The App Academy NL

At first you feel overwhelmed by all the information thrown at you.
but the teacher Daniel Salber really takes his time with you and makes sure you understand a concept before moving on to the next one.

I attended the Advanced iOS Bootcamp that takes 6 weeks.
Even though it starts at the basics, it quickly ramps up the difficulty in a way that makes it manageable but also really engaging and challenging.
The bootcamp asks you to really devote yourself to it for the duration of the bootcamp. That means paying attention in class and doing the homework that's been assigned to you. Take your time and put the bootcamp before anything else.
Like i said it asks you devote yourself, but in return you get amazing support, and an amazing teacher to help you through the bootcamp.

I can recommend this to anyone willing to change their careers or already have programming experience but want to take it to the next level.

I started this boot camp with about half a year of iOS experience. I had done a handful of projects for myself and one project for a company. Even though I was doing alright in the field I wanted to get more knowledgeable and experienced in a short time, which is where the boot camp came into play.

Programming experience is required, not necessarily Swift.
Our lecturer was a developer with 30+ years experience of which 10 years iOS. He is more modern in his code and approach than many other developers with the same amount of experience. His teaching style is helpful but with a lot of freedom. The student is expected to try and figure out how to do something without immediately asking. An occasional push in the right direction was given when required and after you figured it out and got it working an explanation as to how or why it worked soon followed.
The first week of the boot camp was used to get non iOS developers up to speed with iOS. During this time the iOS experienced developers would do some additional assignments. The following couple of weeks were used make some small apps to gain some experience with frameworks previously unknown to us. Next to just programming there was also time for guest lectures and computer science subjects.

The last 4 weeks were used to create an app for a company. I was tasked to create an AR app which was to be used in a moving vehicle. This proved to be a problem since ARKit uses a variety of sensors to decide where to place the object. This basically means that when you’re in a vehicle your AR object keeps floating out of the screen. Luckily ARKit 2.0 was just announced. So after installing all the Beta software (not recommended if you appreciate stability) it was time to start figuring out how to get everything to work.  Since there wasn’t any documentation available on ARKit 2.0 it was a bit more difficult. Figuring something out with limited resources offers great satisfaction once finished.

Job support was good. The guys kept me up to date for possible jobs. Once they found the right one we went there together to see if it was a match. Currently working for a big insurance company now thanks to them.

Pro’s:
Great teacher
Good materials
Marvelous location (Centre of Amsterdam)

Cons:
Amsterdam is rather expensive

Tl:dr Great boot camp with a great lecturer. Learned a lot and would definitely recommend with cool concepts such as ARKit(and others). Programming experience required not necessarily Swift.

Before the start of the App Academy I had zero experience with coding. They assured me that that wasn't neccesary, so I took the jump and went. 
It was a very intensive, but learnfull experience. Our teacher Daniel Salbers was a very experienced developer with lots of patience. After the course I had some difficulty finding a job, but after 2 months I started as junior developer at a wonderful company and I'm still happy that I decided to turn my life arround and start a career as developer. 

While I was searching for a job within fashion, I just couldn't find something that felt completely right. This bootcamp appealed to me because you quickly learn a new skill and a new profession. Unsure if I could learn it all within 3 months, I started the bootcamp and dived in head first. Due to the high level of the teachers and the intensity of the bootcamp, I felt like I could learn it all within 3 months. The environment is easy-going and stimulating, with room to make as many mistakes as you can to understand all the concepts better. I am convinced that anyone who really really wants to, can learn how to code in swift. It requires total commitment, but with that, it is definitely worth it a thousand percent.

Having only done some Swift tutorials online prior to the iOS bootcamp, my knowledge was very limited and honestly I was not sure I would be able to learn how to code in just three months.

Although at times, the course is extremely challenging and I felt confused at the beginning (especially during week 2 and 3) it all started making a lot of sense shortly after. So as long as you really apply yourself and try to follow the instructions and tasks you are given, you will soon realise that coding is a way of thought and you will start grasping concepts and ways of teaching yourself how to code. 

I thought that the teaching staff was great and provided me with all the support I needed to learn Swift and how to teach myself (which is key!). The main tip I could give to someone looking to do the course is to really apply yourself and ask questions, all of them, there are no stupid questions. The teaching staff is there to help and they are very helpful and approachable. 

I really recommend the course! 

While there are many aspects that could be covered, I will review two aspects that personally I found most important during my bootcamp at The App Academy. That is the language that we were learning and the way we were taught it (and what future prospects did it set).

Language:
Probably one of the greatest things about The App Academy is that you get to learn how to work with the newest and most promising iOS developing language, Swift. While Objective-C still remains widely used in the world of iOS development and knowing it is still important, The App Academy offers a forward-looking approach and aims at preparing you for the growing present and future trends. Subsequently, the downside of this approach is that you do not get a chance to know Objective-C better. While there where few hours spared to understand the structure of the language, if you want to learn it more in-depth, you are expected to do so on your own as the scope of the course is not capable of including more lessons on Objective-C.

