September 2025 Bootcamp News Roundup

Table of Contents

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• New Bootcamp Expansion
• Policy Updates Impacting Bootcamps
• Tech Hiring For Bootcamp Grads
• 3 New Schools Added
• Our Favorite Pieces on the Blog

This September, Illinois became the first state to regulate Income Share Agreements, bootcamps expanded into Ukraine and South Africa, and a new accreditor entered the chat. Here's what caught our eye this September in news about bootcamps, certifications, and workforce development.

Curious about what happened in bootcamps in August? Check out last month's roundup to review August's biggest coding bootcamp + certificate course news!

New Bootcamp Expansion

• HyperionDev has expanded its coding and data bootcamps across South Africa, offering Software Engineering, Data Science, and Web Development programs with one-on-one mentorship.

• Estonian coding school //kood launched kood/Zhytomyr in Ukraine, partnering with Zhytomyr Polytechnic State University to bring peer-to-peer learning to over 80 students.

• Neil Mosley published a deep dive into Coursera’s evolution from MOOC pioneer to global skills platform. Mosley says Coursera now boasts over 183 million registered learners globally and has steadily prioritized short courses and professional certificates over university offerings.

Policy Updates Impacting Bootcamps

• Jobs for the Future announced that Illinois became the first state to regulate Income Share Agreements, passing legislation to establish consumer protections, including payment caps, minimum income thresholds, and APR limits.

• According to Inside Higher Ed, two regional accreditors – NECHE and the Higher Learning Commission – are launching formal processes to recognize noncredit and microcredential providers, including bootcamps and certificate programs. Short-term programs have exploded in popularity but vary widely in quality and outcomes. Accreditation could soon serve as an important trust signal – especially as federal Workforce Pell dollars flow into the space.

• Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei is now urging Congress to create a federally backed "AI horizon fund" – supported by tech companies like Anthropic – to reskill displaced workers through apprenticeships, infrastructure investment, and public-private training programs. If even part of this vision becomes reality, we could expect an influx of federal funding, demand for short-term upskilling pathways, and greater collaboration between government and career education providers. Whether Congress agrees on the solution remains to be seen.

Tech Hiring For Bootcamp Grads

• Built In reports that 52% of college graduates are underemployed a year after graduation, while 1.4 million jobs could soon open to non-degree workers.

• According to Muiz Atolagbe from Tech Economy, AI is reshaping tech recruitment by evaluating code quality, problem-solving approaches, and behavioral indicators to reduce bias and support non-traditional candidates like bootcamp graduates.

3 New Schools Added

The bootcamp landscape continued to evolve with new offerings:

• Aspira Design School

• Códica LA

• IronCircle (previously ThriveDX)

Welcome to these new schools! If you graduated from one of these schools, remember to leave a review of your experience on Course Report. 

Our Favorite Pieces on the Blog

• Liz caught up with Candace Pereira-Roberts, longtime General Assembly instructor and Director of Data Strategy, to explore how AI is reshaping data analytics education. Candace explains why foundational skills in SQL, Excel, and Tableau remain critical even as students learn to layer in generative AI tools, and shares her advice for aspiring data professionals navigating this rapidly evolving landscape.

• Mike interviewed Mai Vang, a Flatiron School graduate who transitioned from political science and finance into software engineering. Mai shares how she turned her job search into a full-time commitment after graduating in 2022, the projects that helped her land her role at Maizeee, and why she's now diving into AI to stay competitive in tech.