CODING BOOTCAMPS Building Future-Proof Skills through Rapid Skills Training 2 5 . Authors and Acknowledgments 6 . Executive Summary 8 . Abbreviations 9 . Introduction 12 . Origin and Categories of Coding Bootcamps 15 . Main Principles of Coding Bootcamps 21 . Differences Between Coding Bootcamps 29 . Main Challenges of Coding Bootcamps 30 . Criticism and Need for Additional Research CONTENTS 32 . Examples of Policy Interventions 36 . Case Studies 38 . Hack Reactor 44 . Laboratoria 50 . Moringa School 56 . SE Factory 62 . World Tech Makers 68 . Coderise 75 . Decoding Bootcamps Project 76 . References 77 . Notes 3 14 . Figure 1 Professional Tech-Skills Bootcamp Models Complementarity and Market Access in Kenya 16 . Figure 2 Coding Bootcamp Model 13 . Table 1 Models of Newly Emerging Tech Skills Training 18 . Table 2 The Agile Manifesto’s Four Key Values 18 . Table 3 The Agile Manifesto’s Operating Principles LIST OF 22 . Table 4 Coding Bootcamp and Early Education Model Providers Examined in This Report FIGURES, TABLES 17 . Box 1 Coding Bootcamps’ Selection Process AND BOXES 20 20 . . Box 2 Box 3 Aggregating Demand from the Tech Ecosystem Coding Bootcamp Methodology Applied to New Industrial Technical Skills Beyond Coding 23 . Box 4 Typical Sources of Funding for Coding Bootcamps in Developing Countries 27 . Box 5 Coding Bootcamps Aim to Increase Gender Diversity, Help Refugees and the Vulnerable 33 . Box 6 An Example of Government Intervention 34 . Box 7 Medellín, Catalyzing Bootcamps Initiative in a City 34 . Box 8 Financial Support Schemes 4 This note forms part of the Rapid Technology Skills Technical Assistance (“Decoding Bootcamps”) initiative by the World Bank, which aims to co- llect and share examples and lessons of bootcamps in emerging markets, and measure the impact of bootcamp training on youth employment in selected countries. The program seeks to establish a framework of best practice for future projects in technology upskilling in the developing world. The initiative has been piloted in three countries: Colombia, Kenya, and Lebanon. It includes this information note, which offers background on coding bootcamps, as well as a forthcoming publication on the impact evaluation and a policy guide. This initiative would not have been possible without the award of a grant from the World Bank’s Jobs Umbrella Trust Fund, which is supported by the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development, and the governments of Norway, Germany, Austria, the Austrian Development Agency (ADA), and the Swedish Development Agency (SIDA). AUTHORS AND This note is based on desk research and interviews with six bootcamp pro- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS viders operating in East Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, and the Uni- ted States. It is meant to be noncomprehensive and informational with the objective of sparking further discussion and research on this topic. Victor Mulas and Cecilia Paradi-Guilford, who lead the Decoding Boot- camps initiative, are the main authors of this report together with Elene Allende Letona and Zhenia Viatchaninova Dalphond. Yegana Baghirova, Martha Khomyn and Scott Henry contributed to this report through re- search and analysis of the case studies. The report was edited by Colin Blackman (Camford Associates) and designed by Jimena Vazquez. Ruta N (Medellín City Government) and the Secretaria de Juventud (Youth Secre- tary) of Medellín City are critical partners for this program and contributed to this note. The following partners and bootcamp providers also participa- ted in this activity and provided critical information for the completion of the report: Berytech, CodeRise, HackReactor, iHub Research, Laboratoria, the Moringa School, SE Factory, and WorldTechMakers. The peer reviewers of this report at the World Bank were Pedro Cerdan- Infantes (Senior Economist), Indhira Santos (Senior Labor Economist), and Siddhartha Raja (Senior ICT Policy Specialist). The pictures in this publica- tion were provided by these bootcamp providers. 5 As one of the agents of disruption propelled by the tech-led economic transformation, start-ups adapt technologies to create new business mo- dels and, in some instances, entirely new business categories. In the long run, this results in creative destruction, where new jobs (as this business category did not exist before) are created and old ones are ultimately subs- tituted or transformed, affecting the whole economic sector in question. Since technology trends are not stoppable, there is a growing focus on the generation of new sources of employment. As start-ups grow and scale, they also need more workers with basic skills EXECUTIVE to expand the activities initiated by the core group of founders and initial workers. Basic tech skills (for example, website development, app deve- SUMMARY lopment, and so on) can be acquired through short-term intensive training in tech skills. This has led to the emergence of a new kind of technical trai- ning: coding bootcamps. These are typically short-term (three to six months), intensive and applied training courses provided by a third party Technology-led transformation (the so-called “Fourth that crowdsources the demand for low-skills tech talent. Industrial Revolution”) has significant implications for the world economy. As the technologies that are Coding bootcamps are not restricted to advanced economies; they have enabling this economic transformation are improving become a global phenomenon being present in emerging economies with in functionality and becoming more accessible and active start-up ecosystems. Furthermore, they are expanding beyond the ICT sector to other key priority areas such as manufacturing. Given their affordable, a number of job functions are increasingly role in the creation of low-entry tech job function skills (for example, junior susceptible to automation and digitization. developer), a better understanding of how bootcamps operate and their potential to benefit low-skill, low-income populations is critical for those policy makers who are seeking to increase employment opportunities, par- ticularly new and better employment, in their economies. “Bootcamp” is a broad term and is used to refer to one or two-day co- ding workshops through to structured programs of three to six months. This study focuses on the structured programs, which we refer as “coding boot- camps,” as these are aimed at training students for employment in low- entry level tech positions. 6 The main characteristics of these coding bootcamps are: developer). The report includes five case studies of coding bootcamps: Hack Reactor (United States), Laboratoria (Peru), Moringa School (Kenya), 1. They are intensive rapid skills training programs with a competitive SE Factory (Lebanon), and World Tech Makers (Colombia); complemen- selection process, typically lasting no more than six months. ted by an early education tech skills training program aimed at high school 2. Their teaching method follows a project-based, experiential learning students: Coderise (Colombia). approach. 3. Their curricula reflect current industry needs, with teaching subjects From the case studies, there are two factors that seem to exert a major adapted according to local demand. influence over employment outcomes: 1. selection criteria, and 2. extent of links with the local tech ecosystem. Typically, coding bootcamps aim to rapidly improve the tech skills of their students to enable them to find jobs upon graduation. Therefore, in many Graduates have higher employment prospects when the bootcamp in cases, a strong career development focus is part of the curriculum; it in- which they have participated has a wider network of contacts in the private creases employability prospects upon program completion. Coding boot- sector and offers greater exposure to prospective employers, for instance, camps also have their differences, including the skills level of the parti- through competitions or networking sessions. cipants, content, business models, employment outcomes, and so forth. Bootcamps’ business models can be based on a for-profit or nonprofit High employability and employment rates in low-entry tech positions (for model. Fee structures vary according to the employment goals, target be- example, junior developer, freelancer, and so on) reported by coding boot- neficiaries and business model. Some coding bootcamps focus exclusive- camps suggest an untapped potential of this form of rapid tech skills trai- ly on teaching specific technical skills, whereas some also have course- ning. However, there is also criticism around bootcamp programs, which work covering socioemotional skills, such as business communication, have been grounded in three key arguments: quality of programming skills, time management, problem solving, or teamwork. The technical content employability, and “short termism.” Early evidence, which is based on a of coding bootcamps is usually based on international best practice (for limited number of sources and mostly based on the data from bootcamp example, internationally acclaimed proprietary and free online courses, providers themselves, calls for additional, more representative, and holistic video tutorials, Massive Open Online Courses/MOOCs, and so on), but with research. customization based on local tech industry needs and characteristics of local culture. Socioemotional skills seem to be most extensively The private sector alone is unlikely to tackle structural unemployment covered by those bootcamps that cater to marginalized populations, such as issues and the related lack of technology skills. Existence of a variety of women, disenfranchised youth, and the poor. business models of coding bootcamp attest to the fact that there is a niche to be filled by the public sector, civil society, and international donors, par- The focus of this study is the Ready-to-Work model (hereafter synonymous ticularly with regard to inclusion of the underprivileged population and with the term “coding bootcamp”). This is the standalone model that pro- those with lower skills. Examples of public intervention include the Tech- vides tech skills through short-term training akin to rapid vocational skills Hire Initiative in the United States, or the case of Medellin in Colombia. training aimed at low-entry level tech employability (for example, junior 7 ABBREVIATIONS AJAX Asynchronous JavaScript and XML MOOC Massive Open Online Course API Application programming interface MVC Model-view-controller BPO Business process outsourcing MySQL My Structured Query Language CEO Chief executive officer NBC U.S. National Broadcasting Company CIRR Council on Integrity in Results Reporting NGO Nongovernmental organization CSS Cascading Style Sheets npm Node package manager CTO Chief technology officer NYC New York City DOM Document Object Model ORM Object relational mapping EPM Empresas Públicas de Medellín (Medellín Public Enterprises) PHP Hypertext Preprocessor (originally personal home page) EU European Union RCT Randomized controlled trial HTML HyperText Markup Language REST Representational state transfer HTTP Hypertext Transfer Protocol Sass Syntactically awesome style sheets IADB Inter-American Development Bank SME Small and medium enterprise IDE Integrated development environment SSOM Standard student outcomes methodology iOS iPhone operating system STEM Science, technology, engineering and mathematics IT Information technology UI User interface ITU International Telecommunication Union UX User experience JS JavaScript VPS Virtual private server JSON JavaScript Object Notation SQL Structured Query Language LAMP Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP WTM World Tech Makers M&E Monitoring and evaluation MNC Multinational company All dollar amounts are U.S. dollars unless otherwise indicated. 8 INTRODUCTION This report provides an overview of coding bootcamps with a focus on emerging economies. It provides practical examples of how these coding bootcamps are being implemented in developing countries and their connection to entrepreneurial ecosystems and new tech-related job opportunities. As rapid tech skills training programs, coding for developing country populations to obtain tech opportunities. Three emerging economy loca- bootcamps are relevant to World Bank opera- skills and prepare for these new tech-related job tions were selected for the research: Medellín tions. Bootcamp programs focus on providing opportunities. For this reason, the Innovation and (Colombia), Nairobi (Kenya), and Beirut (Leba- new tech-related skills for entry-level tech posi- Entrepreneurship Unit of the Trade and Compe- non). These cities were selected on the basis of tions for the population without the need for ter- titiveness Practice at the World Bank has been regional diversity, high youth unemployment, and tiary education. The creation of these entry-level conducting activities on digital and entrepreneu- a growing technology sector. A description of skills complements and connects with current rial skills training through its infoDev program, the initiative is presented at the end of this note. programs and operations to support digital entre- including developing multiple entrepreneurship A follow-up publication will present the results preneurship and tech startup ecosystems more skills bootcamp programs, and supporting tech of this analysis on employment and educational broadly, such as infoDev’s mLabs and pan-Africa skills bootcamp programs, such as AkiraChix in opportunities for the targeted populations, as well accelerator programs, as well as operations, such Kenya. as offering a policy guide on how to catalyze and as the Kenya Industry and Entrepreneurship Pro- leverage coding bootcamps for employment. ject, which aims at, among other things, streng- This note aims to complement these activities thening the local entrepreneurship and innova- and provide additional knowledge from practical A. Technology-led transformation tion ecosystem. examples of coding bootcamps implemented in is impacting labor markets but is also developing counties to support upcoming World creating new opportunities Entrepreneurship and innovation ecosystems Bank operations as well as policy programs in Technology-led transformation (the so-called create new companies, which in turn generate developing countries in this field. This note is “Fourth Industrial Revolution”) has significant im- new employment opportunities. Digital and tech the first publication of the Decoding Bootcamp plications for the world economy. It is disrupting have been a driver of these ecosystems. Coding Initiative,1 the goal of which is to evaluate the im- sectors, transforming industries, and causing bootcamps provide an additional layer of support pact of coding bootcamps on youth employment traditional business models to be substituted 9 by new, digital-led ones. Many companies are pharmacy, health diagnostics, and real estate bro- skills required to expand the business, either tech struggling to adapt to the rapid pace of change kerage (Frey and Osborn 2013). While the extent or non-tech, do not require higher education (that in the competitive environment, which is resul- of the impact of new technologies on occupation is, a university degree or above) and can be con- ting in transformative changes in core sectors or work area cannot be precisely determined, it is ducted by workers without tertiary degrees and of the economy, from hospitality to retail and becoming evident that the jobs of tomorrow will with more basic skills. urban transportation. Airbnb, Amazon, and Uber require new skills that help workers to adapt to as some lighthouse examples of companies dri- a constant tech-led changing world. These so- Data from New York City’s innovation ecosystem ving this transformation. Automation, digital manu- called “future-proof skills” will likely comprise shows that 44 percent of the employment gene- facturing, sensitization, and big data are silently a combination of technical and socioemotional rated by the tech start-up ecosystem in the 2003- transforming head-to-toe core industrial sectors, skills, centered on intelligence, creativity, social 2013 period (during which the ecosystem expan- such as manufacturing and automobiles. Inextri- competence, ability to learn how to learn, as well ded and matured from almost nonexistence to be- cably, these changes are affecting labor markets. as the ability to engage with and exploit artificial come one of the largest start-up ecosystems in the Estimates forecast that almost half of today’s occu- intelligence for solving tasks of varied complexity world) did not require skills above a bachelor’s de- pations could become redundant (Frey and (World Economic Forum 2016). gree. Interestingly enough, these jobs that require Osborn 2013), and that 65 percent of children who relatively more basic skills are paid 45 percent higher enter primary school in 2016 will be engaged in Arguably, tech start-ups come closest to the vi- than jobs with similar educational requirements offe- completely new job types that currently do not sion of the “employer of the future,” as they active- red by other industries (HR&A Advisors 2014). New exist (World Economic Forum 2016). ly source labor with future-proof skills. The past York is not alone in proving that tech start-up eco- two decades have witnessed the emergence of systems are generating new employment opportu- As the technologies that are enabling this eco- new market categories because of the disruption nities on a massive scale for all skills levels, particu- nomic transformation are improving in functiona- to traditional business models by start-ups, which larly for the lower skilled. In Canada, Toronto’s tech lity and becoming more accessible and afforda- has guided entire sectors of economy, including ecosystem has generated over 400,000 jobs, with its ble, a number of job functions, if not entire occu- transport, logistics, hospitality, transportation, and tech jobs becoming increasingly accommodating pations, are becoming increasingly susceptible to manufacturing, to name a few. Tech start-ups’ of the population without a university degree (Tech automation and digitization. A recent study high- forward-thinking founders and versatile perso- Toronto 2016). In the Department of Antioquia in lighted categories of work that are particularly nnel are at the core of this transformation. Colombia, where Medellin is the capital city, 80 per- vulnerable because of current and projected ad- cent of the employment in IT companies is generated vancements in