As the chorus of voices calling for more STEM degrees grows ever louder, an educational model once deemed alternative has grown into something veritably mainstream.
According to findings by New York-based Course Report, the coding bootcamp education model — which aims to give students an intensive crash course in computer science and coding — has never been more popular among students.
Since just last year, bootcamp providers have jumped in number from 67 to 91, with 69 coding bootcamps in operation across some 34 states. Average tuition, they found, evens out to about $11,451, with nationwide tuition revenue (excluding scholarships) flirting with a solid $200 million.
“Course Report's findings validate coding bootcamps have grown into their own as a path to gainful employment and that students are rapidly flocking to this alternative education model because they're getting better and faster outcomes,” said David Yang, founder of New York’s Fullstack Academy. “At Fullstack, we continue to see strong growth in demand for our programs, with students coming in from all over the world.”
Fullstack Academy established presence in Chicago in March of this year following a high-profile acquisition of The Starter League, an early trailblazer in the coding bootcamp model that helped popularize the Ruby on Rails framework. Today, Fullstack operates out of 1871.
According to the report, Ruby on Rails has slipped slightly in popularity in the past year. It accounts for 30 percent of courses, while Full Stack JavaScript has usurped its leading title, with use in 33 percent of courses.
There are already a number of coding bootcamps in Chicago, including DevBootcamp, Startup Institute, General Assembly and Code Platoon, a program tailor-made for US Veterans. And according to another bootcamp, Coding Dojo, which will set up shop in Chicago on August 15, there’s no shortage of demand.
“As you can see from Course Report’s findings, there’s a huge demand for tech talent in the US right now, with the Department of Labor predicting there will be 1,000,000 more computer science jobs than CS graduates by 2020,” said Coding Dojo’s communications director Katie Bouwkamp.
In 2016, Course Report estimates that coding bootcamps will graduate just under 18,000 students this year. Compared to the 61,000 undergrad computers science grads from 2015, it’s not a phenomenon to ignore.
Check out Course Report's full infographic here.
Image via Fullstack Academy. Infographic courtesy of Course Report.
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