University of Birmingham Boot Camps

I enrolled into the course without an iota of knowledge about coding or data analysis but considering how determined I was, I knew I would make it through. I must be honest, the journey was a very though one but I had one of the best experience of my life and all to the thanks to the amazing instructional team (Amro and Amritya). Also, the instructional materials were top notch and the course, even though a bit pacy, was well organised. What helped me the most was the projects. There were four of them in total and they were organized in a manner that helps one understands the underlying concepts of the course. The course assignments accelerated my learning and having  a career service department who prepares you for the world to come was an icing on the cake. 

I can say that it was the best decision I made during one of the most difficult periods of my life. In the beginning, I had no expectations from this magnificent adventure that I was directed to a Facebook ad. For the first time in my life, I responded to a Facebook ad. How confident should I be? How useful would it be? 

While all these questions were storming through my mind, I realized the seriousness of the task when I saw a strict course preparation program. At first, I thought my plan would give me some time and try to learn, if I felt like I was going to fail I thought I would drop it halfway or find out later. As a matter of fact, I was faced with this feeling a little after the first quarter of the course. But learning is a process and thanks to my friends and of course my amazing instructors/tutors, I got rid of these negative thoughts and focused on learning more. It was not an easy process. While I was thinking that it would only take me 3 days a week and it would be easy, I found myself among the instructors who were always full of determination to teach, and I found myself learning this between 16:30 pm -23:00 pm every evening for 24 weeks. 

Humanity has not yet reached the stage where it can swallow information like a pill. Therefore, if you think that someone will teach you this without any effort, you are wrong. This was the behaviour I saw in those who made bad comments anyway. But if someone like me who has learning difficulties, dyslexia, whose native language is not English and is afraid to ask questions can be someone who has made programs about the subjects included in the course content today, I would say give yourself a chance. I can't put into words the best 24 weeks of my life. So I think you should try it. 

Of course, there will be parts that are not for you. Very easy. Continuing is always an option. When I felt most hopeless, when I sent a message to my instructor/tutors Suraj, Kenneth, Cillian and my personal Mentor Madeexa and asked for help, all my problems were resolved regarding my learning process. Besides, we had an amazing class and very hardworking friends. When I reached out to them throughout the course and while developing projects with them, I learned a lot from them. The fact that this course is being held under the name of The University of Birmingham also removed all the doubts I felt at first.

I would like to thank everyone who prepared this course for us and for this feeling of learning and success in this difficult covid period. Without forgetting, I would like to thank Maimuna and all my project teams, who always supported me in all the mishaps I experienced. I hope everything will be fine for everyone.

Can i first start by saying how amazing the instructional staff are.

The course started with a few problems with people setting ssh keys up, I had already done mine as i actaully did the pre work before the course start. 
The team was friendly and helpful and always put in the time for the class. Extra classes every night which was amazing but massive strain on my life as i work full time and then coming home to go straight into class. 
I choose to go to the extra classes to help me progress further although these are optional i highly recommend you go to them to help yourself in the long run.
I would of loved to have code along classes too but with a class of 40 strong at the start i understand why this wasnt a possibility as everyone codes and learns at different speeds. 
Most of the classes was the instructional staff showing us methods and ways to search it ourselves using "stack overflow" which is super helpful as thats what happens in the real world of coding. Of course the showed us how to code, sometimes even picking class members to "drive" with guidance. Thats abit nerv racking, i think you actaully forget how to use a computer when your asked haha.
Alot of the class didn't have there camera's on which lessers there interactions with them and they got asked alot less questions for obvious reasons. So another recommendation is to have your camera on as much as you possibly can.  

Im now currently on the job hunt the careers person was lovely, hard to get hold of at times and they was transitioning to a new role leaving us in the learch for a couple of weeks when we needed help searching for jobs, polishing our cvs and online presence. 

Demo Day kinda felt like it was promising so much and failed to deliver myself and my group put in all the hard work and graft and only presented to 4 people 1 of which was an instructor of the other cohort. Although he was lovely and gave us helpful feedback 
would of loved to see all these businesses that was promised when starting like BT, Gymshark ect. 

Overall happy with the course, 
FYI theres a scheme i found out after starting the course that you can get it for half the price so look into that before paying the full amount like me.

Pro

1. Great technical material from Trinity collage 
2. It was nice to see converting coding to quality coding 
3. Grateful to Meedaxa for his support on our 1:1 seasons, a great tutor, highly professional and a very knowledgeable individual. Explains things in an easy and understandable way and I think this is his superpower. 
4. Student Success Manager (Mai) a very positive and supportive individual. 
   
   

Con

1. 1. Too many people for a coding bootcamp. It started with 40 people and ended with 24 (still a lot for this type of bootcamp). My first question, in the call with Gregory Mazzella, before deciding to register for this course was: How many students are there? The reply was 10-15 and it still felt a lot at that time. I decided to continue when I saw 40 because I trusted your experience and professionalism. 
   2. When I think of the word bootcamp it gives me the impression that it should be more students hands on practice after explaining core concepts, but this never happened in our classes, except Projects. It was mostly the instructor coding and spending a lot of time figuring out the solution himself; this has resulted in spending non-productive hours in the class - an approach that makes sense for an overcrowded class.
   3. There was no control over the class, for example: No order when asking questions, frequent situations of people overlapping each other when speaking or not respecting an order. Basically it was impossible to ask a question, as you will always be interrupted and sometimes in an aggressive way.
   4. Instructor focused on helping and replying only to 3-4 (job seeking) people in the class which made me loose interest on the course and search udemy courses. This added extra hours spent to understand class material.
   5. Time per class was not always well-organised. If the classes were well-organised before hand, there would have been no need for so many extra classes on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays; for example the Friday session of 1 h could have been perfectly integrated on Thursday and the homework review of 1 h on Tuesday. To add to that,  most of the recent classes were starting 30-45 min late, I didn’t appreciate this as it was disrespecting our time without giving us notice beforehand.
   6. I appreciated some extra classes but the frequency of them made this bootcamp more time consuming (not in a productive way) especially for a full time working individual. I understand that the extra classes were not mandatory, but yet on those classes remaining unexplained material from mandatory classes was  explained.
   7. The instructor lacks listening skills and is bias oriented. 
      I started this bootcamp with plenty of enthusiasm but unfortunately I ended waiting forward to its end.

