April 2022 Coding Bootcamp News

Table of Contents

• 2 PERSONNEL CHANGES IN BOOTCAMPS
• REGULATORY NEWS IN APRIL
• COLLEGE VS CODING BOOTCAMP
• NOVEL TRAINING MODELS IN APRIL 
• BRIDGING THE TECH GAP
• 10 NEW BOOTCAMPS & 1 NEW PART-TIME PROGRAM

We kicked off the month with a great April Fool’s Day joke from The Onion about Vice President Kamala Harris enrolling in a bootcamp with the hopes of getting an entry-level tech position. Joking aside, we saw more discussion around the merits of a coding bootcamp education over college, and if companies should fully drop the 4-year degree requirement from tech job postings. A new ISA lawsuit in California emerged and a recent survey by Arc.dev found that coding bootcamp grads earn 12% more than college grads! Plus, find out which 10 new bootcamps we added to the Course Report directory this month.

Summer is nearly here! Whether you’ve been thinking about making a career change or upskilling this summer, we’ve rounded up over 30 coding bootcamps with summer cohorts. Many of these bootcamps are accepting applications! 

Curious about what happened in March? Check out last month’s episode to hear our March coding bootcamp news roundup!

2 PERSONNEL CHANGES IN BOOTCAMPS

• Noodle appointed Catie Starr as Chief Marketing Officer. 
• Vemo Education Co-founder Renée Mang announced that she joined Stride Funding Inc as its Vice President of Operations as part of a larger expansion of the Stride leadership team.

REGULATORY NEWS IN APRIL

• Remember that in March, the Department of Education’s Office of Federal Student Aid clarified that income share agreements (ISAs) used to finance expenses for postsecondary education are private education loans under ED’s regulations. That’s a pretty major ruling in the bootcamp world. 
• In April, HigherEd Dive and Yahoo! News reported on a new ISA lawsuit by a former student of Lambda School/BloomTech alleging that the school misled her about job placement rates. She’s asking for her ISA to be cancelled by a California state judge.

COLLEGE VS CODING BOOTCAMP

• The New York Times did a deep dive into how companies are evolving their hiring practices by eliminating the college requirement. One way to think about this: nearly two-thirds of the American workforce does not have a college degree, and when companies screen job applicants by college degree, they eliminate 76% of Black adults and 83% of Latino adults.
• EdSurge covered a debate with the topic: “Is a College Degree the Worst Investment You Can Make — or the Best?” which featured Kay Lack of Makers Academy.
• People Matters and Dice highlighted a recent survey by Arc.dev that found that coding bootcamp grads earn 12% more than college grads.

NOVEL TRAINING MODELS IN APRIL 

• Standard Media points out that with technology integrated into every other industry, there’s a desperate need for programs that train up kids in tech skills and reskill adult workers looking to make a career change. 
• EdSurge summarized a SXSW Edu panel, where representatives from Sam’s Club, JP Morgan Chase & Co., and Degreed highlighted the trends they’re seeing in workplace learning.
• Protocol rounded up upskilling initiatives paid for by tech companies and bootcamps, such as Springboard’s Inclusion Scholarship Program, which is committing $10M in scholarship funds through the year 2030. 
• AWS re/Start and Tech Talent South have teamed up to offer training to unemployed or underemployed individuals that gets them into entry-level cloud careers.
• The 2U/Trilogy bootcamp offered by Morgan State University has partnered with Netflix Pathways Bootcamp to offer tech training to college students.
• The Wall Street Journal is naming career changers who pivot from low-paying hourly roles or blue-collar jobs to tech roles can now be called “new collar” workers.
• Paul Fain’s Revue newsletter recently focused on innovative employee training, such as Merit America and a new “Sponsored Degrees” program from GetSet Learning.
• CBC noted how Canada is being seen as Silicon Valley North as many big tech companies like Meta, Google, and Amazon open offices there.
• Bloomberg highlighted a Cyberseek report which found that there are 1+ million workers employed in cybersecurity in the US, with an additional 600,000+ cybersecurity jobs that still need filling! 

BRIDGING THE TECH GAP

• Since we’re so close to Mother’s Day, we wanted to give a shout out to all the moms in tech! Check out our favorite tips for moms who are learning to code.
• In the San Francisco Chronicle, Meka Egwuekwe (Executive Director of CodeCrew) wrote an op-ed recommending that companies remove the four-year degree requirement for most tech positions in order to help Black Americans secure well-paying jobs and construct a Black middle class. 

• Ada Developers Academy was featured in a CIO post about diversifying the tech space with women and non-binary talent. Remember that just a few months ago, Ada was awarded $10 million from Melinda French Gates and her investment company, Pivotal Ventures.
• VOA News also highlighted the diversity in tech work being done at Ada Developers Academy in a recent video interview. 

10 NEW BOOTCAMPS & 1 NEW PART-TIME PROGRAM

• Holberton School announced that it will now offer a part-time bootcamp starting in May 2022. 

We added 10 new bootcamps to the Course Report directory:

• Caltech Bootcamps (powered by Simplilearn) 
• UMass Amherst Project Management Bootcamp (powered by Simplilearn) 
• eCornell 
• Galactech
• Zaio
• Ultima School
• OSMI PRO
• WeStride
• MTS Class
• Sky Accelerator

OUR FAVORITE PIECES ON THE BLOG

Jess loved speaking with Test Pro alum Guzal, a busy mom who made a career change into Manual QA and is now a QA Analyst at Meta! Guzal pointed out how the Manual QA career (which does not require any coding skills!) is great for moms because it requires the same skill set of going deep, being patient, and repeating! 

Liz enjoyed interviewing Brandon, a recent grad from Merit America who pivoted from working gig jobs for Instacart and Doordash into a tech career as a Tech Support Associate at Infosys!