prefabrication, automation, robo- The new tech employment generated by start- by only 18 percent of Medellín’s IT companies (Ruta N tics, artificial intelligence, and unmanned ve- ups is not only those of the founding team and Medellín et al 2015). hicle technology. These include construction, those with high tech-and business skills (for exam- food service, ground transportation, and farming. ple, engineers, MBAs, and so on). As start-ups Low-entry tech jobs skills include being able to The impact goes beyond manual work catego- grow and scale, they also need less-skilled wor- build a simple website, a basic database, or a ries, also affecting other jobs that involve cogni- kers to expand the activities initiated by the core low-code web or mobile app. Populations with tive tasks, including journalism, legal assistance, group of founders and initial workers. Many of the more basic skills and without tertiary degrees will 10 primarily benefit from these new work opportu- B. Newly emerging tech-skills training LinkedIn Economic Graph shows that there were nities. Furthermore, low-entry tech jobs are not programs: coding bootcamps at least 16,000 bootcamp graduates by 2015 – restricted to coding categories. As companies in This has led to the emergence of a new kind of more than doubling the total number of boot- industries as varied as healthcare, construction, technical training: coding bootcamps. These are camp graduates in the previous year – resulting retail, and mining become more sophisticated in short-term (typically three to six months) trai- in a wide diversity of employment from start-ups integrating automation and artificial intelligence ning courses provided by a third party that crowd- to large tech and traditional companies requiring capabilities, workers will need to learn how to sources the demand from those seeking low- tech talent (Gan 2015). These training programs manage and reconfigure the new machines and skills tech work (for example, basic web or app are likely to continue gaining popularity and im- understand design and high-level requirements programing) from multiple tech start-ups, provi- pact, driven by high youth unemployment, em- to be able to oversee machine-led operation. ding a tailored curriculum of tech skills in a given ployers’ inability to fill positions because of skill The new technicians, manufacturing plant ope- ecosystem. One of the most notable examples of shortages, and expansion of the digital and tech rators, and hospital janitors will need to under- a coding bootcamp provider is General Assem- sectors following the economic transformation. stand how to operate with the new technology. bly in New York City (NYC), which has become As these tasks expand across sectors, basic tech a basic tech-skills factory, producing hundreds Given their role in the creation of these new skills would also need to be complemented with of graduates per year trained in intense three- low-entry tech skills, a better understanding of socioemotional skills such as problem solving, month courses.3 General Assembly’s graduates how bootcamps operate and their potential to learning how to learn (as new software updates will be are directly employed by start-ups, by other tech benefit low-skilled populations is of interest for constant), and the ability to work in a team.2 or nontech companies, or become entrepreneurs. those working on policies and programs who Interestingly, bootcamps have expanded to pro- are seeking to increase employment opportuni- This combination of basic tech skills (for exam- vide basic tech skills to people without tertiary ties, particularly newly created employment, in ple, website development, app development, education. Another NYC initiative, Coalition for their developing economies. The report studies and so on) and socioemotional skills can be Queens (C4Q), provides rapid skills training with the coding bootcamp model and explores how acquired by workers without tertiary educa- access to mentorship resulting in direct employ- it is been implemented in developing countries’ tion (that is, those with a secondary level ment of low-income people, with over 80 percent context. It presents five case studies of boot- education) through short-term intensive training. of their “graduates” gaining employment.4 camps operating in emerging economies and This training is akin to traditional vocational training one early-education program introducing tech but adapted for newly demanded tech skills. Tech Coding bootcamps are not restricted to advanced skills in secondary education, describing their companies have traditionally provided this type economies; they have become a global pheno- operational model and impact. This analysis training for low-skilled employment. Business pro- menon being present in emerging economies includes the categories of tech training, the role cess outsourcing (BPO) companies train workers with active start-up ecosystems. Today, boot- of coding bootcamps in accessing new employ- in basic tech skills to provide outsource services. camps are present in Peru, Colombia, Kenya, In- ment opportunities, and the applicability of each However, tech start-ups do not have the scale of dia, and Lebanon, to name a few. While the exact of these programs in the environment of emer- these BPO companies to provide in-house training number of coding bootcamp providers and stu- ging economies. to new employees. dents are difficult to estimate globally, a study by 11 ORIGIN AND CATEGORIES OF CODING BOOTCAMPS Coding bootcamps are a relatively new phenomenon that emerged around 2012 in response to the growing business needs of fast-growing technology companies in North America. The first movers were General Assembly and Dev Bootcamp in NYC and San Francisco, respectively. As of 2016, there were over 91 full-time co- tain cases), with higher than local average sala- a U.S citizen or had studied in the United States, ding bootcamp providers in 69 U.S. and eight ries attracts those seeking to switch careers by acquiring contacts in the U.S. tech or entrepre- Canadian cities. Cumulatively, they were expec- reskilling or upskilling. Finally, coding bootcamps neurship scene before moving forward with their ted to train close to 18,000 students by the end of offer skills training compressed into a short time ventures in emerging markets. 2016, with a 70 percent market growth rate com- span, at a fraction of the cost of traditional com- pared to 2015, and 700 percent growth compared puter science university programs. A. Categories of Bootcamps to 2013 (Course Report 2016). Other cities quickly Coding bootcamp is a term that is applied ge- followed suit, with the highest number of coding The rationale for stimulating bootcamps’ growth nerically to intense rapid tech-skills training pro- bootcamps emerging in London, Barcelona, and outside of high-income economies is similar, as grams. This kind of training varies in duration, Berlin, among others. shown in the case studies of the five bootcamp depth, curriculum, and programs, and connec- providers in this report: Laboratoria (Peru, Chile, tion with employment opportunities. A study The rise of these training programs could be ex- Mexico), Moringa School (Kenya), SE Factory (Leb- commissioned by the International Telecommu- plained by the growing tech skill gap that leaves anon), WTM (Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Chile) nication Union (ITU) made an initial classification hundreds of thousands of programming jobs and the early-education tech skills training pro- of these programs (ITU 2016). Supplementing unfilled in high-income U.S., Canadian, and EU gram (CodeRise, Colombia). These are described this initial assessment with additional research economies.5 Additionally, the promise of high in detail in Appendix B. Interestingly, at least one and inputs from field experience, these newly postbootcamp employability (99 percent in cer- cofounder of each of the studied bootcamps was emerging tech skills training programs can be 12 classified as shown in Table 1. The three models ment each other and work as a value chain for the models interact and address entry-level tech of the Professional Tech Skills category (Preboot- tech skills. The example of Kenya (see Figure 1), skills opportunities at different points in the tech camp, Ready-to-Work, and Bootcamp+) comple- where these three models operate, shows how skills value chain. Notably, graduates from the TABLE 1 - MODELS OF NEWLY EMERGING TECH SKILLS TRAINING Category Bootcamp Model Description Prebootcamp Model Part-time online or in-person program providing basic digital and tech skills to Professional prepare students for the “Ready-to-Work” model. The Prebootcamp Model varies in Tech Skills: form and length and can be limited to basic digital skills or expanded to also provide basic socioemotional or life skills (e.g., Akirachix in Kenya). Preparation for low-entry level tech jobs Ready-to-Work Model Intensive three-six months full or part-time rapid skills training program that prepares (Coding Bootcamp) people to qualify for employment shortly after the training ends (e.g., Moringa in Kenya, Laboratoria in Latin America). Bootcamp+ Model Extended training approach which includes an intense coding bootcamp and continues with practical or “on-the-job” training to equip students with a higher level of tech and socio-emotional skills. In the most advanced stages, this model includes on-the-job training for two to four years (e. g., Andela in Kenya). Mini Bootcamp Model Very short-term training programs ranging in length from two days to one month. Educational: They are typically designed to spark interest in learning the basics of programming, to recruit or identify talent, for professionals to update their skills, and for outreach and community building (e.g., NegaWatt Challenge Bootcamps).a Introduction to tech skills to potential workers or school students These are efforts to trigger interest in programming at an early age. This model Early Education Model includes workshops, hackathons, and online platforms as well as more encompassing efforts such as schools integrating coding skills into their curriculum. Although not focused on employability in the short term, the early education model is an important trend to monitor (e.g., CodeRise in Colombia). Source: ITU 2016, and authors’ analysis. Note: a. http://www.negawattchallenge.com/. 13 Prebootcamp (AkiraChix) apply to the Ready-to- model, which we will refer to as “coding boot- The Bootcamp+ model is more complicated and Work model (Moringa), feeding this program, and camp” throughout this report. This is the stand- longer in duration (not being rapid skills training), the graduates of the Ready-to-Work program alone model that provides tech skills through including a lengthy on-the-job training process, apply to the Bootcamp+ program (Andela),6 also short-term training akin to rapid vocational skills and it is not as widespread across countries as feeding this program. This relationship suggests training aimed at tech low-entry level jobs (for the Ready-to-Work model. a buildup of tech skills among these three pro- example, junior developer) in a given domestic grams from the basics to advanced internatio- market. The Ready-to-Work model is central to The study also provides an introduction to the nally competitive tech skills, with the Ready-to- the creation of entry-level tech skills. The Pre- Educational Category by featuring a case of the Work model being the central piece connecting bootcamp model complements the Ready-to- Early Education Model (CodeRise in Colombia). the skills progression through the three models. Work model but by itself does not generally lead The focus of this study is the Ready-to-Work to employment in entry-level tech positions. FIGURE 1 - PROFESSIONAL TECH-SKILLS BOOTCAMP MODELS COMPLEMENTARITY AND MARKET ACCESS IN KENYA AkiraChix Moringa Andela Pre-Bootcamp Model Ready-to-Work Model Bootcamp+ Model Advanced developer skills Skills Basic tech and living skills Entry-level developer skills to project manager Market Domestic Domestic International 6 months bootcamp + 3.5-year Training duration 3 months (pre) / 9 months (core) 5 months in-the-work training program Population focus Female only No restriction No restriction Students per year 20-30 (pre) + 10-15 (core) 130 100 Jr. Software Developer Jr. Software Developer Entry-level job readiness Awareness & Basic Skills (Domestic Market) (International Market) Source: Authors’ analysis and interviews. 14 MAIN PRINCIPLES OF CODING BOOTCAMPS Coding bootcamps are intensive short-term programs designed to train participants in programming skills to make them immediately employable in entry-level tech positions (Meng 2013). In essence, they combine characteristics of traditional vocational training programs with the intensity of military bootcamps for new recruits, intermingling socioemotional and tech skills learning in an intense manner, in what could be referred to as “skills accelerators.” Coding bootcamps follow a structured process ing on online applications and interviews. At first, Competitive application processes aim to screen with three main characteristic features: 1) inten- interested applicants are invited to fill out a short out the least capable and select the most moti- se rapid-skills training, 2) experiential learning questionnaire providing basic personal informa- vated (see Box 1). As a result, the acceptance rate approach, and 3) curricula based on, and conti- tion on education, interests, employment, and of bootcamps is low and is comparable to that of nuously adapting to, industry’s demand. The cod- so on. Then, eligible applicants are invited for an highly ranked universities. Hack Reactor accepts ing bootcamp model is summarized in Figure 2. interview: either face-to-face or via telephone/ only three percent of applicants, Moringa School Skype. Some bootcamps are more selective than eight percent, and Laboratoria and WTM 10 A. Coding bootcamps are intensive others. For example, Moringa School has two percent. rapid skills training programs, typically rounds of interviews, and Laboratoria assesses lasting no more than six months its applicants using psychological tests designed Coding bootcamp programs typically last three The majority of programs have a multistage by professional psychologists. Other bootcamps months. However, programs can last up to six application process requiring admitted students might require previous coding experience. Pro- months (Laboratoria). Some bootcamps, such to show full-time commitment to learning (in bably one of the most complex procedures is as San Francisco-headquartered Hack Reactor,7 some cases students need to dedicate no less that of Hack Reactor, which is comprised of at have started a four-month online bootcamp in than ten hours per day, six days a week). The appli- least two coding assignments (challenges), the addition to a physical course, and 50-70 hours cation process is similar across bootcamps, rely- solving of which is a condition of acceptance. of prebootcamp training. In the Middle East and 15 Africa, a “standard” bootcamp lasts three- two-week preadmission program, asking appli- the bootcamp schedule had to incorporate an months, is full-time, and intensive. However, the cants to participate in introductory classes and additional track with a sufficient degree of flexi- Moringa School in Kenya started a one-month complete normal coursework. It tests how well a bility (that is, 18 months part-time) to enable its prebootcamp program to offer a better founda- student would perform during the full six-month female students to combine learning either with tion for future bootcamp candidates following program. work, university studies, or caring for children or Hack Reactor’s footsteps. According to Moringa, older family members. WTM is trying to capture such an approach helps prepare students for In addition to standard offerings, Latin Ameri- a new market by rolling out a new online program the intensive three months to follow, while also can providers (for example, WTM, Laboratoria) with flexible duration, which would specifically helping administrators filter out those who would are experimenting with longer-term, part-time, cater for young people that are unable to attend otherwise drop out because of the high intensi- and online programs. Additional program offe- a physical bootcamp in one of their city locations. ty of training, lack of skills, or unrealistic expec- rings are driven by the particular learning needs tations. Laboratoria is also experimenting with a of their student base. In the case of Laboratoria, FIGURE 2 - CODING BOOTCAMP MODEL Selection From Talent Pool Core Curriculum Industry <-> Start-ups 3-6 months Entry-level Requirements Experiential Learning Constant Connection to Demand Minimum literacy and basic digital skills Learning curriculum is experiential: learning by doing Curriculum is developed based on skills demand assessment of industry; can be tailor-made; Online prelearning prepares students Focus on soft 21st C skills: ability to learn how to learn, Job placement department constant dialogue for application teamwork, problem solving, time-management, with industry receiving and giving feedback, presentation skills, Higher selection criteria is attitude and willingness self-assessment, etc. Guest trainers from industry ensure constant interaction (“hunger”) to learn through learning experience Short-term, intense training with a cohort structure Some providers employ psychometrictests and heavy on simulations-based learning Agreements of regular supply of employees and ad hoc recruiting Data tools assess skill levels and pretraining needs Demo-day (pitch) to employers at end of course Data tools provide visibility of students progress and Technical curriculum adapted based on demand. New graduates performance and support forecast demand/ technical knowledge piece can be plugged into curriculum needs experiential core methodology. Data tools track student progress and match with employers Source: Authors’ analysis. 