Podcast

September 2019 Coding Bootcamp News Roundup

Imogen Crispe

Written By Imogen Crispe

Last updated on October 1, 2019

Course Report strives to create the most trust-worthy content about coding bootcamps. Read more about Course Report’s Editorial Policy and How We Make Money.

This September, one of the largest online tech bootcamps got acquired, two schools raised capital, and companies like Adobe, Pandora, Airbnb, Capgemini, and JP Morgan Chase talked to journalists about hiring from coding bootcamps! We also chat about two free coding bootcamp options and the difference between CS degrees, coding bootcamps, and self-teaching. Plus find out about 6 new schools and our favorite articles on the Course Report blog!

Acquisitions & Fundraises in the Bootcamp Space

  • Edly, which works with coding bootcamps, has secured a seed round of funding from Mistral Venture partners. Tony Wan from EdSurge explains: “To get capital, some schools have taken to selling ISAs to private investors. Edly provides an online marketplace to facilitate these transactions and essentially offers a way for schools to sell the rights to future ISA repayments to accredited investors in return for money upfront.” Edly’s biggest client is Lambda School.

Companies Partnering with Tech Bootcamps

  • Axios looks at the rise of “corporate colleges” in the US – companies such as IBM partnering with community colleges or universities to provide technical training to prepare students for "new collar" jobs in areas like cloud computing, cybersecurity and mainframes. Axios also highlights alternative programs like Lambda School building their curriculum around the skills Google, Amazon, Microsoft say they are seeking.

  • The St Pete Catalyst highlights a new initiative by Suncoast Developers Guild to work with companies to train new employees or upskill existing employees.

  • CodeClan coding bootcamp in Scotland is partnering with local businesses in Inverness, as it opens its new campus there. Their new partners include Scottish National Heritage, the University of the Highland, Tuminds, Yellow Cherry Digital, and Capgemini!

  • Airbnb is partnering with TechHire Oakland to launch a 6-month software engineering apprenticeship aimed at people without CS degrees – their job description specifically states that people should not have a 4-year degree, and instead should have training from a coding bootcamp or online courses! Apply by October 19!

Which Tech Skills are in Demand?

Paying for Bootcamp + Free Bootcamps

  • Daily Hive looks at Canadian tech bootcamp BrainStation’s new ISA payment option for students. Students pay a $500 deposit, then don’t pay anything else until they land a job earning $40,000 or more. At that point they pay BrainStation 15% of their monthly income for 8 years, or until they reach the payment cap.

  • Income Share agreements are also now available at Galvanize data science bootcamp and Hack Reactor coding bootcamp. Students pay a $2000 deposit, then once they find a job earning at least $50,000, they pay 10% of their income for up to 4 years.

Coding Bootcamp Success Stories

  • Emily Shea went to App Academy in 2014 and now works for Fastly as a software engineer. In 2017, Emily started experiencing symptoms of Repetitive Strain Injury and so she started using software to dictate code instead of writing it – which is called voice operated coding. Now she’s helping others with RSI!

  • A Hack Reactor online grad wrote a guest post for Information Age about his career change and landing a $226000 job offer after bootcamp. When he graduated, Jason Zedde applied for 44 jobs, and received 7 job offers from Google, Lyft, Yelp, IBM, Rubrik, and JPMorganChase. He negotiated with all of them, and Lyft ended up offering him the best package.

Successful Women in Tech

  • Built in Austin looks at how local tech companies are embracing diversity initiatives including Flatiron School – in 2019, they’ve given over $2 million in scholarships between the Facebook + Flatiron School Breakthrough Scholarship and Houston Community Boost Scholarship, Women Take Tech initiative and other diversity and community scholarships.

Advice for Learning to Code

College vs Coding Bootcamp vs Self Teaching

  • A woman who taught herself to code wrote a medium Noteworthy post that looks at the differences between learning to code at college vs coding bootcamp vs online self-study. Hanna Yang studied by herself for 8 months, then landed a front-end engineering job. She put together some comparison tables and charts comparing each path of study.

  • Utah Business looks at whether college is worth it, looks at average salaries by undergrad major, and compares it to alternatives like coding bootcamps. They point out that the average starting salary of a coding bootcamp graduate is $64,528, still higher than the average earnings of most college graduates.

Bootcamps in Universities

New Bootcamp Campuses and Updates

New Schools in September

Favorite pieces on the blog

Imogen was really impressed with a project built by a BrainStation UX Design student! She talked to Zack Ginies who shared his screen and demonstrated his final project; an app to help people find volunteer roles with nonprofits. It was beautifully designed and thought out, and particularly resonated with Imogen because she volunteers with a nonprofit. He talked through his design process, explained what tools he used, and how he’ll be using the project to demonstrate his skills to future employers!

Liz got to work on a piece in September about programming languages (JavaScript, Ruby on Rails, Python etc) which answers a question we hear all the time from future bootcampers –  How to Choose The Best Coding Language at a Coding Bootcamp! She runs through the pros and cons of each language, the average salaries to expect, and the job prospects for each language. 

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About The Author

Imogen Crispe

Imogen Crispe

Imogen is a writer and content producer who loves exploring technology and education in her work. Her strong background in journalism, writing for newspapers and news websites, makes her a contributor with professionalism and integrity.

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