August 2020 Coding Bootcamp News

Table of Contents

• HUGE FUNDRAISES + EARNINGS REPORTS
• 40% OF COLLEGE STUDENTS ARE CONSIDERING A GAP YEAR
• DEMAND FOR BOOTCAMPS IS ON THE RISE
• ARE THERE JOBS FOR BOOTCAMP GRADS?
• BRIDGING THE TECH GAP: DIVERSITY SCHOLARSHIPS
• NEW COURSES + CAMPUSES IN AUGUST
• 5 NEW BOOTCAMPS ON COURSE REPORT
• FAVORITE PIECES ON THE BLOG

Over $100M was invested in coding bootcamps this August! We cover those fundraises and why coding bootcamps are looking so appealing to investors these days. This month, we also saw new research about the rising interest in gap years and the demand for upskilling, and how coding bootcamps are uniquely positioned to meet both of those needs. August marks the Women’s Vote Centennial in the U.S., and we uncovered advice on how tech can further diversify its workforce, plus three impressive scholarships coding bootcamps are offering to diversity the tech pipeline. And of course, we’ll tell you all about the 5 new schools we added to the Course Report school directory this August!

Curious about what happened in July? Check out last month’s episode with the biggest bootcamp news from July 2020.

HUGE FUNDRAISES + EARNINGS REPORTS

• TechCrunch reported that Lambda School closed their Series C and raised $74M in equity, with the largest investment coming from Gigafund, the VC that has invested in SpaceX. Lambda School was approved by California’s Bureau for Private Postsecondary Education (BPPE) in August.  

• EdSurge reported that Springboard received a $31 million dollar investment led by Telstra Ventures. 

• According to Seeking Alpha, K12 reports Q4 revenues of $268.9M (+4.9% Y/Y) driven by increased enrollments and acquisition of Galvanize and Hack Reactor earlier this year.

• Fool.com looked into Chegg’s Q3 earnings report and included some thoughts from Chegg CEO Dan Rosensweig about their acquisition of Thinkful.

• General Assembly announced that co-founder and CEO Jake Schwartz was leaving GA this August. Lisa Lewin is now the new CEO of General Assembly. 

40% OF COLLEGE STUDENTS ARE CONSIDERING A GAP YEAR

• Inside Higher Ed cites a recent Simpson-Scarborough survey that found 40% of incoming college freshmen are considering a gap year. The survey also found that students attending private colleges were even more apt to take that gap year than their public college counterparts. 

• If you’re a high school graduate now considering taking a gap year, check out our list of coding bootcamp programs and pre-college programs! 

• Inside Higher Ed reported on a new program called Semester of Code, where students earn between 12 and 16 credits from Arcadia University that will be transferable to their home institution. Colleges that team up with Arcadia and 2U to offer the Semester of Code program to their students will share the tuition revenue with the university and 2U.

• Grand Circus has partnered with the Great Lakes Observing System, so Grand Circus students can work with actual data about the lakes for their final projects.

• In a local ABC News story, Grand Circus was mentioned as offering free, virtual coding workshops every Tuesday and Saturday. 

• Nucamp unveiled a $50K coding bootcamp scholarship fund specifically for recent high school graduates who are taking a gap year due to COVID-19. 

DEMAND FOR BOOTCAMPS IS ON THE RISE

• According to Inside Higher Ed, coding bootcamps and online coding courses have seen increased interest due to the pandemic. Flatiron School CEO Adam Enbar says that the quality of candidates has increased since March, with more people with coding experience applying. COO of General Assembly Liz Simon says they’ve seen website traffic increase 179% between April 2019 and April 2020. From an enrollment standpoint, General Assembly saw 30% year-on-year growth in its immersive courses in the second quarter of 2020. edX saw 5 million new users join the platform, which is more than it added in the entirety of 2019.

• Inside Higher Ed referenced an edX survey published in June 2020 that found that 56% of respondents want to pursue additional education, and of those, 45% said they are looking for a course to help advance their career, compared with 30% who want to explore a new interest.

• London Loves Business reports that searches for tech courses and remote learning have surged in the UK by over 40% on average. 

• Ironhack has partnered with Landing.Jobs to release a €300,000 scholarship program for people whose employment was affected by COVID-19 transition into tech.

• The Miami-Dade Beacon Council launched MiamiTech.Works, an online jobs and career services portal designed in partnership with local coding bootcamps Wyncode, 4Geeks Academy, and General Assembly.

• TechTarget posted an article about the importance of data literacy in today’s workplace, and highlighting Flatiron School’s data science bootcamp and a free data science prep course.

• Technically Philly shared Code for Philly’s new technical fellowship, which offers paid skills development and mentorship to three fellows. 

• In a letter to the editor in the Austin Business Journal, U.S. veteran Mario Morales shared how VetsInTech and coding bootcamp Galvanize helped him successfully transition into civilian life. 

ARE THERE JOBS FOR BOOTCAMP GRADS?

• If you’re wondering if companies are hiring bootcamp graduates right now, check out our roundup of companies hiring plus advice from actual bootcamp alumni who have landed a job during the pandemic. 

• CNBC shares that, as of July, tech job postings were down 36% compared to the same time last year, according to recent data from the online platform Indeed.

• Datanami explored the soft skills needed to get data scientists and data engineers on the same page when working together on a team. 

• Fast Company covered a report that Coding Dojo put together which ranked cities with affordable living costs. 

BRIDGING THE TECH GAP: DIVERSITY SCHOLARSHIPS

• August marks 100 years of women’s suffrage in the United States. Women’s rights have come a long way in the U.S. but there’s still a long way to go especially when it comes to gender equality in the tech world where women account for just 20% of the tech workforce. 

• If you identify as a woman, check out our continuously updated, comprehensive guide to coding bootcamp scholarships for women! 

• Forbes listed several action items on how tech leaders can support diversity during the pandemic. 

• This month, we added three new diversity scholarships to our diversity in tech coding bootcamp scholarships roundup!

NEW COURSES + CAMPUSES IN AUGUST

• Fullstack Academy has recently partnered with Cal State East Bay to offer both a coding bootcamp and a cybersecurity bootcamp.

• Canadian bootcamp CodeBoxx is expanding to the U.S. by opening a campus in Tampa Bay, Florida.

• North Dakota’s only coding bootcamp Emerging Digital Academy just graduated its first cohort! Emerging Digital Academy is in partnership with Prime Digital Academy.

• Craft Academy has partnered with Cybint in order to launch Sweden’s first cybersecurity bootcamp, which will begin this October. 

• Le Wagon is launching a Dubai campus this September.

• Galvanize announced a new part-time, online data science bootcamp that will begin this October.

• Coding Dojo is launching a part-time Product Management bootcamp this fall. 

• Sierra College in California will be launching an 18-week coding bootcamp this September. 

5 NEW BOOTCAMPS ON COURSE REPORT

In August, we added 5 schools to our Course Report school listings:

• Avocademy

• CyberCamp

• Emerging Digital Academy

• Grand Canyon University Boot Camps

• GreenFig

FAVORITE PIECES ON THE BLOG

It wasn’t just the media talking about bootcamps this August! The Course Report team was hard at work publishing tons of interviews and guides. Liz loved working on the guide, How to Get Into a Coding Bootcamp in 2020. This guide combines all that she has learned over the past 7 years about choosing and getting into a bootcamp and distilled it into just 8 steps.

And Jess was inspired by Ashley, a Codesmith alum who landed a remote developer job during the pandemic after spending weeks preparing for technical interviews with his Codesmith cohortmates. Ashley reminds us that a supportive community is a key part of the job search process!