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How Community Coding Bootcamps Prepare Grads For New Careers

These days, it feels like tech companies are sprouting up everywhere. With the incredible growth in the tech field, the demand for web developers has never been stronger. It’s one of the fastest-growing sectors today, and job opportunities are expected to increase by 15% through 2016. On top of that, it’s one of the few sectors experiencing salary growth, a true rarity in today’s economy.

To address this need for developers, coding bootcamps have been similarly sprouting up. In particular, a new model called the community coding bootcamp has emerged to better address student needs. Designed to be flexible, accessible and affordable, this type of bootcamp blends the best of online and offline education, giving students an accelerated yet effective way to learn to code.

Coding Languages Employers Want

Community coding bootcamps are designed to feature the types of languages and training that will prepare graduates for a career in tech after graduation. As a result, they feature the languages and tools that are most in-demand by employers today to ensure that graduates are marketable. This generally means including HTML, CSS, and JavaScript training for students focused on entry-level web development, languages and tools like React, React Native, and Bootstrap for students interested in front end web development, and NodeJS, MongoDB, and GitHub to acquire the data architecture and systems skills required of back end developers.

Effective, Group Troubleshooting

One major way community coding bootcamps differentiate themselves from online bootcamps is that they give students a group of peers. Students enter a program with a small, dedicated cohort giving them a team that they can rely on for support and to tackle challenging questions.

Additionally, students are assigned to a single, dedicated instructor. The instructors are unique in that many of them hold full time web developer roles during the day, and choose to teach during their “off” hours because they enjoy teaching and giving back to the coding community. Students enjoy access to an experienced individual who can support them and keep them motivated throughout their bootcamp journey.

Learn On Your Schedule

A core reason community coding bootcamps developed was to respond to a common problem found in offline bootcamps: the need for students to attend classes full time, five days a week. Individuals holding a full-time job or juggling family responsibilities found these requirements impossible to manage.

Community coding bootcamps offer a unique hybrid learning model that blends online and offline training. During the week, students take lessons online, giving them the opportunity to fit their learning around their schedule. Students then meet once a week during weekend workshops where they work together to complete assignments. This model offers the flexibility students need coupled with the value that comes from having face-to-face interactions with fellow students and instructors.

Stay Accountable

The common challenge students of online bootcamps find is that they rarely complete the full course. While the ability to take classes completely online makes them hyper-flexible, there’s often zero accountability and nothing pushing students forward. As a result, students find themselves starting the program but not finishing.

In contrast, community coding bootcamps use compartmented learning modules to keep students motivated. Each module has particular assignments with fixed deadlines that allow students to work toward concrete learning goals. Additionally, their peer cohort and dedicated instructor further serve as strong motivators to keep on learning.

Skills Needed For A New Job

Designed with practicality at heart, community coding bootcamps are structured to let students test if web development is something they’ll enjoy doing for years to come. These bootcamps offer a low-risk way of earning tech skills while assessing this new career sector. Graduates of community coding bootcamps who decide to make a career switch often enter quality assurance and software testing roles, entry-level jobs that let them get their foot in the web development door. These are valuable roles that help students gain on-the-job training for further career development and even higher salaries.

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