Can You Really Learn To Code At A Coding Bootcamp?

To answer this particular question, you might imagine that you’re entering two determining factors into an equation. One determining factor is whether or not the coding environment, the physical and digital arena of learning, is adequately addressing the content and skills that will be vital to a programmer in the future. The second is entirely dependent on how the individual approaches the opportunity, and if they choose to treat it with due diligence. In order to succeed, you cannot have one without the other.
Coding bootcamps are not a conveyor belt upon which you leap, and 12 weeks later, your head has been automatically implanted with all the tools that an up-and-coming coder needs to enter the employment sphere as a budding developer. Nothing is ever that simple, and if it is, you should question its merit.

“Despite The Friendly Atmosphere Of Individuals Who Share A Mutual Ambition, It Is Still An Intensive, Rigorous Training Environment.”

While it may be taught by engaging, open-minded lecturers and industry practitioners, that shouldn’t disguise the fact that, beneath the shoulder-to-shoulder comradery of working in a team, despite the friendly atmosphere of individuals who share a mutual ambition, it is still an intensive, rigorous training environment.

The emphasis is on providing an environment of focussed learning, expert guidance, practical experience, all in order to provide an understanding of industry-standard technology that modern coders are expected to have, and employers assume you have before you even walk in the door.
If all goes according to plan, you will be approaching your next interview confident that the skills you now possess will translate into the projects and demands of your potential future employers.

Coding Bootcamps Often Raise Eyebrows.

Is it actually possible to learn to code, and adequately compile all those years of experience and education into a 12 week course? It is, although as ever, it’s entirely down to the compatibility of the coder to the learning structure. The last thing we want is to your work fingers down to the bone, or work your mind to exhaustion, but the one thing we want, is that you work. Your concentration, your intelligence, your focus, your dedication, shall all be tested. As such, the answer to that initial question belongs to you, and you alone.

The Code Institute talks extensively with employers and recruitment agencies throughout Ireland, and an overwhelming trend is immediately apparent. Employers want coders. Capable, intelligent, ambitious coders. Your story, your background experience, and your age are all irrelevant secondary details as long as you can demonstrate the ability to intelligently write code.

Further evidence suggests that the 12 week educational model is a viable form of improving employment prospects, as illustrated in a 2014 survey-based study by Liz Eggleston and Tre Jones. According to their findings, of the 432 respondents, scattered throughout 48 qualified programming schools, there was an average increase of 44% in post-bootcamp salary.

‘In our first graduate survey, and the first cross-school study of its kind in the programming bootcamp industry, we find strong evidence of salary growth, with respondents reporting a $25,000 (19,800€) average increase in their first job after attending a programming bootcamp.’

‘Of those without a college degree and with no coding experience prior to their bootcamp, 71 percent now have a full-time programming job.’

Given the relatively small sample size, and the fact that only 48% of those who entered the coding bootcamp had held a full-time position previously, some of the figures should be taken with a grain of salt. However, in spite of this, it does prove that informal learning institutions, outside of the traditional avenue of university, such as Hack Reactor in San Francisco, Bit Maker Labs in Toronto, and The New York Code and Design Academy, continue to illustrate astronomically high employment figures.

Learn To Code In Ireland

What Code Institute wants to do for Ireland is to address the discrepancy that we continue to turn our backs to, through the emulation of the US model. We want to understand their successes, their failures, and the challenges which the US coding bootcamps encountered as they challenged the traditional educational infrastructure. Ireland, for a nation that boasts such enormous growth in the information and technology sector, amounting to enormous prosperity, we’re ignoring the basic tenets of supply and demand. There is a demand to be met, yet we’re failing to supply the coding talent.

The hunger for ambitious, competent coders is immediate, and the idea of waiting 4 years for a university graduate is impractical for all involved parties. With the crisis largely unaddressed by traditional academic institutions, the Code Institute offers an alternative solution that caters to the modern-day professional. We’re all coming to understand that third-level education is not a viable opportunity for everyone. Unlike Bit Maker Labs of Toronto, the Code Institute doesn’t want to ‘disrupt education,’ rather, promote an alternative methodology for technology-based learning. Ultimately, it’s all about education, but we believe that there is more than one way to learn.