Code Institute

A year ago I decided to change my career and become a programmer. I couldn't have chosen a better guide to take me along this path than the Code Institute. A very professional program helped me understand the secrets of coding. Here theory meets practice! The team of professionals at Code Institute were very helpful and interested in my progress. Tips from mentors and tutor support helped me solve problems and create "real" applications.
Career Hub, which is a great team that helps in finding a job and preparing for interviews, deserves attention.
The course is very flexible! I studied and worked full time.
It was hard work, but it was definitely worth it!

Firstly – I apologise for the novel. This is only the highlights from the issues I and my class faced while attending a course with this college. All issues can be backed with evidence if requested. I would like to convey very clearly that I am exceptionally unimpressed with this course. I have found it far below the standards that I would expect from a course partnered with UCD (well technically UCD Professional Academy). Furthermore, I feel the cost of €7995 cannot possibly be justified given the poor quality of the teaching and the course material itself. I would strongly recommend you do not partake in this course. There are so many other Bootcamps and code course out there. Don't let the fact that this course is partnered with UCD or supposedly has "college accreditation" mislead you.  Changing assessment criteria while students are actively working on the projects in question (initially without telling the applicable students). When this was raised a response of "simplifying assessment criteria to inflate pass rates is acceptable because employers will not know and it is done all the time in third level education"... This, in my opinion, is just wrong and confirms that this certificate will not have any real industry value.  Course content issues:- Recommended tools do not provide sufficient functionality for merit/distinction grading (ie using github projects as a full Agile project management tool for linking epics to user stories to tasks and bugs)- Much of the content is almost a carbon copy of that found on freecodecamp and codcademy sites- Walkthrough code supplied on the college GitHub, doesn’t align with the video project walkthroughs and often has errors which are detrimental to the operation of the program- Numerous spelling errors and typos across the online content- When a student does raise a bug/issue/typo, there is no open communication, instead defensive responses, (therefore personally I have ceased to raise defects/bugs) The Masterclass promise was: “…there will be 8 x 7.5 hour Masterclass sessions to complement your online learning. The first seven sessions are hackathons, designed to develop your practical competencies, challenge your problem-solving abilities and advance your understanding of the concepts that you are learning. Each session aligns with one of the mini-projects within the course…”Only the first Masterclass included a hackathon, all others contained a limited morning of "lectures" followed by an afternoon of "time to work on our projects". Facilitation courses- Contained lectures which regurgitated course content, not the class discussions/learning sessions promised- One class didn't even occur, it was rescheduled after the fact. Mentoring sessions. Promised at 1hr each. Halfway through the course these were reduced to 30 mins. I was lucky, my mentor, who no longer works with CI, was amazing, but I have heard so many horror stories from fellow students. Tutor support- This is a text based message service that you can only avail of if you use Gitpod (the college recommended developer platform)- Spent almost 2 hours on the line to troubleshoot an issue, the initial agent couldn't help me and was only "online for another 15mins" so put me back to the queue. Left the call with no answer (took a Dev at my day job 5mins to trouble shoot the issue)- Next time I tried to use Tutor support I was informed I had used up my Allowed time and took over an hour to receive a response, after another hour without response I decided it was a waste of time.(issue was determined to be with Gitpod, all issues stopped once I started using VS Code)- Unless you develop your project exactly as per the video examples, tutor support cannot help you The college does not understand the difference between Unit tests and automated/manual functional testing. This is a developer course that does not require the creation of unit tests, but will fail you if you do not breach Facebook T&Cs and create a fake Facebook Business page for a project... During the process of dealing with my complaint (yes, I raised all of these issues with the "college" in a process that took months) they appointed an individual to be a Cohort Coordinator for UCD. A meeting was requested and agreed and then the Cohort Coordinator failed to respond/confirm/attend. I was passed around until I reached the Customer Relations Manager for UCD Professional Academy. During this call, the manager admitted that mistakes have been made with this course and that the level of service provided has not met the expectations of any party involved, and an offer was made for a €1,000 refund and the ability to attend a different course (neither of which I accepted). During this call the Cohort Coordinator made false accusation of "Aggressive" messaging (which are unfounded, and I am more than happy to provide proof) and informed me I should cease to use the group channels when asking questions (even if the questions effect other students). To make such an accusation during a complaint resolution call is deflective and inappropriate. It goes to show how little Code Institute care about its students and how inexperienced the company is as a whole. From my experience, most of the students that are employed after completing this course, are employed directly by the college. Do not let the partnership with UCD fool you. This course is definitely not value for money. It is not consistent in its assessments and all of the content can be learnt elsewhere for free, or for a small fee if you prefer a more structured approach.

I'm currently nearing the end of my studies with Code Institute, and it's been an incredible journey! I'd never written a line of code in my life, and less than a year later, I'm working as a full time developer! The Hackathons are absolutely invaluable, I highly recommend them! They always have fantastic themes (including one where we were tasked to build a retro game), and you learn so much from doing them. Each team has a mix of abilities, so there's always something new to learn, either from more experienced teammates, or from teaching those who are less experienced. Honestly, I can't recommend it enough!!