16 BOX 1 - CODING BOOTCAMPS’ SELECTION PROCESS Coding bootcamps’ selection process focuses on motivation rather than others require the applicants to take online preparatory training in or- technical skills. Most bootcamps, however, have a minimum set of tech der to take this test, and some others do not require previous coding or coding understanding and knowledge that is required, but proficien- experience, just basic computer skills. cy is rarely sought. In order to get to this minimum technical skills base, 3. A personal interview: Once the applicants meet the minimum cri- many bootcamps offer a prebootcamp. For instance, Moringa in Kenya, teria set by the bootcamp, the interview (in person or by videocon- offers a one-month online prebootcamp to prepare potential students. ference) serves to assess the motivation, perseverance, and commit- ment (among others) of the participant to take the bootcamp training. The coding bootcamp selection process usually consists of: The ones that rank highest in these socioemotional skills are usually 1. An online application form: It serves to preselect the candidates selected, as this indicates that they will be able to finish the bootcamp that meet minimum criteria defined by the bootcamp provider (for despite the intensive effort it requires, minimizing the number of drop- example, age, gender, previous studies, employment status, level of outs. literacy, and so on). 2. A basic online coding test/interview to assess the technical skills The order of 2 and 3 may vary, depending on the bootcamp provider. of the applicants: Some bootcamps require previous coding skills, B. Coding bootcamps’ teaching through interactive teamwork or peer learning. in other industries. The Agile Manifesto sets out method follows a project-based, Certain gamification aspects – from point scoring four key values and 12 operating principles to un- experiential learning approach to competition with others – may be incorpora- derpin a mindset known today as “agile.”8 Table Students learn coding “by doing,” hence basic ted into the learning process to drive engage- 2 presents the key values of flexibility and adap- 21st century skills, such as teamwork, problem ment among students, boost their spirit of com- tability that lie at the core of this method, and solving, and critical thinking, are integrated into petition, and master basic skills. Table 3 presents its operating principles. the education process. Teaching sessions are usually combined with inspirational talks from in- The teaching philosophy of most bootcamps The bootcamp providers studied emphasize that dustry specialists as well as mentorship, aimed at draws on agile software development metho- they are building “life skills”, enabling their gra- helping students to determine their career path. dologies, a set of principles that encourages co- duates to be competitive irrespective of the in- llaboration, iteration, and self-organization dustry in which they choose to work; for example, Unlike computer science university programs, within product teams. Conceptualized in 2001 by the ability to master new knowledge quickly and coding bootcamps focus much less on teaching U.S. software developers, agile methodologies efficiently, effectively work in a team, meet tight theory than on the practical application of con- are now used in the largest multinational com- deadlines, develop a growth mindset, and so on. cepts in order to recreate a software engineering panies. Beyond the tech sector, they are now de- Evidently, these “life skills” belong to the subset job environment. The latter is usually carried out fining procedures in organizations and functions of future-proof socioemotional skills. 17 TABLE 2 - THE AGILE MANIFESTO’S FOUR KEY VALUES Value Socioemotional Skills 1 Individuals and interactions over processes and tools Teamwork, communication 2 Working software over comprehensive documentation Critical thinking, rapid results, interactive communication 3 Customer collaboration over contract negotiation Teamwork, communication 4 Responding to change over following a plan Adaptability, rapid learning TABLE 3 - THE AGILE MANIFESTO’S OPERATING PRINCIPLES Operating Principle Socioemotional Skills 1 The highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software. Rapid results, interactive communication Welcome changing requirements, even late in development. Agile processes harness change for the 2 customer’s competitive advantage. Adaptability, rapid learning 3 Deliver working software frequently, from a couple of weeks to a couple of months, with a preference Rapid results to the shorter timescale. 4 Business people and developers must work together daily throughout the project. Teamwork, communication Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support they need, 5 and trust them to get the job done. Teamwork, communication The most efficient and effective method of
conveying information to and within a development team 6 is face-to-face conversation. Interactive communication 7 Working software is the primary measure of progress. Rapid results Agile processes promote sustainable development. The sponsors, developers, and users should 8 be able to maintain a constant pace indefinitely. Interactive communication, rapid learning 9 Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design enhances agility. Critical thinking, rapid results 10 Simplicity – the art of maximizing the amount of work not done – is essential. Critical thinking, rapid results 11 The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams. Teamwork, communication At regular intervals, the team is to reflect on how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts 12 its behavior accordingly. Adaptability, critical thinking, teamwork Source: http://agilemanifesto.org/principles.html. 18 Besides a strong push towards developing the programming languages are in demand by moni- from multiple companies in the ecosystem (from socioemotional skills of the students, bootcamps toring publicly available online sources (for exam- start-ups to medium and large tech compa- also embed career advisory services, so as to ple, data from national statistical and labor nies) and conducting a sort of “in-house train- provide students with the right tools to find a job agencies) and private market intelligence data. ing” for local IT SMEs, MNCs, start-ups and tech- after the training. Typically, bootcamp providers engage local tech related businesses. Moreover, coding bootcamp sector stakeholders – and even IT outsourcing methodology has potential application beyond C. Coding bootcamp’s curricula reflect companies located abroad – through meetings coding (see Box 3). current industry needs, with teaching and surveys to understand existing and projec- subjects adapted to local demand ted demand for certain skills. Some of their sur- Coding bootcamps tend to pursue a “glocal- vey samples are quite representative. For exam- ization” approach in their curricula design: they ple, Moringa School can tap into a pool of over 40 create “in-house” study programs by mixing inter- partners while Hack Reactor has over 300 part- nationally recognized tech education products ners to call upon. In a similar way, bootcamps can (for example, proprietary and free online courses, determine the teaching emphasis by surveying video tutorials, Massive Open Online Courses/ their graduates. Hack Reactor, Laboratoria, and MOOCs) with the curricula which respond to the SE Factory attest that tech sector interactions are needs of the local tech ecosystem and reflect lo- crucial in helping them determine programming cal cultural characteristics. Many programs are so languages relevant to local employers. connected to the local start-up ecosystem that their trainers are at the same time employees The frequency of curriculum reviews and adap- within the industry. tations vary, but it is much higher than in tradi- tional curricula in academia. Laboratoria reviews The local tech scene – from small private firms its course on a biannual basis, consulting its to multinational corporations (MNCs) to industry “Laboratoria Company Network” of partner com- associations – is encouraged to participate in curri- panies. WTM has pivoted several times to iterate culum development. There are several avenues its curriculum having consulted students and ap- for such collaboration, from providing inputs to plicants. Moringa School frequently updates its the content to more substantive cooperation, technical core curriculum, and is currently in the for instance, by providing projects for students process of changing its teaching paradigm mo- throughout the bootcamp or delivering specific ving towards more paced education, purposed technic subject-focused talks. learning, and lifelong learning. It is common for bootcamp providers to base Coding bootcamps act as skills demand ag- their assumptions of which IT subjects or gregators (see Box 2), crowdsourcing demands 19 BOX 2 - AGGREGATING DEMAND FROM THE TECH ECOSYSTEM Coding bootcamp providers have a close relationship with the local tech managers from tech companies. For instance, many programs em- ecosystem where they operate. They build their curricula based on local ploy hiring managers and experts from industry (many of which come demand, and adapt to the industry needs by updating content frequen- from hiring companies) as visiting lecturers and mentors through tly. In a sense, bootcamp providers aggregate demand from multiple the program. Many coding bootcamps also provide “demo days” for ecosystem stakeholders’ need for low-entry level tech skills (from large their graduates, where the graduating students pitch to a pool of hi- companies to SMEs and start-ups) to design their curricula. There are ring companies. By embedding hiring managers and industry experts several mechanisms coding bootcamp providers use for this: through their program and showcasing students to a pool of industry mentors and experts, bootcamps can learn directly the needs of hi- 1. Continued dialogue with hiring companies. Coding bootcamps ring managers, being able to respond rapidly to new skills needs or build a close relationship with hiring companies, with whom they es- address gaps in their curricula. tablish a close ongoing dialogue. Many coding bootcamps have a de- 3. Analysis of demand and trends. Coding bootcamp providers also partment or position in charge of relationships with hiring companies. analyze tech skills trends and industry needs from external sources. This relationship is complemented with research through surveys or Increasingly, as coding bootcamps get more data from the market focus groups of hiring managers. and their networks (including from alumni and hiring companies), 2. Close working relationship with hiring managers. Coding boot- providers are using data analytics to refine their curricula (addressing camps also develop a close working relationship with the hiring gaps in specific skills detected) or including entire new curricula. BOX 3 - CODING BOOTCAMP METHODOLOGY APPLIED TO NEW INDUSTRIAL TECHNICAL SKILLS BEYOND CODING Coding bootcamp experiential learning methodology can be applied pace of industry needs (Elejalde-Ruiz 2016). Coding bootcamp experien- to technical training beyond coding. As automation and digitization ex- tial methodology with its close connection to demand is an appropriate pands through industry, technical functions increasingly require techno- mechanism to fill this gap in new technology industrial skills. Manufac- logy skills to understand how to program machines, understand design turing is an area where bootcamp methodology has been applied with specifications, and even repair plant equipment through digital manufac- specific programs targeting “advanced manufacturing” skills (that is, new turing techniques. Industry is reporting a shortage of potential emplo- skills required for digital and automation manufacturing equipment) in yees that are skilled in these technology industrial skills, which traditio- the United States and other advanced economies.9 nal technical and vocational education programs are not providing at the 20 DIFFERENCES BETWEEN CODING BOOTCAMPS Coding bootcamps mainly differ according to their business model, course structure, and employability outcomes. International coding bootcamps that have partnerships with well-established U.S. or Canadian bootcamps (or act under their franchise internationally) tend to adopt similar programmatic activities and course content, and have similar employability results. A. Business Model U.S. and Canadian bootcamp providers are in- Some coding bootcamps operate more like re- In the United States and Canada, coding boot- creasingly using alternative lenders to acco- cruitment agencies (for example, App Academy) camps providers are typically for-profit compa- mmodate those who lack, or who have poor, in that they do not charge any tuition fee at all, nies, often with a social mission that finds reflec- credit history. Student and personal loans are but rather take a fixed percentage of postboot- tion in their programmatic activities. By the end offered through these third parties on favorable camp salary within the first year of employment. of 2016, U.S. and Canadian bootcamp providers terms, thus ensuring upfront payments released There are also those that rely on partner emplo- were expected to train close to 18,000 students, to bootcamp providers and hence their constan- yers to cover tuition fees. For example, bootcamp with projected revenues of about $200 million. tly positive cash flow. For example, Hack Reactor participants are exempt from fees if they are offe- These bootcamps’ revenues heavily rely on the has entered into a special partnership with two red employment with one of the partner firms. In ability to secure job placement for graduates. On alternative online lenders issuing, loans for up to some cases, in-house scholarships are offered average, bootcamps charge a fixed tuition fee three years to support those who cannot afford to offset at least part of the tuition costs and/or of $11,451, with a range of between $5,000 and its onsite (tuition cost: $19,780) or online pro- living expenses. In others, bootcamp providers $20,000, for a 12.9-week program (Course Report gram (tuition cost: $17,780). The Moringa School make arrangements with other entities (for exam- 2016a). Providers justify their high fees because in Kenya has also partnered with Kiva10 to offer ple, government agencies) to provide subsidized of their employment track record (Course Report interest-free loans to bootcamp participants, training for specific vulnerable groups (for exam- 2016b) (see “C. Employment Outcomes” below). as well as introducing payment by instalment. ple, U.S. veterans, prisoners, or low-income 21 TABLE 4 - CODING BOOTCAMP AND EARLY EDUCATION MODEL PROVIDERS EXAMINED IN THIS REPORT Coding Bootcamp Location Brief Description HACK Austin, Los Angeles, San Francisco, For-profit company that operates a 12-week full-time coding bootcamp, along with a and New York City, United States remote online bootcamp. The bootcamp focuses on a single core program that teaches REACTOR students JavaScript and full-stack software engineering. LABORATORIA Lima and Arequipa, Peru; A coding bootcamp and a continuing education program that combines applied coding Santiago, Chile; Mexico City, education, psychological training, and deep employer engagement to create opportunities for students. It targets low-income women. Mexico MORINGA Nairobi, Kenya One of the pioneer bootcamp providers in Africa that aims to transform African higher education starting with software engineering in an education-to-employment model. SCHOOL It accepts students from all over Africa and operates as a for-profit entity. WORLD TECH Bogotá and Medellín, Colombia; Technology education company offering onsite coding bootcamps and STEM Sao Paulo, Brazil; Mexico City, eLearning solutions for individuals and organizations. It specializes in vocational training MAKERS (WTM) for youngsters and adults, along with K-12 STEM training for children and teenagers. Mexico SE FACTORY Beirut, Lebanon Lebanese coding bootcamp that teaches the technical and socioemotional skills necessary for professional full-stack web development. It equips computer science graduates with the necessary practical skills. Early Education Location Brief Description CODERISE Medellín, Colombia Colombia-based bootcamp that seeks to empower high school students by teaching them how to build web applications. 22 students in the case of Hack Reactor). Additio- Laboratoria, WTM) are gravitating towards $3,000 in Latin America. In Asia, where franchi- nally, some business models (for example, Rural eventual transformation into for-profit social ses of U.S. bootcamps are taking root, the cost of Sourcing Inc11) rely on the onshore outsourcing businesses. training can reach as much as $10,000 (ITU 2016). business model, and run bootcamps specifically Some bootcamp providers offer special arrange- to train their coders for upcoming projects. The five coding bootcamp providers and the ear- ments for vulnerable groups. For instance, WTM, ly education model examined in depth for this whose coding bootcamp cost varies from $2,000 For bootcamps located outside high-income report are shown in Table 4, and are described in to $3,500 per location, makes arrangements for markets, limited market data is available. Avai- detail as case studies. An Early Education Model low-income students. lable data suggest that these programs are im- is also described in detail for purposes of com- plemented by for-profits, nonprofits, and social parison with these coding bootcamps in the con- As in North America and Europe, some coding enterprises, with nonprofits most commonly text of emerging economies. bootcamps in emerging markets rely on a fixed found in Africa (ITU 2016). Selected coding boot- tuition fee, while others fund their activities by camp providers studied for this report show that Typically, coding bootcamp tuition fees range charging participants a fixed percentage of their social enterprises (for example, Moringa School, from $500 to $2,500 in Africa, and $1,500 to postbootcamp salary plus a nominal payment for BOX 4 - TYPICAL SOURCES OF FUNDING FOR CODING BOOTCAMPS IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES The ITU-commissioned report on bootcamps in developing countries 5. In-house recruiting: Provider has or creates a recruiting or web has discerned the following typical sources of funding for coding boot- development agency to find prospective projects for graduates to camps. In the majority of cases, more than one revenue stream is being work on. used to sustain bootcamp operations. 6. Licensing curriculum: This revenue stream has not been imple- mented yet by any of the organizations documented. However, some 1. Student tuition: Fees students pay to enroll in the program. The are currently devising ways to implement this in the near future. amount varies depending on the organization and type of training. 