fees. It was by far the simplest job application process I have had to do, also as only a limited number of people get shortlisted you are up against a much smaller number of candidates than you would normally be when applying for a j...
PROS
- the careers team is super competent, they work really hard to get good companies to come to the careers fair and help motivate you after the course is done. I would say that this proactive careers service is a lot of what justifies the course fees. It was by far the simplest job application process I have had to do, also as only a limited number of people get shortlisted you are up against a much smaller number of candidates than you would normally be when applying for a job (e.g. maybe you versus 8-10 other people)
- there is a fellowship option where you can do the course for free (definitely worth looking into)
- it is much cheaper than university and is probably more likely to get you into a decently paying job
- the atmosphere at Makers is very good. Makers, and especially its joy officer Dana, have gone out of their way to create a supportive and friendly environment. It did help that my cohort were also super lovely and collaborative.
- You learn more than you thought you were ever capable of, the speed of the learning leaves you with a mindset that you can learn and pick up anything
CONS
- the coaches don't do a lot of coaches, they are mainly there to facilitate the course, and I found that the most helpful resources during the course were my cohort and google. If you struggle with independent work or a lack of guidance/vague guidance then this course is probably not for you.
- the organisation can be quite vague, the phrase 'trust the process' is used quite regularly although the process is not really explained. Aspects of the course, especially the review process, were in flux during my time at Makers which led to a lot of confusion and uncertainty as to what you needed to do to sucessfully graduate
- some of the weeks are better than others - there are a few bits of the curriculum like database week and week 7 (Javascript with no frameworks) that are quite chaotic and represent a massive step up in difficulty
GENERAL NOTES
- If you end up at Makers make sure to leave time for yourself to wind down. I forced myself to only spend one of the weekend days on the weekend challenge, and for the most part I didn't do any work when I left Makers at the end of the day. I didn't regret this at all and I think it helped me keep going during a very challenging but rewarding course. Also, if you are ever struggling go and see Dana, she really is very good at her job and has a real talent for making you feel better!
Hands down best boot camp to attend..you will learn the best industry standards, how to solve problems, self learning for the future (as code never sleeps and it’s a continual learning journey). Make new best friends and have the best time of your life. Learn from the best to become the best, and get the right tuition for the real world.
Pros:
- You'll learn a lot in a short amount of time
- Teaches you how to work in pairs and in a team
- Friendly environment
- Gives you the tools and the confidence to learn anything by yourself
- Very supportive post course with hiring partners coming by every month looking for junior developers
Cons:
- Very intense and time consuming
- I personally found the review/portfolio process at the end of the course quite challenging but can see the...
Pros:
- You'll learn a lot in a short amount of time
- Teaches you how to work in pairs and in a team
- Friendly environment
- Gives you the tools and the confidence to learn anything by yourself
- Very supportive post course with hiring partners coming by every month looking for junior developers
Cons:
- Very intense and time consuming
- I personally found the review/portfolio process at the end of the course quite challenging but can see the value of it
The good stuff:
- Most of the coaches are very helpful and pretty knowledgable. If you push for it, you can get some useful support/critique of your work. It would be great if there was more of this, but presumably, the course would then cost more.
- I think the course gives a good mix of learning stuff on your own, pairing and agile group work and covers some key technologies.
- I enjoyed some of the softer side of the course - focus on learning techniques, meditation, yog...
The good stuff:
- Most of the coaches are very helpful and pretty knowledgable. If you push for it, you can get some useful support/critique of your work. It would be great if there was more of this, but presumably, the course would then cost more.
- I think the course gives a good mix of learning stuff on your own, pairing and agile group work and covers some key technologies.
- I enjoyed some of the softer side of the course - focus on learning techniques, meditation, yoga, blogging workshops etc.
- They've recently introduced a Review which is basically a document you need to fill in about how you've achieved the course goals and a pairing session. I found this a really useful way to consolidate my learning from the course and to know I was ready to apply for jobs.
- I got the job I wanted after the course, so it seems Makers gave me the skills necessary to be a credible candidate in the job market.
The bad stuff:
- There was little if any support on the pre-course (4 weeks work from home) and you need to pass each challenge before you can see the next. That meant it was incredibly stressful if I got stuck on a stage - sometimes I didn't move forwards for days. Coach responses were disorganised and unhelpful e.g. the Friday before we were due to start, a friend of mine on the course got told that she wouldn't be allowed onto the on-site course but wasn't told why. She had to re-do the whole of a weeks work in a weekend and found that she had named a file wrongly, and then was allowed on.
- Be wary of claims that you'll be job ready in 12 weeks. There is an additional 4 weeks from home before you start the course, and students take up to 4 weeks after the course to complete the Review (so they can start applying for jobs through Makers), although motivated students usually complete the review in a couple of weeks.
Some advice if you join:
- Do as much coding as you possibly can before you start the course (see if you can get hold of the curriculum and prepare for that). In my cohort, about half of people had done some coding before meaning that those who hadn't started on the backfoot and it was difficult to make up ground.