I am one day away from completing this course and to say I've had one of the best experiences learning how to code would be an understatement. From start to end, I have enjoyed every single second of this boot camp.

I am still blown away by the commitment of the instructional staff (Suraj, Kenneth and Cillian), in putting in so much time and effort with each and every student to ensure they are getting the best advice and education from the course. No problem is ever to big for them to help with. They listened when we were struggling and guided us on the right path to help us understand and get a better grasp of coding. I am forever in their debt for thier knowledge, wisdom and patience.

The course can be very intense at times, and at the very start of the course, I was feeling overwhlemed by learning so much, so quickly. But it was thanks to the instructional staff with their persistant support and help that I was able to pull through and understand how everything worked. I cannot rate them highly enough or thank them enough for what they have done for me. 

Even as we come to finish the course, they are helping with finding work and reviewing our CV's and applications to ensure we have the best chance possible at finding work as web developers. They truly want the best for us and that is greater than anything. 

Everything we have learned has been up to date and relevant to the tech world around us now, and the instructors spent extra time on the most relevant parts of web development which are in demand in the tech industry to ensure we were as prepared as we can be. 

Overall, this has been such a wonderful experience and I would recommend it highly to anyone who wants to get into coding. It's a wonderful experience with wonderful tutors and instructors who want the best from you and they will ensure, when you finish, that you are ready to start your tech career.

I stumbled across an ad for the bootcamp on Instagram whilst i was studying computer science at university and decided i'd give it a go, it complimented the course i was doing at the time so why not?

Upon beginning the course the first thing i relly took note of was just how approachanle and welcoming the staff were, it was great! The teaching and support staff made the experience 100% more enjoyable and went above and beyond in terms of the help and guidance they provided. I felt as though i could come to them with any issues i was dealing with at the time, regardless of whether those issues had anything to do with the course or not. 

The course teaches a very broad range of technologies and topics that are taught from the ground up to provide a solid basis for future development. Personally, i found this to be the most beneficial aspect of the course as it meant i wasn't just learning code, i was learning to understand the underlying concepts that are present across any programming language which has put me in an incredible position to be able to understand new technologies that weren't taught during the course so much more quickly.

Overall, i would wholeheartedly encourange anyone that is thinking of starting the course to do it. I have made friends, developed social skills, and got a job in an ever evolving industry thanks to this course.

I went into this bootcamp as a complete beginner, with no experience using HTML, CSS or Javascript. Never could I have imagined I would feel proficient using the aforementioned languages or learning how to use React Js, Node Js, MVC models etc and developing fully functioning apps 6 months later. 

It was a really challenging course, especially since I was working an equally demanding full time job at the time. However, I did receive a lot of support from our teaching and online tutor staff, fellow peers and Student Success Manager which helped me graduate with great results. They also provide a dedicated career service team that would help you prep for jobs after the course. 

Although I am currently not in a developer role, I still use the skills I have learnt in my current role and I feel confident that I can move into a developer role in the future. Overall, I will definitely recommend the course to anyone looking to break into the Tech industry. 

The bootcamp I participated in was a very rewarding experience. I faced many challenges throughout the course and it is quite demanding but you definitely come out the other end better. I now use my role regularly in my day job and feel it has bettered me. I’d even feel comfortable walking into a Software Developer role, but for me it was about being able to freelance. 

The staff on the course are great and supportive. They take on all the feedback given and adapt to each cohort. 

I’d 100% recommend to anyone who has an interest in becoming a developer. No matter your age, or any other characteristic. The course is definitely workable for anyone with any level of knowledge. 

Terrible. I PAID £7000 for a online cyber security boot camp. Filled out all of the forms and get to the end of the course and they say I am bit even registered and get 0 help from any one after spending literally days and weeks trying emails phone numbers, you get zero response. Zero help. They literally have scammed me out of this money and spent 6 months doing hard work studying for exams that was totally pointless.

I still have not got any update on this nearly 2 months later! AVOID at all costs when it comes to online courses with this "UNIVERSITY" they work with a American company and as soon as you sign the contract and take on the debt they will not even care about getting your certificate. And make it impossible for you to get even though that is the whole point if the course. Pleaese stay away I don't want my worst enemy to go through the stress and hardship they have directly caused!

The course as a whole was intensive as we've learned a lot of a new skills in a span of almost 6 months.
But keeping in mind that intensive is in that case positive, i really enjoyed learning the different aspects of data science, specially that it touched on Machine Learning.
The instructural team was amazing, friendly, helpful and persistent.
Overall it was a great investment from my end but as i mentioned to my colleagues, taking this course doesn't mean you'll be a professional, it's step one in every student's path to success.

UBHM Data Bootcamp for Data Analytics is a fantastic journey into a new career. It starts assuming very little knowledge from a student and over the course of 6 months develops all necessary skills to start applying for entry level jobs in the field and continue developing yourself in a direction that you want. Bootcamp offers lessons 3 times a week, office hours, weekly 1-on-1 tutor sessions, 24/7 student assistance on Slack. So no matter how challenging or demanding the course might get, not at a single point in time students will feel helpless. It is a great learning opportunity that is well worth the price.