7. Donations (cash or in kind): This is a particularly important funding 2. Student contribution to the organization after they are employed: source for nonprofit organizations offering coding bootcamp training. A percentage of a student’s monthly salary is paid to the bootcamp The type of donation and the activities that donations cover varies provider for a certain period of time while they are employed. This is from organization to organization. In some instances, in-kind dona- both a revenue stream and a funding strategy for many bootcamp tions are in the form of a physical space, Internet access, training providers to ease the burden of upfront tuition payment. space, or payment of utilities, for example. Cash donations are often 3. Employer hiring fees: Fees charged to companies when they hire used as seed investment to start the training programs, expand the one of the bootcamp graduates. training to more people or additional types of training, or to sponsor 4. Start-up accelerators: Provider helps students create a start-up student enrollment fees. and keeps a percentage of the start-up holdings. Source: ITU 2016. 23 the duration of the bootcamp (for example, $10 with international nonprofit lending platform Kiva and the strength of linkages to local employers. in the case of Laboratoria). To ensure full cost to provide student loans. According to the Kiva recovery and maintain healthy margins, coding website data, between mid-December 2015 Some coding bootcamps focus exclusively on bootcamps in emerging markets usually have to and August 2016, $37,050 was borrowed with- teaching specific technical skills, whereas some rely on more than one revenue stream. Box 4 pro- in the partnership with Moringa School. These also have coursework covering socioemotion- vides an outline of typical sources of funding for loans were issued for an average period of two al skills, such as business communication, time coding bootcamps. years, and the average loan amount was $2,091. management, or portfolio management. Socio- Kiva had offered the loans interest-free, however emotional skills seem to be most extensively Laboratoria, in Latin America reports that 30 an additional annual interest of 10 percent was covered by those bootcamps that cater to mar- percent of graduates fail to repay their coding added by Moringa to cover administration fees. ginalized populations, such as women, disen- bootcamp tuition (at least $1,800) owing to the Moringa has recently reduced its fees to $1,200. franchised youth, and the poor. difficulty in finding employment. This has led this bootcamp provider to introduce a continu- Nonprofit bootcamp providers typically rely on The technical content of coding bootcamps is ing training program for developers to gene- sponsorship and in-kind contributions (for exam- usually based on international best practice (for rate a more sustainable cash flow. This program ple, provision of training venues) from the private example, internationally acclaimed proprietary would be open to Laboratoria graduates as well sector and international donors. Some, however, and free online courses, video tutorials, MOOCs, as non-Laboratoria developers who are working charge students nominal payments. For exam- and so on), but with customization based on alongside graduates. For a company that has ple, SE Factory in Beirut follows this approach by local tech industry needs and characteristics of employed a Laboratoria graduate, if this gradua- charging $100 in a commitment fee: if the person local culture. Tech skills curricula have become te and multiple other employees need to learn enrolls in the training but drops out in the pro- more diverse in recent years, with providers ex- a certain technical skill, they could all be trained cess, they lose this deposit. panding their course offerings from basic web within the same class. The Laboratoria coder and mobile development to more complex tech would receive a steep discount while other em- Seeing the market potential, all of the studied subjects. Still, full-stack web development is the ployees would be charged the full price. In this bootcamps are trying to expand, either nationally most widespread program offered, teaching skills way, Laboratoria partner employers can become (SE Factory) or regionally; Laboratoria and WTM related to server, network and hosting environ- paying clients. are planning to scale up their operations in Latin ment, relational and nonrelational databases, ap- America, and Moringa is supporting a bootcamp plication programming interfaces, user experien- Moringa School (Nairobi) already has a diver- in Hong Kong (Accelerate) and plans to expand ce, and project management. sified revenue mix. In addition to implementing to Nigeria, Ghana, and South Africa. coding bootcamps, Moringa offers other types of A typical U.S. bootcamp curriculum covers pro- training in the form of short-term workshops and B. Course Structure gramming fundamentals, such as working with it also provides job placement services. To su- Although the course structure of most coding application programming interfaces (APIs), data- pport those students with low capacity to pay the bootcamps is similar, there are differences based base modelling and object relational mapping tuition costs upfront ($2,500), Moringa partnered on the bootcamp’s goals, target demographics, (ORM), understanding the model-view-controller 24 (MVC) framework, and executing application de- founded Lebanese bootcamp, spends the ma- A strong career development focus is part of the ployment. jority of sponsorship money on providing a quali- curriculum; it increases employability prospects ty teaching experience and relevant content, and upon program completion. For those bootcamps Developing country bootcamps cover similar limits the career component to industry-focused that work towards immediate employment of content, although specific programming lan- presentations from partner employers. On the their graduates, positive employment outcomes guages may vary depending on the employers’ other hand, Moringa School, a for-profit boot- could be broadly defined as: full-time employ- needs. In a selected sample of coding bootcamps camp, does offer postgraduation career support. ment, part-time employment, freelance employ- from Colombia, Kenya, and Lebanon, JavaScript ment, self-employment (including entrepreneur- is the most common programming language, C. Employment Outcomes ship), or internship (paid or unpaid). The majority although the majority of the technical content is Employment outcomes of bootcamp students of providers monitor their graduates’ job place- dedicated to front-end web development, that is, are a testament to the quality of one’s skills ment status up to 180 days following bootcamp CSS and HTML. Local demand from prospective and competencies, as well as one’s audacity in graduation, collecting feedback directly from tech employers exerts a key influence over the job searching. Even located in areas with a low graduates and employers. choice of programming languages. For exam- supply of tech jobs, one is generally able to find ple, SE Factory teaches PHP (server-side progra- an outsourcing opportunity in the global digi- Some providers, such as Laboratoria in Latin mming language for web development, which tal economy, as long the individual has market America, go as far as to track their students’ pro- can also be used in general-purpose progra- -ready skills, a working Internet connection, and gress three years after graduation. One of the mming) rather than Ruby (object-oriented gene- a bank account which accepts payments initia- most significant parts of Laboratoria’s monitoring ral-purpose programming language), since in ted abroad. At the same time, employment out- and evaluation (M&E) framework is a feedback Lebanon the demand for PHP programmers comes reflect how effectively coding bootcamp loop that determines the success factors for is much higher. providers reach their stated goals using their job admitted applicants. Once the data is gathered matching or placement strategies. about the performance of its graduates, the in- The socioemotional skills curriculum structure sights are applied to selecting the next round of in developing countries is similar to U.S. boot- Typically, coding bootcamps aim to rapidly im- candidates. Although the provider admitted dis- camps, with varying degrees of emphasis on prove the tech skills of their students to enable covering a number of false positives within their career skills. For-profit bootcamps (for example, them to find jobs upon graduation. A coding selection criteria, they continue to iterate their Moringa School) and bootcamps charging rela- bootcamp graduate should have sufficient skills operations using data-driven inferences. tively high tuition fees (for example, social enter- to undertake, at least, tasks for entry-level or prises like WTM and Laboratoria) tend to devote junior developers (web or app, or both). This work Hack Reactor has another sophisticated pro- more resources to career development, em- can be carried out within the development team prietary M&E framework, which relies on rigo- ployer networking, and postgraduation support of a large company, as a developer in a start-up, rous quantitative data collection and analytics. with job search. As for nonprofit bootcamps, their as an entrepreneur, or as a teaching assistant in a Their Standard Student Outcomes Methodology resource constraints typically limit the career coding bootcamp. (SSOM) classifies each student according to clear development component. SE Factory, a newly definitions and strict documentation standards, 25 providing standardized formulas to calculate a Similarly, students with a high-school certificate exert a major influence over employment out- placement rate, graduation rate, and average experienced the highest lift in salary of $33,300 comes: 1) selection criteria, and 2) extent of links graduate salary. The aim is to document each (Course Report 2016b). Global figures are not with the local tech ecosystem. Graduates have student’s result in a transparent and verifiable available disaggregated by gender although higher employment prospects when the boot- way. To attest to the validity of its statements on many bootcamps specifically aim to attract wo- camp in which they have participated has a wider the high employment outcomes of its graduates, men (see Box 5). network of contacts in the private sector and of- Hack Reactor underwent an independent audit fers greater exposure to prospective employers, from certified public accountants. In 2016, Hack Despite poor availability of comparison data on for instance, through competitions or networking Reactor made this framework publicly available the performance of bootcamps outside North sessions. for any bootcamp to use, thus aiming to esta- America, the ITU report establishes that Ready- blish the SSOM as an industry standard. It can to-Work coding bootcamps in developing coun- For example, Moringa School, which guarantees even be used retroactively, that is, even if the tries report equally high job placement of their almost 100 percent job placement, positions it- provider used a different documentation stan- graduates in the range from 60 to 100 percent, self as a world-class career accelerator thanks to dard before. depending on the organization (ITU 2016). a number of activities and networks accessible to its students. Four hours per week are devo- Concerning average employment outcomes, U.S. These conclusions mirror those derived from the ted to career sessions and, additionally, students and Canadian coding bootcamps report impre- case studies of selected African, Latin American, are introduced to the tech ecosystem in Kenya ssive results. In 2016, 73 percent of their gra- and Middle Eastern coding bootcamp provi- via weekly presentations by industry experts. duates were employed in a full-time job that re- ders conducted for this report. Moringa School During the course, students are encouraged quires the skills taught by the bootcamp. Their reports a close to 95 percent employment rate to pursue individual projects, which they get to average salary increased by 64 percent, and they and 350 percent salary increase based on data pitch publicly to prospective employers from the experienced an average salary lift of $26,000. on 97 graduates from its full-time bootcamp. private sector during the Demo Day at the end of Some programs report increasing job placement WTM, with 650 graduates, reports 75 percent the bootcamp. Moringa maintains relationships rates since 2013 (Course Report 2016b). For ins- employment rate13 within 120 days for its 2015 with over 40 hiring partners who are encouraged tance, Hack Reactor, one of the market leaders, cohort, and 90 percent for 2016. Laboratoria, with to provide students with internships or job con- reports a 98 percent graduate hiring rate with a 400 graduates, reports 75 percent occupation tracts. Furthermore, the school closely coope- $104,000 average graduate salary.12 within 90 days, with a triple income increase. SE rates with Moringa DevShop, which is one of the Factory, which had graduated only 22 students at companies under the Moringa umbrella (but sepa- Interestingly, the bootcamps’ effect has been the time of writing of this note, reports 90 percent rate from the school) that can hire graduates to most positive for those with a low-income and/ employment and a triple income increase. work directly on outsourcing projects for U.S. and or do not have tertiary education. According to European-based clients. Last but not least, the Course Report, low-income students have bene- D. Bootcamp Factors Influencing school is working towards concluding a partner- fitted most with a $39,190 lift in salary, relative to Employment Outcomes ship with Carnegie Mellon University in the Uni- a $2,347 lift in salary for high-income students. From the case studies, there are two factors that ted States to place selected Moringa graduates 26 BOX 5 - CODING BOOTCAMPS AIM TO INCREASE GENDER DIVERSITY, HELP REFUGEES AND THE VULNERABLE According to the latest research from Course Report, a coding bootcamp Laboratoria’s tuition scheme allows for low or no fees for low-income industry monitor, a typical graduate of an average North American co- students, which are later recouped through a 10 percent contribution ding bootcamp is 30 years old, with 6.8 years of work experience, with from salary for 24 months once they graduate and are employed. Diver- at least a bachelor degree, and no previous experience in programming. sity and inclusion go hand in hand, especially with respect to the provi- 43.3 percent of bootcampers are women (by one measure, this is almost ders outside of high-income economies. Mainstreaming inclusion typi- three times higher than the share of female undergraduate students in cally means widening access to the bootcamp for low-income partici- computer science in local university programs) (Course Report 2016b). pants. Some bootcamps (for example, SE Factory in Lebanon, and Tech- Hire in the United States) explicitly focus on promoting upward social An ITU report shows that the age of a typical coding bootcamp student mobility, and therefore design their promotion campaigns, admission in developing countries ranges between 25 and 35 years old. Similar to procedures, and tuition schemes so that candidates from diverse back- North America, these providers have 25 to 40 percent of women in their grounds are able to participate. According to Andrea Cornejo, Coderise student bodies. Most students in these bootcamps (mostly in developed Founder, free-of-charge attendance and transportation grants for those countries) possess a university degree and some professional expe- commuting from suburban areas allows the bootcamp to achieve a mix rience. Student bodies are equally composed of recent university gradua- of students from different backgrounds and diverse social classes. tes, working professionals, and entrepreneurs. Characteristically, all of the coding bootcamp providers studied for this Overall, coding bootcamps seem to have been quite active proponents report have a clearly defined social mission, in addition to their main goal of gender diversity in the tech industry. In high-income economies, many to rapidly improve IT skills and education-to-employment prospects. of them partner with corporate sponsors and nonprofits offering scholar- Coderise aims to foster upward social mobility for adolescents. Labora- ships to women, typically contributing $500-$2500, or 5-25 percent of toria supports low-income young women. Moringa’s vision is to transform tuition fees. For example, Dev Bootcamp offers $500 scholarship to all African higher education through its activities. SE Factory focuses on the women, regardless of their financial need, while Hack Reactor recen- underprivileged computer science graduates from second-tier universi- tly partnered with Optimizely to provide full scholarship and internship ties. WTM aims to stop the IT brain drain out of Latin America. training for women. Some bootcamps work exclusively with women. One prominent example is U.S.-based women-centric Hackbright Academy, Bootcamps have also focused on supporting Syrian refugees to access which runs a 12-week software engineering bootcamp for women, with the labor market. ReBootKAMP (RBK), supported by Hack Reactor (which women-friendly learning tracks and mentorship. Women-centric coding is a founding member), reserves half of their places for Syrian refugees. bootcamps are also emerging in emerging markets: for example, Labo- The program has a pathway for non-English speakers and operates both ratoria (Peru, Chile, Mexico), Epic Queen (Mexico, Colombia), AkiraChix a prebootcamp and a coding bootcamp of 12 weeks. Students do not (Kenya). Latin American bootcamp, Laboratoria, targets low-income have to pay tuition until they are employed, allowing the Syrian refugee women 18-30 years of age in Peru, Chile, and Mexico through its six- population to access this training with no monetary requirements. The and 18-month technical and socioemotional skills program. It also offers bootcamp, which is also supported by the donor community, reports a personalized support to graduates for up to one year upon graduation. 100 percent employment rate through local partners. Sources: Course Report 2016a; ITU 2016; RBK website, http://rbk.org/faqs/; and authors’ analysis. 