- Overall I found the course incredibly stressful - I think in large part due to the way the pre-course was handled as well as my own anxious tendencies during big life changes. If you are prone to stress and anxiety, have a think in advance about how you can manage the course in the best way for you.
- It can be difficult to get time with coaches - you have to be persistent and assertive to get feedback on your work. It's well worth it.
- You will get the most out of it if you really take ownership of your own learning - look at the curriculum and goals each week and plan how to meet them
Makers is an amazing 12 week bootcamp that teaches you so much about coding. I would highly recommend it if you are thinking of making the move. You get support when you need it and the curriculum is well thought out to teach you certain skills. You will be in awe of how much you can learn in such a short amount of time at Makers and it is the best thing I have every done. To go from not having much coding knowledge to producing a group project in less than 2 weeks is unbelievable.
...Makers is an amazing 12 week bootcamp that teaches you so much about coding. I would highly recommend it if you are thinking of making the move. You get support when you need it and the curriculum is well thought out to teach you certain skills. You will be in awe of how much you can learn in such a short amount of time at Makers and it is the best thing I have every done. To go from not having much coding knowledge to producing a group project in less than 2 weeks is unbelievable.
The only thing that I found slightly difficult to adjust to is in Makers you make a lot of your projects from scratch and they are very small projects but once you are at your company you are working on much larger code bases and finding your way around legacy code can be a bit difficult to grasp.
The Makers Academy bootcamp was amazing. I started with absolutely no coding experience, but in just 12 weeks I am comfortable writing programs in various languages. Makers Academy had a very clear structured course, and offered lots of additional reading and practice outside of their course. The coaches were very supportive and always happy to help with any problems we were having. The environment at Makers was great too, it was very relaxed and strongly encouraged self-learning to enable...
The Makers Academy bootcamp was amazing. I started with absolutely no coding experience, but in just 12 weeks I am comfortable writing programs in various languages. Makers Academy had a very clear structured course, and offered lots of additional reading and practice outside of their course. The coaches were very supportive and always happy to help with any problems we were having. The environment at Makers was great too, it was very relaxed and strongly encouraged self-learning to enable us to continue learning after we finished the bootcamp and moved into a work environment. I would definitely recommend Makers Academy as a place to learn how to code to anyone looking to make the move into software development.
My background
Before Makers I had no coding / STEM background. I studied Fine Art at university and before that my A-levels were Philosophy, PE and Art.
Pre-Makers
I started coding on my own for a few months - Codecademy, Odin Project etc. - to see if I could do it and if I enjoyed it. I found that I loved it (and was not terrible at it) so started looking for a course. I chose Makers on the basis of people I knew doing the course and enjoying it, Makers' teachi...
My background
Before Makers I had no coding / STEM background. I studied Fine Art at university and before that my A-levels were Philosophy, PE and Art.
Pre-Makers
I started coding on my own for a few months - Codecademy, Odin Project etc. - to see if I could do it and if I enjoyed it. I found that I loved it (and was not terrible at it) so started looking for a course. I chose Makers on the basis of people I knew doing the course and enjoying it, Makers' teaching ethos and also their work on increasing diversity in tech. And maybe also the misc. good vibes that seemed to come with pretty much all the material that surrounds them. After doing most of the recommended prep materials and submitting my cover letter I was asked to come in for a pairing interview. After a brief chat on my background, why I was interesting in coding etc. we jumped into some pairing. I didn't have the answers to all the questions but I had a systematic approach to solving the problem, was ok with not knowing the answer to everything (which came in handy because there were quite a few things I didn't know!) and was able to communicate my thinking. At the end of this the interviewer told me that Makers would be happy to offer me a place.
Now
I'm writing this review a day after accepting a full stack role in a software consultancy that I'm really excited about.
Makers understand the course is incredibly challenging and do what they can to encourage devs to look after their wellbeing. This comes in the form of onsite twice-a-week yoga and daily meditation (led by the absolutely amazing Dana - believe the hype) and workshops giving you a crash course in how you can best look after yourself. Oh and there's a table tennis table for keeping you moving during breaks from the screen. Am now a complete yoga and table tennis convert.
- Incredible peers.Makers selection process means that if you're on the course you'll likely be surrounded by a group of driven, diverse and collaborative peers. A lot of friendships are made here and if not that, at the very least you'll have a strong network you can lean on in the future for information and advice in your new profession.
- You learn how to learn. With technology constantly in flux, the most important skill you can have for a lifelong career as a dev is not learning a particular technology but instead being able to pick up any new technology quickly. Makers is a baptism of fire for developing this process. It is quite painful but it is incredibly effective.- Industry best practices and skills.
That being said, what you practice your learning-how-to-learn systems on are exactly what the industry is after. The Makers business models relies on them producing developers who get hired. They ensure this happens by asking their hiring partners what skills and outlooks they most value in junior developers. This feedback is then implemented as content for the course. Knowing this gives you confidence that what you're learning is desirable and valued by the industry.