This is a flexible online coding bootcamp that allows career changers to get a university level qualification at the same time as building a large portfolio, getting agile development experience and guarantee job interviews with nearly 1,500 hiring partners. They also provide amazing support 24/7 and really helped me network with other developers. Most recently I took part in a Code Institute Hackathon which was in partnership with a large global tech recruitment company and had judges from lots of big name companies too. To get to work with various levels of professional developers really helped me develop professional development skills while on the course. 

Code Institute offers students the opportunity to learn code but also work on their own initiative in order to prepare students for the workplace. The slack community is an incredible community that offers help from students and alumni alike. The course material is constantly being enhanced and the course developers are really dedicated to maximising every student's learning opportunity. Another great aspect of this course is its hackathons which allow students to develop a project as part of a team and get some real collaborative developing experience under the guidance of an industry professional. The hackathons are a great learning opportunity because they present students with knowledge and skills beyond the course content and also give students a real feel for a working development environment. 

The course is really well structured and the fact the whole course content is available from day 1 is amazing. I have been able to progress through the course very fast and had nothing holding me back. The 1 to 1 mentor sessions for your projects are great. The mentor I have been given is amazing and is very clear when helping me with issues.  The community within Code Institute is very large and busy, the slack is full of amazing people and content.  The monthly hackathons are amazing! each one is very different and Interesting, I have been learning a great deal from my peers during these events. 

I began learning in Code Institute's software development program in early 2021. It has been thorough and enlightening. I did not have much experience with coding before. In just a few short months, I'm able to create interesting websites with HTML, CSS3, and JS. I get to learn about multiple coding languages and if ever there are complications, I have great support. Along with the projects and study, we can partake in different Hackathons throughout the year.

If you want to learn more about software development and coding languages, I would highly recommend this course. Even if you start with minimal knowledge, the materials are so understandable that you can complete it.

The only positive thing they have is the tutors that are helpful and responsive. 
The rest was handled terribly. This whole move from AWS to GitPod made me lose the project I almost finished. They could do nothing to restore it and eventually they just ignored this issue. In the beginning of my course, so that I was already frustrating.
Following this, it has been 3 months since I submitted my final assignment, I heard no response on it and still no certificate.
I contacted student care hoping this would get resolved and the issue is still not resolved by the deadline they gave me and no response to my email inquiries.
I am at a loss of words about what a waste of money this course is. Especially considering how expensive it is. I regret wasting my own money and would never recommend this course to anyone.

You can learn all by yourself and become a competent developer. However, when you are just starting out with total unfamiliarity in the field, my experience is that it helps immensely to have some structure, guidance and support. The overall cost was expensive, but well worth it, given that you not only gain a skill but a university accredited diploma. Rest assured going through the course I will not have to spend a single penny to learn further in the area of web-development. Certainly, I don't have all the skills to jump into a career right away, and I don't think any boot-camp experience solely can make that happen. Nevertheless, with the skill I have gained from CI course I can now manage to learn further on my own with the available free resources in the internet. The tutor support are okay as the waiting time for support can sometime be frustrating if you are time-bounded. In-industry mentors are assigned to a student to provide guidance with the milestone projects. There is a slack community where you can ask/contribute and get help with course/coding related issues from other experienced students and community members. The lessons are updated and the available content are on par as a stepping stone to the real in-demand skills required in the field of Web development.

If you would like to change your career path this is the right course for you. I started my course almost two years ago and while learning it a lot happened in my life. People from CI Student Care were there for me all the time. When I have my back problems and I couldn't finish my projects on time.. there were also there for me when my personal life changed by 180 degrees... They are creating a great community of students, mentors, tutors, and Student Care team, and many many more. It's not only a normal online course where you learning how to make your first steps with coding. It is also a group of people that are here always for you to help, say a good word, and help you with anything you need. 

Mentors? I had 3 different Mentors on my journey. USA, United Kingdom, they're from everywhere, believe me. They are not only mentors but after time, they are becoming friends. Giving you support when you need it, having fun during the online sessions always. As I mentioned earlier, they're people for people, not robots. Even, if this is programming, hehe.

Course material and information? Everything well prepared and presented on their online platform. Easy to use navigation, very intuitive. On Course you can find the text to read, videos with explanations and also great and funny games, tests to check what you have learned. You will start learning basics and then more and more and more, as more you will learn, the more you will understand and programming will become great fun! This course will open your mind and give you possibilities to push yourself to your limits you never knew.

After course I've opened my private company and my online store on one of the platforms. I never thought I will be able to do it. When I am looking into the past, I am laughing at myself I was scared of programming and I didn't start it earlier as I should. 

I am strongly recommending the Course for everyone who wants to learn and understand programming.