27 into its master’s degree programs. Having some background knowledge in cod- ing has been found to contribute to successful completion of the bootcamp and better employ- ment outcomes. Coding bootcamps try to ad- dress this issue in various ways. For example, the Moringa School has introduced additional train- ing through a prebootcamp course, which could level the playing field between those with some and those with no background in coding, allow- ing the bootcamp provider to better prepare and screen candidates. SE Factory recruits from computer science faculties to ensure a minimum background knowledge, albeit mostly theoreti- cal. Andela, which offers a bootcamp to its fellow- ship candidates, on the other hand, does not re- quire any coding experience or prior knowledge, but they focus on cognitive and problem solving skills and extensive training after acceptance. 28 MAIN CHALLENGES OF CODING BOOTCAMPS The impact of coding bootcamps could be limited because of the challenges of affordability, retention, or even in terms of expansion. In many cases, the fee for taking part in a coding bootcamp is an impediment for low-income or even middle-income population segments, in particular in the absence of student loans or other financial instruments. In Kenya, the fee to participate in Moringa’s boot- providers have started a franchise model but quali- their selection and training delivery processes, so camp starts at $1,400. Although student loans have ty assurance can be an additional challenge in that that they can make course corrections and minimize been extended to also cover bootcamps in the Uni- case. Building up a strong relationship with the tech dropouts. ted States, this is not the case in many emerging ecosystem prior to initiating the bootcamp is one of markets. However, some student financing plat- the keys to success. forms, such as Quotanda, work with code schools to offer financing programs for international students. Finally, because of the intensity of the training, some See above for more details on different payment students drop out. This can be a problem especially options. for those bootcamps where students pay once they are employed and not upfront, where commitment Expansion of bootcamps to new cities or sectors is reduced to complete the training, as Laboratoria also presents a challenge for bootcamp providers reports. since not only does it require seed capital but also, even more importantly, a high penetration of the To tackle this issue, some bootcamps, including local tech ecosystem as well as a careful balance Laboratoria, have developed advanced data analy- between quality and tailored training and an in- tics platforms to measure not only the performance creased volume of participants. Some bootcamp of their students, but also to continue improving 29 CRITICISM AND NEED FOR ADDITIONAL RESEARCH High employability and employment rates reported by coding bootcamps suggest an untapped potential of this form of rapid tech skills training program. However, early evidence, which is based on a limited number of sources – mostly based on data from bootcamp providers themselves – calls for additional, more representative, holistic, and independent research. Wider research on focused employment youth ies of coding bootcamps in emerging econo- However, coding bootcamps are not without programs shows that just more than a third of mies, the initiative will contribute to this research criticism. Controversy surrounding coding boot- those employment programs (many of them ra- gap by conducting an impact evaluation of three camps has centered on the general implausibility pid skills training) are successful. However, these coding bootcamps programs in emerging eco- of the promise to be able to teach programming youth employment programs have been more nomies (Colombia, Kenya, and Lebanon). A des- from scratch in only 10 to 20 weeks of inten- successful in middle- and low-income coun- cription of this initiative is provided at the end of sive training. Bootcamp participants assert that tries (Kluve et al 2016).The potential of the coding this report. If the coding bootcamp methodology knowing the programming basics is absolutely bootcamps model to provide increasingly nee- proves able to provide low-entry level tech skills, necessary, and having prior coding experience ded tech skills (with the focus on low-entry tech it may become a new tool in the policy maker’s increases one’s chances of success, according skills) and potential impact in emerging econo- arsenal to address skills gaps and unemploy- to bootcamp providers. Overall, the criticisms mies is significant enough to deserve more rigo- ment in the low-skilled population. Indeed, the of bootcamp programs have been grounded in rous research. early evidence points to creation of both new three key arguments: quality of programming employment opportunities in this low-level entry skills, employability, and “short termism.” This note is part of the Decoding Bootcamps ini- tech bracket as well as new educational opportu- tiative of the World Bank, which aims to address nities (by being able to access new longer-term First, bootcamp critics argue that focusing on the knowledge gap in coding bootcamps. Be- technical training, for example, preuniversity graduating beginners into high-paid jobs in as yond this initial overview and practical case stud- technical courses). little as 12 weeks results in graduates with poor 30 quality programming skills. This commoditization The bootcamp market has grown rapidly, es- continually required to adapt and innovate. of programming skills possibly leads to boot- pecially in high-income countries. However, the camp graduates lacking in-depth understanding majority of bootcamp providers have not been in Third, bootcamps are expanding to other sectors of the code. business long enough to have their effectiveness beyond programming and ICT, leveraging the evaluated with rigor. Multidimensional assess- same methodology but adjusting the content. ・Second, post-bootcamp employment rates, ments on the impact of coding bootcamps and This highlights the need to look beyond their which are typically self-reported by bootcamp their sustainability should draw on quantitative current saturation in ICT, and examine their providers, tend to be exaggerated (Bloc 2015). As and qualitative research techniques involving potential across industries. the argument goes, job placement data are often feedback and data from providers, graduates, skewed towards successful graduates, do not al- and employers. ways differentiate between programmer versus nonprogrammer jobs, and do not always differen- While such rigorous evaluation is pending, there tiate between the period after graduation. are several factors that can be considered in For example, employment rates reported 90 terms of addressing some of the above criti- days after graduation and those one year after cism, including signaling from employers and graduation might not be directly comparable, the methodology that extends beyond technical as different factors might play a role in finding skills that are currently in demand. employment, depending on the time period in- volved. Moreover, as some new bootcamp pro- First, coding bootcamps offer a short but immer- grams have been in operation for only a short sive and intensive learning process that produce period of time, one cannot yet make valid con- entry-level developers. Signaling through hiring clusions about the graduates’ career paths and of graduates of bootcamps is indicative of whe- ultimate return on investment. ther a particular bootcamp is meeting expecta- tions by employers for entry-level developers. Third, critics argue that bootcamps capitalize on short-term skill gaps only, and will not be able Second, bootcamps can have “over-the-horizon” to deliver sustainable improvements in skills benefits. The method of training, combined with (Nichols 2015). As technology evolves, progra- self-learning and collaborative problem solving, mming languages might become less impor- builds skills that go beyond the core technical tant, because of more interactive user interfaces. skills that are in demand, and could equip boot- According to this argument, bootcamps will not camp graduates with the capability for conti- survive for long, because the majority of low-skill nuous, self-driven learning and improvement. programming tasks will be performed using plain As technology changes, employers look for em- languages or straightforward user interfaces. ployees with such abilities, since they will be 31 EXAMPLES OF POLICY INTERVENTIONS The private sector alone is unlikely to tackle structural unemployment issues and the related lack of technology skills in emerging economies. The challenges outlined above and the existence of a variety of business models of bootcamps attest to the fact that there is a niche to be filled by the public sector, civil society, and international donors, particularly with regard to inclusion of the underprivileged population and those with lower skills. While further evidence is needed to fully eva- exposure to the bootcamp methodology, employers in terms of the quality of the training luate the impact of coding bootcamps, there are universities can integrate more practical and so- provider and commitments around hiring. examples of policy interventions that have tar- cioemotional skills development that is aligned geted bootcamps to support employment, social with the current and future demand for skilled In the United States, where student loans are a inclusion as well as competitive growth. labor. widely used instrument to fund education, the Department of Education linked to the Tech- For example, the U.S. Department of Education The case of Medellín (see Box 7) provides ano- Hire Initiative, launched by the Department of called for partnerships between rapid technical ther example of this kind of policy intervention. Labor, to support their extension to coding boot- skills training providers, such as bootcamps (See Through the formation of public-private part- camps. TechHire also provided grants for rapid Box 6), and extended federal education loans for nerships and evaluations of bootcamps, policy technical training organizations, including co- bootcamp participants. The objective of this in- makers can also catalyze the expansion of ef- ding bootcamps, to increase training for qualified tervention was to introduce university students to fective training programs by connecting pro- youth and disadvantaged population segments, rapid and applied skills development that com- viders to further information on demand and to such as veterans. In the case of Kenya, where plements their formal education as well as to potential new clients and sectors. Public-private student loans only just began to cover techni- encourage links between the bootcamp training partnerships can also lower the risk for both the cal training and have a capped upper limit that methodology and university curricula. Through providers in terms of market entry as well as for falls below bootcamp fees, the Moringa School 32 BOX 6 - AN EXAMPLE OF GOVERNMENT INTERVENTION TechHire – Collective impact partnerships and $150 million in The Department of Labor TechHire grant program is supporting 39 pub- competitive federal grants to expand rapid technical skills training and lic-private partnerships across the country, and the agency has esti- help connect disadvantaged people to more and better jobs mated that more than 18,000 people will receive services through the grant program. Many of the funded partnerships are part of the national The U.S. government has provided support to coding bootcamps under learning network run by Opportunity@Work, but a number are not – the the TechHire initiative, which began as a commitment to action from 21 competitive program was open to the nation, and it did not require par- cities, states, and rural areas and more than 300 employers committed ticipation in the voluntary network. Over $125 million of the grants were to innovative hiring practices and exploring sourcing talent from new and awarded to partnerships that specifically target, train, and support young nontraditional programs, including coding bootcamps. This was high- people, ages 17-29. In addition, $24 million was allocated to partnerships lighted in a high-profile announcement by President Obama in 2015. To that help other disadvantaged groups with barriers to employment, provide support for this type of innovation, and to ensure that it would including veterans, people with disabilities, people with limited English include disadvantaged workers and provide new pathways to the mi- proficiency, and people with criminal records. ddle class, the Department of Labor launched a $150 million competitive grant program to support public-private partnerships to help train young The U.S. Department of Education also launched a pilot in 2016 under people and disadvantaged groups with barriers to employment for the Educational Quality through Innovation Partnerships experiment to rapid-growth sectors including tech, healthcare, and advanced manu- extend federal loans and grants to students in nontraditional unaccredi- facturing. ted education programs such as coding bootcamps, but only if they have teamed up with an accredited college or university and a third- Since the launch of the White House call to action, participation has party quality assurance entity to measure and track outcomes. The pilot grown to more than 70 geographies, ranging from New York City, to Albu- focused on providing access to low-income undergraduates and diverse querque, New Mexico, to rural Eastern Kentucky. In addition, over 1,300 students in nontraditional education and training programs. Though the employers are signed on and over 4,000 people have been placed into U.S. Department of Education received more than 70 applications, only in-demand tech jobs. An independent nonprofit, Opportunity@Work, has eight teams of partners (nontraditional provider, higher education insti- created a national learning network for the leaders across these 70 co- tution, quality assurance entity) were selected to participate in the pilot, mmunities to share best practices, and Opportunity@Work has created which is expected to last at least three years. staff positions to manage the network, provide professional development support and playbooks for local leaders, and broker additional national Source: White House TechHire Initiative: partnerships that have potential to accelerate outcomes. https://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/technology/techhire. 33 BOX 7 - MEDELLÍN, CATALYZING BOOTCAMPS INITIATIVE IN A CITY An example of a relevant government intervention is the Municipality of bootcamps to train young people with lower incomes, offering subsi- of Medellín in Colombia, which has supported the expansion of coding dies according to the participant’s income level. The Youth Secretariat of bootcamps in the city in partnership with the World Bank (as part of the the Municipality of Medellín, the EPM Foundation, and Microempresas Decoding Bootcamps initiative), in particular to target young people with de Colombia donated space and lent computers for the training. Ruta N limited skills and low income with technical training. Ruta N,14 a public also assessed the market potential for junior and senior developers in the joint venture between the city of Medellín and the Empresas Públicas de city (to evaluate the gaps and need for bootcamp education) and part- Medellín (EPM) conglomerate whose mission is to promote innovation in nered with the World Bank for the impact evaluation, which forms part of the city, took the lead within the city government to introduce bootcamps. the Decoding Bootcamps initiative, in order to evaluate the impact of the Ruta N subsidized the first bootcamp to be provided in the city to test its coding bootcamp on youth employment in Medellín. feasibility and reception by local industry and employees. After the posi- tive market response, Ruta N with the World Bank expanded the scope Sources: http://www.rutanmedellin.org/es; http://www.decodingbootcamps.org/about/. BOX 8 - FINANCIAL SUPPORT SCHEMES With tuition fees typically of about $1,200 or higher in developing coun- bootcamp with income levels within a certain threshold) to cover tui- tries, there is a risk that this training option is not feasible for those on tion fees (or part of it). The loan has to be repaid after completion of the low incomes. To facilitate local social inclusion and access to the oppor- bootcamp if they are employed (usually there is a deferral period of 1-3 tunities offered by bootcamp training, financing support based on in- months) until repayment. Usually this function is assigned to a financial come may be provided. Policy makers can support by catalyzing financ- intermediary. The funds for this option function as a revolving loan facility ing options from the private sector or charities or alternatively provide and can be reused for future batches of students. support directly through government programs. The two most common intervention mechanisms are: (i) direct subsidies to students based on fa- An advantage of schemes that provide financial incentives is that they mily income (for example, Medellín); and (ii) financial support to students reinforce life and business skills that are provided as part of the curricu- through soft loans offered by a financial intermediary. lum in many bootcamps related to financial management. However, this option can be more complicated to operationalize. Typically, financial support schemes provide soft loans (at zero or low interest rates) to students that qualify (that is, candidates accepted for 34 has experimented with low-interest loans tied to government formed public-private partnerships employment outcomes as well as an instalment through the TechHire initiative to secure new app- structure to enable lower income students to renticeships for trainees from disadvantaged afford the training course. However, this population segments, such as veterans. requires increased risk and shifts in their business model and new fundraising efforts targeting pu- blic and private funds. In Lebanon, SE Factory raises funds to reduce bootcamp fees, and World Tech Makers in Medellín was supported by the World Bank and Ruta N to offer high subsidies for trainees from low-income segments, which has enabled a significant increase in participation from income strata 1 and 2 of the population (see Box 8). Through public-private partnerships, policy makers can also encourage and lower the risk for private-sector employers to test the hiring of bootcamp graduates from all backgrounds for low entry-level tech jobs. In Kenya for example, several tech start-ups that hire from the Moringa School revealed in discussions with the authors of this report that they pay little attention to the formal education background of candidates, rather focusing on testing their ability to do the job and continuously grow and learn. However, many more traditional companies still place greater emphasis on formal education even though they report a dissatisfaction with the skill quality of university graduates. Such a partnership may encourage employers to shift their hiring practices towards a more efficient and more inclusive approach. For example, the U.S. 35 CASE ST UDI ES In selecting the following case studies, the World Bank has chosen bootcamp providers that were well established within developing countries that: 1) have a mature (or maturing) innovation ecosystem, or; 2) have partnerships with bootcamps in developing countries, helping catalyze these programs. 