March 2022 Coding Bootcamp News

Table of Contents

• A €10 MILLION FUNDRAISE + $1.1B IN REVENUE GROWTH
• LATEST ON PELL GRANTS & 2 NEW OUTCOMES STANDARDS ORGS
• MAKING A CAREER CHANGE IN 2022
• APPRENTICESHIPS FOR AMERICA
• DIVERSITY IN THE TECH WORLD
• 10 NEW BOOTCAMPS & 1 NEW CAMPUS
• OUR FAVORITE PIECES ON THE BLOG

What was the buzz in the bootcamp industry this March? So far, 4.35 million Americans have quit their jobs this year, and many are making career changes. We’re rounding up the latest news about how bootcamps are helping these folks meet their career goals, and a new apprenticeship program that caught our eye. This March, two new organizations focused on bootcamp outcomes emerged and several bootcamp alumni were spotlighted in the news. Plus, find out which 10 new bootcamps we added to the Course Report directory this month!

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

A €10 MILLION FUNDRAISE + $1.1B IN REVENUE GROWTH

• According to Tech EU, Epicode School has joined Strive School to rebrand itself as Epicode and has also raised their €10 million Series A. Epicode’s CEO, Ivan Ranza, says that their first step is to establish Epicode as the leader in Europe and to move from a coding school to a career acceleration platform. 
• Higher Ed Dive did a recap of how Strategic Education’s revenue grew to $1.1 billion in 2021, a 10.1% year-over-year increase. (Strategic Education is the parent company of Strayer and Capella Universities, which owns coding bootcamps Hackbright Academy and Devmountain.) 
• Higher Ed Dive reported that CUNY announced they are creating CUNY Online, their own in-house OPM using federal relief funds. 

LATEST ON PELL GRANTS & 2 NEW OUTCOMES STANDARDS ORGS

• Higher Ed Dive highlighted a new nonprofit organization, Workforce Talent Educators Association (WTEA), that is attempting to accredit career focused programs and degrees. Founding members include private student loan provider Ascent Funding, and coding bootcamps, Nucamp and Fullstack Academy.
• Michael B. Horn wrote about his non-profit, Education Quality Outcomes Standards Board (EQOS), being acquired by Jobs for the Future. 
• In a recent “The Job” newsletter, Paul Fain relayed that the amendment for Pell grants for short-term programs bill is back on ice. This amendment has bipartisan support so there is hope that it will pass in the future. 

MAKING A CAREER CHANGE IN 2022

• The Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey from February 2022 shows that there are a record 5 million more job openings in the US economy than the number of available workers. Morning Brew broke this number down further pointing out that right now there are 1.8 jobs for every unemployed person in America! Plus, people quitting their jobs jumped from 94,000 in January 2022 to 4.35M! 
• In President Biden’s State of the Union address, he called on employers to hire based on skills, not degrees. HR Dive’s Khyati Sundaram says that in place of resumes, skills-based assessments, such as work sample tests, can be deployed to find the person with the best skill-set for the job.   
• Governor Larry Hogan of Maryland eliminated the 4-year degree requirement for thousands of state agency jobs. (Just a heads up to anyone in Maryland on the job hunt, there’s over 300 of these jobs listed on their website!)
• Protocol announced that LinkedIn added 13 new job title options to reflect career breaks for professionals.
• A Thomson Reuters article calls soft skills the new “power skills” especially in the remote and hybrid work environment. 
• CBC News covered four Canadians who found new careers by enrolling at coding bootcamps, like Lighthouse Labs and Le Wagon. 
•  The LA Times published a piece this month highlighting Artists Who Code, an online, volunteer-run organization that offers support and guidance to artists who are interested in making a career change into tech or now working in tech themselves. 
• Momentum put out a press release about a family of 4 sisters who have changed careers! 

APPRENTICESHIPS FOR AMERICA

• Apprenticeships for America is a new national organization focused on apprenticeships that are registered with the U.S. Department of Labor.
• SC Media reports that Fullstack Academy has partnered with the non-profit CyberUp to offer a year-long apprenticeship for cybersecurity employees. 

DIVERSITY IN THE TECH WORLD

• News Center Maine highlighted Fereshteh Forough, an Afghani woman who runs a coding bootcamp-style program for young Afghani women, called Code to Inspire.
• CNBC’s Ashton Jackson wrote that despite the growing popularity of tech jobs, Black talent is still extremely underrepresented in the industry. For instance, Black talent only accounts for 7.4% of the tech workforce. A recent Jobs for the Future survey of more than 1,000 Black adults, over 6 in 10 do not currently work in digital or IT, but would be open to changing careers.

10 NEW BOOTCAMPS & 1 NEW CAMPUS

• Tech Elevator announced it’s opening a new campus in Dallas, TX, and the first cohort begins this May.
• The virtual 21-Day Data Challenge at Lighthouse Labs kicks off on April 11th! This data challenge helps total beginners learn the basics of Python and SQL, and participants have the possibility of winning some great prizes like a Nintendo Switch, an iPad, or vacation airfare!

We added 10 new bootcamps to the Course Report directory:

• GenSpark
• Geekshubs Academy
• Academia Geek
• OdinSchool
• Dribbble
• Encode Club
• Careers in Code
• Greenfield Community College Bootcamps (powered by Upright Education)
• Swiss Code Academy 
• Powercoders

OUR FAVORITE PIECES ON THE BLOG

Jess enjoyed speaking with recent Careerist bootcamp grad, Roman who made a career change into Manual QA, and then upskilled with Careerist’s Automated QA course to land an Automated QA Engineer position at Tesla!

Liz got to reconnect with Nicki Stone, who graduated from Sabio 8 years ago, about her career trajectory from Junior .NET Developer to Co-Founder to Developer Advocate to Senior iOS Engineer. Nicki just started a new job as a Staff Engineer at Meta and she really opened up with advice for new junior-level developers.