- The staff An organisation is nothing without its people, and Makers people are seriously high grade. The cleaning, coaching, events, facilities, careers and marketing teams are full of people passionate about the Makers ethos and doing their best for everyone on the course. It's a genuine pleasure spending time with them, from small interactions in the hallways to longer heavier conversations, the people really shine. This isn't to say that it's the land of milk and honey, as with any organisation / educational system there are problems. The thing that makes Makers really stand out is that when these arise they are willing to put their hands up, acknowledge if they've dropped the ball and focus on resolving the issue through open dialogue. There were some tense meetings for my cohort and some of the Makers team and they did an outstanding job of addressing everyone's concerns while maintaining professional conduct. - ConfidenceThe focus on independent learning, the difficulty of the problems, the lack of time to solve them all make for a super intense learning environment. The upshot of getting through this is that you come out with stronger processes for learning new things and your growth mindset becomes more ingrained, you're less bothered by not knowing the answer immediately or coming across a project that you have no idea how to do - you just get stuck in with the processes and mindsets you learnt on the course and you can lean in hard on these to iteratively solve each problem one by one until the project's completed!
Cons - Can be all consumingYou kind of have to put your life on hold for the duration of the Makers in order to get the most out of the course. Even with reducing a lot of external commitments it can still be difficult to balance the workload with what you need to stay healthy and happy (sleep, exercise, socialising, general downtime etc. ). Sometimes you do just have to have faith in the system, because everyone has their moments when things are looking pretty bleak!
Me:
I came to Makers with a non-technical background after teaching abroad for a couple of years, but otherwise having no graduate experience. I'd tried some online courses but only picked up basics, and didn't seem qualified for anything. I got a job offer in my fourth week after the course, with a company who had hired Makers grads before.
Course Pros:
- 1 month pre-course gets everyone familiar with basic tools like command line and git, as well as basic Ruby program...
Me:
I came to Makers with a non-technical background after teaching abroad for a couple of years, but otherwise having no graduate experience. I'd tried some online courses but only picked up basics, and didn't seem qualified for anything. I got a job offer in my fourth week after the course, with a company who had hired Makers grads before.
Course Pros:
- 1 month pre-course gets everyone familiar with basic tools like command line and git, as well as basic Ruby programming
- Solo weekend projects consolidate and build on what was learned during the week
- Intensive, you will learn a huge range of techs needed to make you full-stack in the first half of the course, and apply it in group projects in the second half
- Largely self-directed learning and group projects so that you learn to rely on yourself and your teammates, not the coaches
- Gives you all of the skills that the industry wants, like TDD, Agile, pair-programming, and the ability to learn new things quickly
- Immersive extras like regular lunchtime talks from companies, and evening/weekend events e.g. Makers unconference
- Ongoing post-course support and access to Makers
- Careers team experienced and visible
- They're always trying new things and ask for honest feedback about everything
Broader Pros:
- Generally transparent
- Lots of companies want to hire more Makers grads
- Some companies retrain employees through this course
- A really positive atmosphere, and everyone is always happy to be there
- A supportive community with lots of resources so you can find whatever you need
- Focus on self-care and longevity so that you don't burn out (meditation after lunch, yoga, table tennis, game nights, cheese and wine, beer and pizza, Monday night climbing group)
- Free bread, cereal, fruit, nuts as well as the usual tea, coffee, water coolers
- Shower facilities, bike storage
- Generally life-enhancing, you will learn how to learn, how to work in teams and pairs, how to push through tough situations
Cons:
- The course is always being updated, so it can be hard to get the information you need
- Things like the portfolio and review process can be unclear; an infographic would be great
- Full on due to the weekend projects on top of the full-time course
- That table-tennis table is in high demand, as are the rooms it's stored in
Overall:
I recommend this course to anyone who wants to start/resume a career in tech, as you are so much more employable once you've graduated Makers.
Be prepared to put in a lot of time, and to not be told all of the answers. It's hard, and it's up to you, but everything you need is there.
How much does Makers Academy cost?
Makers Academy costs around £8,500.
What courses does Makers Academy teach?
Makers Academy offers courses like Web Development.
Where does Makers Academy have campuses?
Makers Academy has in-person campuses in Bristol, Cambridge, London, and Manchester. Makers Academy also has a remote classroom so students can learn online.
Is Makers Academy worth it?
Makers Academy hasn't shared alumni outcomes yet, but one way to determine if a bootcamp is worth it is by reading alumni reviews. 421 Makers Academy alumni, students, and applicants have reviewed Makers Academy on Course Report - you should start there!
Is Makers Academy legit?
We let alumni answer that question. 421 Makers Academy alumni, students, and applicants have reviewed Makers Academy and rate their overall experience a 4.77 out of 5.
Does Makers Academy offer scholarships or accept the GI Bill?
Right now, it doesn't look like Makers Academy offers scholarships or accepts the GI Bill. We're always adding to the list of schools that do offer Exclusive Course Report Scholarships and a list of the bootcamps that accept the GI Bill.
Can I read Makers Academy reviews?
You can read 421 reviews of Makers Academy on Course Report! Makers Academy alumni, students, and applicants have reviewed Makers Academy and rate their overall experience a 4.77 out of 5.
Is Makers Academy accredited?
No
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