36 READY-TO-WORK HACK REACTOR MODEL LABORATORIA MORINGA SCHOOL SE FACTORY WORLD TECH MARKERS EARLY EDUCATION CODE RISE MODEL 37 38 H ACK R EACTO R LOCATIONS GENERAL BOOTCAMP & PARTNERSHIPS: INFORMATION: PROGRAM: SAN FRANCISCO NEW YORK CITY Legal structure (RBK) JORDAN For-profit enterprise Number of years in operation Cost to participants Bootcamp participants 4 years $17,780 Open to all participants AUSTIN (MORINGA SCHOOL) NAIROBI Number of students trained Duration of the bootcamp Bootcamp curriculum LOS ANGELES (to date) 12 weeks for onsite Full-stack software engineering ~3000 students and online programs and JavaScript programming 39 Hack Reactor is a for-profit company that operates a coding bootcamp in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Austin, and New York City, as well as a remote online bootcamp. Hack Reactor partners with Moringa school in Kenya and ReBootKAMP, RBK, a bootcamp supporting Syrian refuges across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). In providing expertise and curriculum support, these partnerships have been instrumental in kickstarting the creation of these bootcamps in emerging economies. Hack Reactor focuses on a single core program Students can take up to three years to pay for collaboration tools. However, programming lec- that teaches students JavaScript and full-stack their tuition, through the aforementioned len- tures are recorded and shared with enrolled stu- software engineering. The program is highly in- ding partners, and these partners can also pro- dents, with marginal costs of instructor lecture tensive, as a 12-week full-time program that re- vide loans for housing and other expenses. Since time. Another cost advantage with the online quires approximately 66 hours per week and a lending is done through third-party providers, program is savings on real estate; the bootcamp part-time program that spans nine months. About with interest costs passed on to students, Hack can enroll more students without expanding their 3000 students have graduated from the program Reactor is able to collect full upfront payment space and square footage. to date with 470 graduating in 2015. Program tui- for tuition from each student. Other affordabi- tion is $17,780, but 91 percent of students are em- lity options for the onsite program include the The most important factor in Hack Reactor’s suc- ployed within six months, with an average salary Hack Reactor Scholarship Fund, a $1.3 million cess is its network of employers. The bootcamp of $105,000 (in San Francisco). To help finance award funded by Hack Reactor for people who has 300 hiring partners, including Microsoft, tuition, Hack Reactor works with Climb and Pave, demonstrate a commitment to launching their Intuit, JPMorgan Chase, Slack, and Booz Allen both alternative online lenders focused on stu- career in software engineering. There are also Hamilton. In initial cohorts, class sizes were fifteen dent loans and personal loans respectively. sponsored scholarships with community part- to twenty people. Currently, cohorts are capped ners such as Women Who Code ($600 scholar- at eighty students and new cohorts begin every About the Bootcamp ship) and corporate sponsors such as Docker and seven weeks. At this projected rate, Hack Reactor The founding team started Hack Reactor with a Optimizely (full scholarship). Hack Reactor offers should train 550-600 students per year, translat- mission to empower people to get a software job scholarships for the online Remote Beta program ing to $11.5 million to $12 million in annual reve- using an outcomes-focused curriculum. Where- for those that have attended other coding boot- nue from the onsite program. as a formal university education teaches and camps in the past as well as for U.S. veterans. shapes students using theoretical learning, Hack Curriculum and Program Reactor’s only objective is to prepare students Hack Reactor’s Remote program is a highly immer- The Hack Reactor curriculum is highly intensive, to step into a software engineering role after sive online program that mimics the experience beginning with 50-70 hours of prebootcamp graduation. of being onsite. Within the Remote program, preparation. During this period, admitted appli- there is a full-time option (12 weeks) or a part- cants are expected to submit deliverables and Business Model time option (nine months). Mentors, classmates, hit milestones or risk their admission into the Hack Reactor is a for-profit company that charges and pair programming are still part of the pro- program being revoked. Once the bootcamp a tuition fee to students for its training program. gram, through video conferencing and online begins, student schedules are generally fixed at 40 eleven hours per day for six days a week, with no cient information on how an application, tool, or the participant’s responsibility to conceive and absences allowed except for illness and family library works and is meant to be used). brainstorm features for a product, with guidance emergency. The vast majority of in-class time is from the instruction team. Hack Reactor prioriti- focused on technical skills. However, time is allo- Some of the specific skills taught within the pro- zes its students working on projects in which they cated for students to attend fitness classes at a gram include JavaScript, Node.js, Angular.js, are interested, even if there may not be market local gym, with membership subsidized as part Backbone.js, jQuery, HTML, CSS, and agile soft- demand for their product. of tuition. Also, events are held during each of ware development. From conversations with pro- the six evenings per week; these events feature gram alumni and employer partners, Hack Reac- Bootcamp Participants guest speakers from local technology compa- tor instructors are able to determine the skills, Applications begin with a basic JavaScript pro- nies, allow students to undergo mock interviews platforms, tools, and frameworks that are most gramming challenge as well as a written applica- with mentors, and encourage students to work relevant in the workplace. This is primarily a quali- tion. After an initial screen of written applications, on miniprojects with various guest teachers, tative approach, with decisions driven by informal applicants are given an interview. A majority of most of whom are industry professionals. conversations with industry professionals. They the interview is spent on an interactive coding also ask for feedback from their network of em- challenge that an instructor guides applicants In addition to typical lectures and demonstra- ployers several times each year to inform curri- through. The application process optimizes for tions of programming techniques, the curriculum culum decisions. Hack Reactor’s largest curri- a genuine interest and motivation to learn, asse- emphasizes pair programming, where two pro- culum decision, the language on which to focus, ssed through how much time an applicant has grammers work together on the same project at was based on specific feedback from employers. spent learning JavaScript on their own prior to the same time. The students alternate at the key- The team was told that JavaScript was most in the interview. board and the person not actively programming demand, so they formed their curriculum around watches for errors, actively giving feedback. the language. According to Hack Reactor, the program is not in- Pair programming has been proven to “improve tended to bring a student from “0 to 100” but ra- design quality, reduce defects, reduce staffing The core curriculum of the program is comple- ther from “20 to 120,” meaning participants need a risk, enhance technical skills, and improve team ted in the first six weeks, with the next six weeks baseline level of JavaScript knowledge to excel. communications at statistically significant levels” dedicated to completion of a personal project. Students are generally not unemployed but ra- (Cockburn and Williams 2000). Students work in Hack Reactor Part-Time has a similar layout, but ther are hoping to make a career switch; the vast pairs to complete two-day “sprints,” which mim- is spread out across nine months. Some of the majority of these students have a postsecon- ics work deadlines, collaboration, and communi- projects that have come from Hack Reactor stu- dary degree not related to computer science or cation. Overall, the entire curriculum is designed dents include SongLink (featured on Lifehacker software engineering. Still, there have been ca- to simulate a software engineering job environ- and Product Hunt), Purify CSS (featured on the ses where homeless applicants were given ment. For instance, projects and sprints often in- front page of Hacker News), and Dreamify (fea- scholarships to participate, through a partnership clude simulated broken tests (programs written tured on Wired, NBC, and The Next Web). Per- with Code Tenderloin, an organization that en- to test other programs that do produce coherent sonal projects are selected based on the ideas courages technical education in San Francisco’s results) and incomplete documentation (insuffi- and personal interests of each participant; it is lowest-income neighborhood. 41 Impact of the Bootcamp In 2014, Hack Reactor partnered with Moringa 99 percent of onsite graduates and 95 percent of School, creating a pathway to Kenya’s growing Sources online graduates are employed in full-time soft- tech sector. Hack Reactor provided support in ware engineering roles within six months, with ave- curriculum design, consulting services and also Personal Interviews with Victoria rage salaries of $104,000 and $94,000, respec- sent graduates to the Moringa School to work Williamson, Former Director of PR & tively. Salaries ranged from $50,000 to $179,000 with teachers and students in a seven-week Communications, and Stephanie Hong, in 2015. The one percent of onsite graduates not fellowship. Hack Reactor is also a founding part- Director of Digital Marketing. employed in full-time roles within six months were ner of ReBootKAMP, RBK, a bootcamp provider all employed in technical internships. These em- operating in the Middle East supporting Syrian Hack Reactor: ployment figures exclude exemptions accoun- refugees. http://www.hackreactor.com/. ting for 19.7 percent of students. Six percent of The Costs and Benefits of Pair students opted out of Hack Reactor’s career ser- In June 2016, Hack Reactor developed a pro- Programming: https:/ /collaboration.csc. vices program, but the remaining 13.7 percent of prietary coding bootcamp monitoring and evalua- ncsu.edu/laurie/Papers/XPSardinia.PDF. exemptions include students who did not have tion (M&E) framework called the Standard Student Lifehacker: legal authorization to work in the United States, Outcomes Methodology (SSOM). This methodo- http://lifehacker.com. were hired by the school itself, started compa- logy creates standards around listing students, Product Hunt: nies, or had family emergencies. assigning outcome codes, assigning job search http://producthunt.com. dates, computing metrics, and obtaining student Y Combinator: In addition to Hack Reactor’s own partner em- response confirmations. The framework has been https://news.ycombinator.com/. ployers, program graduates have been hired by made publicly available for any coding bootcamp Wired: companies including Google, Facebook, Palantir, to use in order to publish reliable outcomes data. http://wired.com. Adobe, LinkedIn, and Uber. NBC: In March of 2017, Hack Reactor became a foun- http://nbc.com. The employment track record stems from a cu- ding member of the Council on Integrity in The next web: rriculum built to serve employer needs as well Results Reporting (CIRR). CIRR is the industry gold http://thenextweb.com/. as interview and résumé preparation sessions. standard for educational outcomes reporting and Code Tenderloin: Technical interviews often have a specific for- every coding bootcamp in CIRR will use a unified http://www.codetenderloin.com/. mat with similarly structured questions, so Hack outcomes methodology, allowing for standard Reactor is able to prepare students for these comparison of schools. Fourteen other leading types of interviews. The format generally in- bootcamps have joined Hack Reactor in this new volves asking the student to apply or create an coalition. algorithm or data structure to solve a simulated problem. 42 43 44 LABORATORIA LOCATIONS GENERAL BOOTCAMP & PARTNERSHIPS: INFORMATION: PROGRAM: Legal structure Cost to participants MEXICO CITY $1,800 for graduating the Nonprofit social enterprise program, ~$2,500 for LIMA students that get employed Number of years in operation Bootcamp participants 2 years (mid-2014) Low-income women from 18 Duration of the bootcamp to 35 years of age 24-month program (6 AREQUIPA Number of students trained months bootcamp + 18 Bootcamp curriculum SANTIAGO (to date) Technical skills (HTML5, CSS3 months of continuing 400 students education) and JS) and soft skills 45 Laboratoria is a coding bootcamp and a continuing education program that combines applied coding education, psychological training, and deep employer engagement to create opportunities for students. The bootcamp has four locations within Latin America that target low-income women from 18 to 35 years of age. Laboratoria is a social venture where students pay for the program in low monthly installments, but after they have completed the six-month bootcamp and only when they have a secured job. Laboratoria’s curriculum is designed to produce Business Model will join the continuing education program in its globally competitive front-end web developers. Laboratoria is a nonprofit social venture that second phase of implementation. At a compa- Students learn to code user interfaces for web charges a fee for its programming course. ny that has employed a Laboratoria graduate, applications using HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript. However, the fee structure is unique. Students if this graduate and multiple other employees Four hundred students had graduated from the start paying for the 24-month program (six month need to learn a certain technical skill, they can program by the end of 2016. bootcamp + 18 months of continuing education) all be trained within the same class. The Labora- after their graduation and only once they find a toria coder would receive a steep discount while About the Bootcamp job. Laboratoria has tried different accessible other employees would be charged the full price. Laboratoria began with its first pilot in Lima, Peru paying methods and this is the one they intro- In this way, Laboratoria employers can become in mid-2014. The founding team had met while duced from 2017 onwards. The organization de- paying clients. completing their Master’s of Public Adminis- pends on fundraising initiatives at local and re- tration at Columbia University. They gravitated gional levels to cover their costs, and their goal The organization’s entire model relies on deep re- toward social entrepreneurship but began by is to become self-sustainable by 2021. They have lationships with partner employers. Initially these starting a web development agency in Lima. In obtained about $1.5 million in funding for 2017- companies were small to mid-sized web agen- this endeavor, they experienced the increasing 2019 from regional and local partnerships with cies but several larger organizations have come demand and lack of supply of technical talent Omydiar Network, DRK, Peery Foundation, the on board as well, like Accenture, Everis, and the first hand. Around the same time, they noticed Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) Inter-American Development Bank (IADB). Ori- a number of coding bootcamp initiatives were through the Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF), ginally, they tested an internship model but they having success in the United States and realized the Government of Chile, and companies such have found that full-time hiring is more effective. that a number of their top employees had come as Google. They have introduced a continuing The goal of Laboratoria is to find a personalized from bootcamp training. In addition, they saw the education program to keep training their stu- match between a student and an employer, an lack of gender diversity in tech, which prompted dents once they enter the workforce, because equation that includes both technical skills and them to start Laboratoria as a coding bootcamp they believe that a blended model of work-trai- personality type. Monitoring is a significant part for low-income women. Their primary mission is ning will help them become world level coders of this relationship as Laboratoria follows up with to empower their students to find employment in two years. Additionally, this will also generate employers for three years after hiring, including and career opportunities. a more sustainable business model for Labo- monthly surveys or calls during the first year. ratoria, mixed with student payments and pay- Most partner companies are highly satisfied with ments from developers outside Laboratoria who the students and many eventually hire more than 46 one graduate at a time. Through an iterative a- demand-side and supply-side factors. CSS components of the curriculum took the first pproach, Laboratoria has been able to use em- month but instructors have begun asking stu- pirical data and qualitative feedback from em- To understand demand for certain skills, the dents to learn the languages on their own first, ployers to determine the skills they demand from Laboratoria team meets with companies in the taking