Teaching:
The teachers at The App Academy are young and enthusiastic. One of the most admirable things about the teaching in general is that they are really prepared to teach people with no experience in programming and limited knowledge in IT in general. The teachers are friendly and supportive. While the teaching methods may work differently for different people, generally, I found their theory/practice ratio quite good, focusing more on theory in the first third of the course and working on bigger team projects during the rest of the time. While in terms of acquired knowledge it is not possible to learn enough Swift to become a full-fledged Junior developer in just three months, I think The App Academy gives a good foundation for feeling confident and continue to deepen your knowledge and skills on your own and even find a job as an entry level developer in a company that is looking for more than just a set of skills. This course could be a good investment if you consider that learning how to make mobile apps could enhance and contribute to your other skills and abilities.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed taking classes at The App Academy and I felt a great improvement on my programming knowledge and skills. I would recommend this course for taking your iOS app development experience from zero to the level of beginner iOS developer. Although the classes are perfectly suited for people of any non-technical background, I believe that the ones who can benefit the most are people who already are more comfortable with mathematical logic. After all, programming is about logic, mathematics, and everyone's so well-loved algorithms :) So while it is not something that a person will have to deal with during the classes a lot, in a long run, for those who aspire to take a job in the IT field, Swift, like any other programming language, will require a lot of logical thinking and mathematics-based approach.

Joining the Bootcamp was the best thing that I did, looking back on this year (2015). I come from a design and architecture background with little experience in CSS and web tools. Stye of Bootcamp training worked for me, as it was intensive and formed good coding habits and practices. In order to 100% accomplish this course be prepared to work after hours too. I think there are two sides of this training one was learning the principles and syntax of coding and other working with other developers to understand social and management importance. The training started with nice introduction by our mentor Daniel Salber who had a challenge to explain fundamentals of coding (arrays, variables, functions...) to absolute beginners. This was taken into Swift language, style of teaching was interactive as we had to very actively participate and speak out ideas on questions asked. This way we remembered sooner and developed abstract thinking that is necessary for coding. We learned from a book and worked alone mostly on the syntax of Obj C which was intimidating at the beginning but now it seems easier than Swift. My two projects I did here with a colleague were done solely in Obj C, I am getting back to Swift now. The first project is about working together and choosing whatever idea you have to fulfill the given technical restrictions (Frameworks). This takes 2 weeks and is fun because you get to do what you like and not really understand what you doing. Second project everything got clearer to me and I could take more control. In that project we worked with students from TV Academy who came with some ideas but was very much expected that we lead the project. Here the challenge was to work with UX designers and use their help. The only thing that I would change in this program is to have more changes in team work. We did not choose our team it is given to us by a random name picking. 

I had been wanting to change careers for years, but i didn't know what to go for. One thing i did know was that i wanted to learn a skill that would allow me to work from anywhere in the world. I love traveling and i thought it would be great if i could combine it with work. After a while i got really interested in apps and all the possibilities they offer.  With no coding experience what so ever i started looking into the possibilities of becoming an app developer. I didn't feel like going to school for a couple of years and i also didn't feel like doing an online course. Than I found out about The App Academy and i went to an open day. Right away i had a good feeling about the bootcamp courses they offered. I decided to join the september 2015 bootcamp. And it was the best decision of my life. I didn't know what to expect and i was a bit sceptical. Could i really become an App developer by completing this course? 

Now i can say that it has exceeded my expectations by far. The bootcamp was hard. There were days that i was really doubting if i could ever grasp the material. I experinced a lot of ups and downs and sometimes it really was like a roller coaster ride. But we had great teachers and they did their utmost to support us in any way possible. The pace of the bootcamp is very fast. But with enough dedication anyone could follow. Before the bootcamp i hadn't even ever touched a mac computer so i had to adapt also to working on a macbook. And did i write that i didn't have any programming experience at all? Well, i still made it! During the course i was able to build two apps from scratch which i'm very proud of. I have mastered the skills to be able to build iOS apps. And i have a lot of resources to help me grow as a developer. Furthermore, The App Academy is going to match us to the right company's to do an internship. I have met several ex students that did the bootcamp before me and each and everyone of them is now working with a great company. It was great to see that the people of The App Academy keep so close in touch with all their former students.

For anyone who is looking for the best and fastest way of becoming an app developer, i can truly say don't look any further. The App Academy bootcamp is your best chance. I am so happy that i encountered them and I hope to be in touch with the great people for many years to come!

Feel free to email me if you have any questions regarding the bootcamp at f.astitou@gmail.com

Fouad Astitou

iOS developer.

The bootcamp started with an introduction in Swift using playgrounds and to get familiar with programming and XCode. The program used to write iOS apps in. Here after we started working in Objective C to build small apps and to learn how an app is constructed. We ended with mixing in Swift, to learn how this language can be used in todays apps. 

In the beginning you keep asking yourself if you are in the right place. You feel totally overwelmed because everything is totally new. But due to the very patient, helpfull and great teachers I always fellt this helped me learn the most. 

Because of the structure of the bootcamp I learned a lot on many different 'coding' topics. At a certain point I noticed a tipping point In my programming skills. it feels like everything falls into place and from then on I started doing more and more myself, without looking at books or tutorials. 

In the finals projects it was also great to learn to work with UX design, agile scrum and Git which is great to know because in practice you'll need the knowledge. 

Now after three months of practice I'm a IOS Developer with the skills to build apps. After the bootcamp The App Academy also helps me to find a job to set out in the coding world. I'm really happy I applied to the course and with everything I learned and would recommend it to anyone who wants to learn coding!