When you think of a bootcamp, images of intense physical training and discipline may immediately come to mind. The same may be for coding bootcamps, minus the physical training but with computers and coding involved. Coding bootcamps are intensive and accelerated short-term learning programs that can teach students programming skills and other digital skills like data science, UX/UI design, full-stack web development, and digital marketing. From learning the basics of coding and other programming languages and development frameworks, these bootcamps can be viewed as a nontraditional means to supplement graduating with a degree in computer science or as a means to shift into a career in web or software development.
What started out as a person offering to teach six other people how to code in late 2011 is now an industry worth $60 million and produces over 6,000 developers a year. Technology continues to evolve and change how people live, and these coding bootcamps have helped produce the software engineers that have helped develop the numerous forms of technology people use at present. Coding bootcamps not only teach the technical skills to match the technologies established companies use, but also teach the skills startups use to launch and build products, which in turn have helped these businesses grow. Here are other ways coding bootcamps contribute to startups’ growth and success.
Course duration
Coding bootcamps take the most relevant skills from a four-year degree program, infuse them with the latest industry skills, and compress everything into a curriculum that can take from around 6 to 28 weeks to complete. Compared to coding bootcamps, most computer science degrees include a wide range of classes that may be practical to help students understand theories but may not be related to what students face as software developers in the real world after graduation. Since coding bootcamps run for an average of 14 weeks, people who complete the program can find employment or launch their own startups sooner compared to completing a full degree program.
High-impact teachingÂ
Because coding bootcamps focus mainly on teaching skills practical and essential in the real world, these courses are high-impact and focus on gearing learners up with exactly the skills needed to be successful coders in the industry. This accelerated high-impact learning approach may not be for everyone but instead is more suited for people who want to make the most of the skills they can obtain given a limited time frame and more intensive training experience. Coding bootcamps not only prepare students for the competitive job market but can also equip them to launch or grow their own startups.
Demand
Through project-based learning, coding bootcamps teach widely used development frameworks and programming languages like JavaScript, Ruby on Rails, PHP stacks, and Python on Django, basic for getting a foot in the software development industry or for furthering knowledge in the same field. Besides the knowledge gained, these bootcamps fill the growing demand for software engineers and developers, an industry seen to keep growing until 2029.
According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, employment in the said industry is seen to increase by 22% from 2019 to 2029, faster than the average for other occupations. Skills gained from these bootcamps can get course finishers employment as junior developers or entry-level positions in large companies, technical co-founders, or dev team members at a startup. Â
Mentorship
Some programs include mentorship in their curriculum which not only offers students technical guidance for harder to grasp concepts, career guidance for learning about different roles in the industry as well as network expansion but also offers encouragement and support to students not only during the program but also post-bootcamp, in some cases. Having a mentor can help students review work, get an understanding of how to get projects done efficiently and effectively, and get career advice and inspiration as well.
Nowadays, there are numerous options for coding bootcamps to choose from; you can opt to take full-time in-person classes, full-time remote classes, self-paced online classes, or part-time classes. Different class models may have different end goals, depth, and delivery of curriculum, and outcome expectations, but topics covered are the same across models.Â
Coding bootcamps promote innovation not only by reinforcing curricula based on the latest trends and employer needs but also by encouraging students that learning how to learn new programming languages is a skill that the industry will always find useful. Businesses, especially startups, rely on the uniqueness of an idea and proper funding to operate and achieve initial success but will also need the right support to keep them up and running. Having the right skill set to back up your startup idea will not only help get it off the ground but can also help make sure it runs smoothly and eventually grows and succeeds.
About The Author:
Chatty is a freelance writer from Manila. She finds joy in inspiring and educating others through writing. That’s why aside from her job as a language evaluator for local and international students, she spends her leisure time writing about various topics such as lifestyle, technology, and business.