free online courses. They came across this potential employees. Most partner employers Laboratoria Company Network to ask them approach to learning at other bootcamps and are located in the same city as the bootcamps about specific needs and hiring possibilities. decided to try it themselves. Prompting students themselves, but international employment has Companies also participate in a survey that in- to learn some of the basic curriculum on their begun to occur, with companies like Crowdbotics cludes questions about the tools they use and own has made in-class hours significantly more in Boston through remote work. are planning to use. This all results in bi-annual productive. curriculum reviews. Curriculum and Program The program is full-time over the course of six The Laboratoria curriculum blends technical Meanwhile, personal support is a strong com- months including an intensive training schedule. skills education (60-70 percent of program con- ponent of Laboratoria’s syllabus through its live Similar to many bootcamps, Laboratoria can be tent) with personal skills training from profe- skills program, which begins at the screening seen as a more applicable and cost-effective al- ssional psychologists (30-40 percent of program process with psychological testing and evalua- ternative to training and learning offered by more content). From the technical standpoint, students tion, continues throughout the whole bootcamp formal education institutions. Moreover, since learn to code user interfaces for web applications with specific activities relating self-conscious- their target students are low-income women, using HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript, while per- ness, self-esteem, teamwork, and work abilities they are often unable to participate in the formal sonal skills taught include teamwork, collabora- and with continued support after graduation. education system owing to reasons of affordabil- tion, creativity, and resilience. This combination is Support includes open lines of communications ity. important when considering the high-level ob- and frequent check-ins. Laboratoria has found jective of Laboratoria’s training program: to triple that teaching coding is not necessarily the most Bootcamp Participants each student’s economic value. challenging part, given the background of their Laboratoria’s model begins with a rigorous se- students, the true challenge is usually related lection program that identifies young women Technical skills taught center around front-end to managing logistics, self-esteem, personality, with the potential to learn web development. web development. This includes: (i) the ability and family issues. The bootcamp has made a For most recent cohorts of the program, 400- to develop cross-browser interactive web apps number of programming and curriculum pivots 1000 applications were received and 65-85 stu- using HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript, (ii) integra- since starting. Based on feedback from partner dents were accepted. The screening process ting API’s REST services to their products using employers, they realized the need to introduce begins with a basic written application followed AJAX, (iii) applying programming fundamental computer science subjects, such as algorithms by cognitive, emotional, and personality testing. concepts to solve logic problems, and (iv) using and data structures. Laboratoria had not been Applicants that perform well then participate in productivity and collaboration tools like git, npm, teaching these concepts, but starting to include a two-week preadmission process, in which they gulp, and Sass. Laboratoria chose front-end web them based on feedback from graduates and trial the Laboratoria experience intensively and development as their focus area because of both from hiring companies. Also, initially HTML and the team evaluates their performance, to ensure 47 potential candidates’ commitment to comple- ployers rate the quality of graduates at 4 out of 5 ting the program and finding a job in the industry. and most employers state that they would hire Sources Finally, the cohort is selected. One of the most another Laboratoria graduate. Personal interviews with Marisol Alarcon, significant parts of Laboratoria’s monitoring and Partner and Chile Executive Director, evaluation (M&E) structure is a feedback loop One negative effect that Laboratoria has been and Rodulfo Prieto, Cofounder and COO, that determines the success factors for admitted looking for ways to mitigate is the traditional role Laboratoria. applicants. As Laboratoria gathers more data on of women at home in many of the families from successful graduates, lessons are applied to se- low-income backgrounds. Some students face Laboratoria: lecting the next round of candidates. family challenges during the program and once http://laboratoria.la/. they are working and empowered with economic Inter-American Development Bank: Impact of the Bootcamp opportunity, since they no longer want to follow http://www.iadb.org/. Laboratoria boasts a 75 percent postgraduation a more traditional family path. At the bootcamp employment rate, with graduates tripling their in- phase, they engage the family of each student come within three months of graduation. About early in the process, to help them to understand half of their students had previously attained a the experience that their daughter, wife, or mo- postsecondary education at some point but only ther will undergo and why their support is so im- 16 percent had obtained a degree. Those who portant both for the success of the student as well had obtained a degree had often done so from as for the family. Currently, they engage with the lower-ranked institutions and were unable to get families of the students at least twice through- a well-paid job after graduating. Accepted appli- out the bootcamp. Laboratoria holds a Welcome cants are generally either unemployed or under- Day, where students and their families are invited employed. The holistic approach to instruction, to learn about the organization, the commitment that includes technical skills education, perso- required from students, skills they might acquire, nal skills training, and job matching, is critical to and the future opportunities within technology. the bootcamp’s overall impact on students and In addition, families attend the graduation day employers. Students are not only educated but to celebrate the progress and learning of their matched with job opportunities, mentors, and loved ones continuing education at partner companies. Feedback from companies has been positive, with many of them appreciating the attitude of Laboratoria’s graduates: students are trained to ask for help, ask questions, and take the initiative to volunteer for additional tasks. On average, em- 48 49 50 MORINGA S C H OO L LOCATIONS GENERAL BOOTCAMP & PARTNERSHIPS: INFORMATION: PROGRAM: Legal structure For-profit organization (ACCELERATE) HONG KONG Number of years in operation Cost to participants $400 for Prep Full-Time, 2+ years (since January 2015) Bootcamp participants $450 for Prep Part-Time, $1,200 for Core Open to all participants KENYA Number of students trained (to date) Duration of the bootcamp Bootcamp curriculum 97 students in Moringa 1.0 6 months for onsite Full-stack software engineering 262 Moringa Prep, 99 Core and on-line programs and JavaScript programming 51 Moringa School is one of the pioneer bootcamp providers in Africa that aims to transform African higher education starting with software engineering in an education-to-employment model. Nairobi-based Moringa School accepts students from all over Africa and operates as a for-profit entity. The technical curriculum, which includes Android, Ruby on Rails, UI and UX, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, was developed based on local market needs, taking into account best practices of Hack Reactor and Epicodus, leading U.S. coding bootcamps, to ensure that the quality of Moringa graduates is world-class. Moringa School has graduated almost 100 develo- other school training and Nairobi Tech Week. to high-quality, market-driven education is re- pers from Moringa Core and over 260 from flected in the bootcamp curriculum. Moringa Moringa Prep Part time and Full time in Kenya Business Model Core’s 19-week, project-based course focuses alone. Moringa attracts applicants from more Moringa School operates as a for-profit firm, and on peer-to-peer learning and practical applica- than 10 countries in Africa. Moringa School has relies on several revenue sources, namely, tuition tions of the material, using a blended learning plans to expand to three other African countries fees ($400 for Moringa Prep Full-time, $450 for pedagogy where top technical mentors help and open up new skill verticals by 2020. As for Moringa Prep Part-time and $1,200 for Morin- students throughout the process. Students are other projects and expansion, Moringa School ga Core), school training ($150 per two-week in the classroom from 8:30am to 6pm Monday to also powers a coding school in Hong Kong (Acce- course), and job placement fees (first month’s Friday, with optional evening and weekend open- lerate), runs Nairobi Tech Week, Sub-Saharan salary). ing hours. During that time, students work through Africa’s largest developer event, and an open- practical project- and skills-based assign- source project to create and distribute intro- Moringa School aims to attract high-potential ments, in pairs, groups, and individually. Morn- duction to coding content to secondary schools students irrespective of their socioeconomic ing “standups,” adopted from agile methodology, across Kenya. background. Students have the option of borrow- are morning student-run lectures with the pur- ing funds for tuition fees from Kiva, an internatio- pose of ensuring that all students are on track About the Bootcamp nal nonprofit with a mission to alleviate poverty. with content. Evening peer-review is a peer and Moringa School was founded in 2014 by Audrey Partnership with Kiva was secured because of self-reflection period where students give feed- Cheng, who had a background in education, mar- its proven track record of close to a 95 percent back on themselves and their pairs. Each week, keting, tech and social innovation, and was for- employment rate for Moringa School graduates, Moringa’s students experience talks by indus- merly with the Savannah Fund and True Ventures. and a 350 percent increase in their salaries. Mor- try insiders, feedback sessions, one-to-one se- Moringa launched operations in January 2015 inga is currently finalizing partnerships with third- ssions with technical mentors, and team-building and is led by Audrey and Savannah Kunovsky, party loan providers to take the responsibility of games. The Moringa team is currently in the pro- the chief technology officer (CTO), who had previ- loan collection out of the school. cess of developing an updated curriculum that ous experience working with Hack Reactor. Since would incorporate new career-focused activities, then, the school has graduated around 200 soft- Curriculum and Program and reflect the changing paradigm of education: ware engineers within its bootcamp program and The objective of Moringa School is to transform paced education, purpose learning and lifelong over 260 with its pre-bootcamp program, and higher education in Africa, starting with software learning, concepts similar to the Stanford2025 trained over 5000 students within workshops, engineering. Moringa’s vision to improve access project. Their ambition is to pioneer Education 2.0 52 in Kenya, relying on emerging best practice from the Moringa team as the CTO. mobile track, students undergo 5 week modules world class education providers: for example, on JavaScript, Java, Android, and a four-week by switching from major-based learning to pur- The Admissions Process project period. Every Friday, and the 5th week of pose-based learning. The expansion plans are Through the admissions process, potential stu- each module, students undertake a project to therefore rooted in quality rather than quantity. dents apply online to Moringa Prep in which they creatively apply the skills they have learned up share the core of their interest in learning how to to that point. In September 2016, Moringa School moved from code. After students apply online, they are invited a traditional lecture-style teaching method to a for a face-to-face interview with a technical men- The school sees itself as a world-class career ac- blended learning approach, in which students tor so that the Moringa team can assess wheth- celerator with direct education-to-employment; have more ownership over their own learning er the applicant is a strong cultural fit for the hence, strong career focus is one of the key experience. This learning model has also proven Moringa Prep program. Once accepted, Moringa characteristics of their program. The career com- to scale extremely effectively – into Hong Kong Prep serves as an extended admissions process ponent is integrated throughout the bootcamp already and more markets in Africa in 2017. into Moringa Core. Students must demonstrate program, with ongoing professional develop- strong interpersonal skills and ability to learn and ment sessions; students are also introduced to According to Audrey Cheng, the cofounder and apply quickly through Moringa Prep in order to the tech ecosystem in Kenya via weekly presen- chief executive officer (CEO) of Moringa School, qualify for Moringa Core. Applicants who wish to tations by speakers from the industry. Moringa evaluating the local demand for programmers skip Moringa Prep and directly join Core undergo maintains relationships with over 50 hiring part- and specific coding languages has been challen- a more intensive admissions process, where they ners who provide speakers for weekly presenta- ging, as limited market data is available for Kenya need to complete coding assignments and dis- tions, attend the Hiring Day at the end of the pro- and other local markets. Hence, the school co- cuss this assignment with a technical mentor in a gram, and conduct interviews for open positions llects market research data itself, focusing on the longer interview. These applicants must demons- in software engineering in their firms. Students needs of its partner employers and collecting trate the practical skills that all students learn pursue full-time employment with these firms their feedback. One part of Moringa School curri- from Prep and be able to successfully complete upon completion of Moringa Core. The school culum (including workshops) was developed in- all of the projects that Prep students finish before constantly collects feedback from partner em- house in order to take into account the needs of joining Core. ployers in order to provide necessary updates to local employers, while another part (particularly the curriculum and stay relevant to the job mar- tools and teaching methodologies) was adopted Moringa’s Course Offerings and Career Support ket’s needs. from Hack Reactor and Epicodus, two of the ma- The intensive Moringa Prep and Core courses run jor U.S.-based bootcamps. five days a week from 8:30am to 6:30pm. Moringa Bootcamp Participants Prep covers the fundamentals of programming, Moringa School applicants come not only from The partnership with Hack Reactor and Epicodus while Moringa Core is track-based (either full- Kenya, but also from other countries across revolves around mentorship and advice on best stack or mobile). In the full-stack track, students Africa, including Nigeria, Burundi, Rwanda, and practice in the curriculum and teaching methods. undergo five week modules on JavaScript, Ruby, South Sudan. Moringa 1.0’s selection process was One former Hack Reactor employee also joined and Rails, and a four-week project period. In the highly competitive: according to Audrey Cheng, 53 the cofounder, around 1000 people applied for never programmed before to be able to success- al development and post-Moringa job support the bootcamp program between January 2015 fully join Core. Being selective in its admissions program to graduates. and September 2016, over 10 times more than is part of the School’s philosophy: the founders those who were admitted and actually received emphasize the focus on quality of students and Impact of the Bootcamp the training (97). Moringa 1.0’s dropout rate has teaching as the primary goal, which also helps Moringa School has trained over 500 students been low, with only three students leaving the ensure high-employment rates postgradua- through its various programs (including work- program without graduating. Moringa 2.0 (Morin- tion. The bootcamp program of Moringa School shops, school training and full-time courses). In ga Prep and Core) continues to attract students attracts students with diverse backgrounds: 64 addition to the full-time program, Moringa has from over 10 countries on the continent and sees percent are university graduates, 24 percent are provided more than 20 workshops to the external a much higher admissions rate, because the de- current university students, and 12 percent are community, as well as hosting and organizing the mand for Moringa is high and the team believes high school graduates. In terms of gender, 64 Nairobi Tech Week, Sub-Saharan Africa’s largest in greater access to high-quality education. percent are male, and 36 percent female. The fo- tech event. Moringa also organizes training at cus of the bootcamp is to make its graduates em- secondary schools (for example, Oshwal Acade- Overall, Moringa School looks for inquisitive, in- ployable; in fact, only 28 percent of participants my) to improve coding skills among young peo- telligent students with great capacity to learn. have jobs before the bootcamp, hence the skills ple, and in 2017 is releasing a free, open-source In order to be successful in the bootcamp, stu- they acquire are paramount to finding jobs upon coding curriculum to secondary schools across dents should be open to feedback, receptive to graduation. Kenya. Moringa School has graduated over 260 being coached, and willing to lead others. Finally, Moringa Prep students and almost 100 Moringa successful bootcamp participants not only seek Prior knowledge of coding is not required to parti- Core students in Kenya alone. Through partner- technical skills, but want to provide the best possi- cipate in the Moringa School bootcamp. While ships with hubs or organizations across the Afri- ble user experience through the products they some students have degrees in computer sci- can continent, Moringa School plans to train over develop, and be holistic contributors to the tech ence, few have worked as programmers before. 180 students externally through Moringa Prep. industry. Through Moringa Prep and Core, the bootcamp Moringa School also provides curriculum and ensures that students have a certain degree of training advice to Accelerate bootcamp provider Moringa School targets high-potential students: technical proficiency and potential to grow. in Hong Kong. in its first cohort, Moringa only accepted five stu- dents out of 120 applicants, and it has sustained In order to do well during the bootcamp, it is im- Moringa School reports a 95 percent job place- a competitive acceptance procedure, with about portant to ask questions, work as part of a team, ment rate, with graduates working at leading an 8 percent acceptance rate up to September especially helping others, as well as be tena- tech companies, such as Safaricom, Barclays 2016. In Moringa 2.0, the team decided to con- cious, driven, hardworking, passionate and pa- Bank, Cellulant, and Craft Silicon. After the boot- tinue its tough selection process for the Core tient. After the bootcamp, interviewing skills and camp, Moringa graduates find employment as course, but open up access to the introducto- communication skills in general are particularly full-time software engineers, freelance consul- ry course to more students across Africa. This important, as is determination to find a job. Mo- tants, or become entrepreneurs and found their increases the likelihood of students who have ringa School offers a comprehensive profession- own companies. Few students go back to uni- 54 versity to continue their studies. As a rule, stu- cross-border focus in terms of partnerships and However, Moringa School is in the process of ad- dents’ incomes improve dramatically after the job market targeting. Irrespective of geography, dressing this issue, as they are soon to launch bootcamp: with an average of 350 percent salary key reasons to apply for the bootcamp include a “lifelong learning” service offering additional increase and full-time employment as software effective teaching of highly relevant for the mar- courses to its community of alumni and team engineers, bootcamp graduates improve both ket skills, proven track record of placing students members. Hence, members of the Moringa their social standing and the caliber of tasks they in high-quality jobs, and a network of emplo- School community will be able to take additional are exposed to. With the level of skills learned, yers and alumni that form a lifelong communi- courses even after finishing the bootcamp – both they can contribute at a high level to the projects ty. The bootcamp positively influences individual to learn new skills and to enhance their expertise on which they have been hired to work. students, as well as society in general: training in their own area of work. world-class Kenyan developers and contributing Moringa School sees its programs as comple- to the backbone of the African tech ecosystem. mentary to local university courses as a way to Sources address the practical skill-set necessary for em- According to Audrey Cheng, the bootcamp co- ployment in software engineering. However, in founder, the program has already had effects Personal interview with Audrey Cheng, its effort to improve the quality of education in beyond Kenya: first, Moringa School provides in- Moringa School cofounder. Africa, Moringa School has established a part- formal mentorship to other bootcamp programs nership with Carnegie Mellon University in the across the world (some examples include Israel Moringa School: United States to fast-track bootcamp graduates and Zimbabwe); second, it has proven effective http://www.moringaschool.com/. into its masters programs. in preparing people for jobs in other countries Kiva: (for example, Hong Kong). Moringa School also www.kiva.org. Moringa School targets regional demand for pro- reaches people across social spheres, as it offers SoloLearn: grammers not only in Kenya, but across the Afri- affordable tuition-fee loans through its partner- http://www.sololearn.com/Courses/. can continent: 10 different African countries are ship with Kiva. The bootcamp is currently trying Stanford2025 Project: represented among bootcamp applicants. As for to attract more women to improve the gender http://www.stanford2025.com/. bootcamp participants, they come from Kenya, equality component of its program. Savannah Fund: as well as from South Sudan, Nigeria, and Rwan- http://savannah.vc/. da. The school relies mostly on informal channels The main positive effect of Moringa School is Rotary International: (for example, feedback from partner employers building life skills that enable bootcamp gradua- https://www.rotary.org/en. and through surveying developers) in order to tes to be competitive in any industry. Students Lifelong Learning: evaluate demand. While Kenya was chosen as can use the steep learning curve employed http://www.stanford2025.com/ a bootcamp location because of the founders’ throughout the bootcamp as a model to emulate open-loop-university/. familiarity with the local market and prior ex- when learning new skills throughout their careers. perience of working there, the presence of stu- Currently, bootcamps typically do not pro- dents from other African countries has led to vide continued training after the course end. 55 56 SE FACTORY LOCATIONS GENERAL BOOTCAMP & PARTNERSHIPS: INFORMATION: PROGRAM: Legal structure Nonprofit organization BEIRUT Number of years in operation Cost to participants Bootcamp participants 1+ year (since March 2016) $100 Computer science/engineering graduates Number of students trained Duration of the bootcamp Bootcamp curriculum (to date) 3 months, 3 times a year Full- stack web development 22 students (Apache, SQL, PHP, etc.) 57 SE Factory (Software Engineering Factory) is a Beirut-based, Lebanese coding bootcamp that teaches the technical and socioemotional skills necessary for professional full-stack web development. The motivation to found the SE Factory boot- camp was rooted in trying to solve a two-fold problem in the Lebanese tech scene: on one hand, companies face the shortage of developers, and on the other hand, computer science graduates (especially those from second-tier universities) lack the skills to find employment as software engineers. The bootcamp seeks to solve this problem by About the Bootcamp improve employability prospects of computer equipping computer science graduates with the SE Factory was founded in March 2016 by Fadi science/engineering graduates from second- necessary practical skills, hence increasing their Bizri, a Lebanese venture capitalist with a back- tier universities. Hence, affordability of the boot- employability and providing the final push nece- ground in engineering (currently Partner at B&Y camp is paramount to its mission. ssary to improve their earning capacity Venture Partners and previously cofounder at Seeqnce and Speed@BDD, respectively the Business Model The bootcamp only accepts applicants with pre- first and second tech start-up accelerators in SE Factory currently operates as a nonprofit, existing foundational knowledge in computer Lebanon) and Zeina Saab, founder of Nawaya funded by grants from international organiza- science, and thus typically computer science/ Network, a youth empowerment NGO. This tions, as well as via sponsorship. The first se- engineering students or graduates, and seeks to initiative builds on two NGOs –Bader Young ssion was supported by the Asfari Foundation, provide them with the most up-to-date progra- Entrepreneurs Program and Nawaya Network– in Al-Mawarid Bank, Bank Audi, and Berytech. mming languages and tools to make them em- both of which the SE Factory founders have been These donations covered the costs of running ployable as junior web developers. SE Factory deeply involved. The bootcamp seeks to solve the bootcamp, which are estimated at $30,000- operates as a nonprofit organization with a mi- the problem of unsatisfied demand for skilled 40,000 per batch (three months teaching to about ssion to improve employability and improve software engineers in Lebanon by providing the 15 students as well as marketing and outreach to economic prospects for computer science gra- necessary training in modern programming tools attract applicants). Student contributions of $100 duates from less-privileged backgrounds. The to underemployed computer science/enginee- each cover less than 4 percent of the operatio- bootcamp curriculum covers full-stack web de- ring graduates, in addition to the necessary socio- nal costs, but serve as a commitment tool rather velopment technologies, including LAMP (Linux, emotional skills (teamwork, interviewing, conflict than a means of financing the bootcamp training. Apache, MySQL, PHP), HTML/CSS, JavaScript, management, pitching, and so on) that enhance This funding model was chosen to deliver highly and so on, in addition to tools and best practice success in the workplace. The founders’ back- affordable training in line with the mission of facil- expected of professionals in the field. As of March ground in the Lebanese tech industry led them itating upward social mobility, without compro- 2017, SE Factory has graduated 22 students in to develop a good intuition for the needs of the mising the quality of the bootcamp curriculum. Beirut through two sequential batches, achieving ecosystem, and hence the bootcamp emerged 90 percent employment success postbootcamp, as a response to the lack of programmers. One SE Factory places great emphasis on the quality with a third batch currently underway, and is ai- differentiating factor of this program is its focus of instruction. According to Fadi Bizri, the Program ming to expand into other cities in Lebanon in the on below average income earners, as SE Factory Manager and cofounder, one of the key success coming years. seeks to strengthen Lebanese middle class and factors has been finding the right person for the 58 position of Technical Director, who is responsi- complements those with socioemotional skills JSON, REST), aimed at building interactive and ble for the curriculum and instruction. Because necessary for web developers (20 percent of event-driven client-based applications with top professionals in the IT sphere are typically the content). The curriculum was developed JavaScript. well compensated by working in the industry, in-house, by combining best practice from attracting highly motivated and particularly international bootcamps (for example, Dev In addition to actual programming languages, skilled instructors who would share the mission Bootcamp, Hack Reactor) with local market the bootcamp material covers the tools nece- of the bootcamp might be a challenge. In line demand. The team emphasized the need to adapt ssary in all web development tasks: source con- with this rationale, the Technical Director’s re- the curriculum to the local context rather than trol (Git), integrated development environment, muneration accounts for 40-50 percent of the simply replicate the approach of U.S. or Euro- IDE (Sublime Text, Atom, or Vim). Best practice bootcamp cost. All of the bootcamp’s technical pean bootcamps. The founders’ familiarity with project management tools (Asana) and commu- instruction is currently undertaken by the Techni- the key players in the Lebanese tech scene pro- nication tools (Slack) are also an integral part of cal Director, but further expansion of the program vides an intuitive demand assessment and curri- the curriculum. will call for more instructors. The 2 to 3 weekly culum structure. For example, SE Factory tea- socioemotional skills workshops and talks by ches PHP (server-side programming language SE Factory’s bootcamp runs for 14 weeks, speakers are provided on a pro-bono basis. Other for web development, which can also be used in Monday to Friday, 10 am-7 pm. This intensive costs include hiring premises and small opera- general-purpose programming) rather than Ruby training schedule requires full commitment to tional items such as stationery. (object-oriented general-purpose programming the program, and typically students cannot pur- language), since in Lebanon the demand for PHP sue work or studies at the time of the bootcamp. SE Factory works with universities in trying to programmers is much higher. Technical sessions are combined with presen- attract its students. Its outreach campaign focu- tations from industry insiders to illustrate career ses on finding champions of its bootcamp pro- In general, SE Factory bootcamps teach full- prospects. During the last two weeks of the gram among university students, professors, and stack web development, covering the following bootcamp, students work on their own project, staff, to encourage students to apply. Attending topics: in which they develop a web application of their university events and word-of-mouth from other 1. Infrastructure (HTTP and messaging pa- choice. Final projects typically require the skills bootcamp graduates are also used as promo- tterns, networking, virtualization, operating learned throughout the program. The program tion channels. Overall, the bootcamp positions systems cloud architecture), deployed on ends with a Demo Day, during which students itself as an extension of formal university educa- either Amazon Web Services, Heroku, VPS present their projects to potential employers. tion rather than as a substitute for it. In parallel, (DO), or Google Developer Console. online socialmedia campaigns are implemented to 2. Back-End (Apache, MySQL, SQL, PHP, The Demo Day works as part of the recruitment increase brand awareness and exposure. PHPUnit, Slim Framework), aimed at achie- process, allowing students to showcase their ving proficiency in entire LAMP stack (Linux, work to potential employers. Partner companies, Curriculum and Program Apache, MySQL, PHP), unit testing and web which are part of the SE Factory network of em- SE Factory curriculum focuses on technical development within an MVC framework. ployers, are typically established corporations skills (80 percent of the program content), and 3. Front-End (HTML/CSS, XML, JavaScript, or well-funded start-ups. There is no obligation 59 from their side to hire SE Factory graduates, but of graduates finding employment postbootcamp ly to evaluate its impact. However, the bootcamp they are invited to attend SE Factory events and at market salaries. These are good signs for SE founders believe that high employment rates are given an opportunity to assess students’ pro- Factory’s unique formulation of being able to among graduates and improved earnings are jects. Students work throughout the program to successfully help lower-income youth to access two of the most important effects to achieve. Ac- develop their professional portfolio, including good jobs in a short timeframe. cording to Fadi Bizri, SE Factory trained gradua- programming full web or mobile applications tes can earn about three times more postboot- that serve as their final projects. The bootcamp To satisfy the minimum selection criteria, boot- camp compared to their initial salary. For those aims to facilitate students’ job search through camp applicants should: 1. have a university de- employed as junior web developers in Lebanon, introduction to potential employers, and partner gree in computer science/engineering or have the target salary is $1,500 per month. The rapid companies have first-hand access. proven foundational knowledge in computer buildup of skills and the resulting salary improve- science fundamentals; 2. have basic English pro- ment are two main reasons to apply for the boot- Bootcamp Participants ficiency; 3. be able to commit to full-time atten- camp. SE Factory primarily targets computer science/ dance of the bootcamp; 4. be highly motivated engineering graduates from the larger Beirut area to pursue the bootcamp education (as assessed In SE Factory’ experience, in order to do well during who are highly motivated to learn and become through interviews). These criteria are tested the bootcamp (as well as after), drive and moti- employed as web developers. Tuition fees are through an online application, which covers edu- vation are important conditions, and knowing the deliberately kept low ($100) in order to make the cational and professional background, as well basics of computer science (gauged during the bootcamp affordable to people from all socio- as asking for the personal assessment of va- selection process) is necessary as well. Based on economic backgrounds. The motivation for this rious software development skills, socioemo- the experience of the first cohort, the impact on model emerged from the founders’ background tional skills (for example, project management) students’ lives can be tremendous: the bootcamp in NGOs (Bader Young Entrepreneurs Program, and English language skills. The online appli- typically empowers people to pursue opportu- The Nawaya Network) that seek to empower cation also includes a questionnaire on expec- nities well beyond their initial range of options. young people. According to SE Factory cofound- tations from the program and ability to commit For example, moving from short-term unskilled er Fadi Bizri, the bootcamp is especially attractive to attending the bootcamp on a full-time basis. jobs outside of the computer science area, and to students of below-average income who could Successful applicants who pass the online appli- tripling the salary is one way of improvement. not afford education at top-tier universities and cation round are invited for interview, which hence are often left behind in the labor market. are conducted either by phone or face to face. SE Factory currently targets the local demand The bootcamp program can level the playing The main purpose of interviews is to assess the for web developers and mobile developers. The field for computer science graduates from sec- level of motivation of the applicants and to verify ambition of the bootcamp is to scale nationwide ond-tier universities, making them competitive in claims of having acceptable tech/language pro- and open new locations throughout Lebanon in the labor market for web developers. While the ficiency. order strengthen the knowledge economy, as program is still at an early stage, with the third cy- well as strengthen the Lebanese middle class. cle underway and 22 graduates as of March 2017, Impact of the Bootcamp While Beirut is a natural starting point, the effect early impact is highly promising with 90 percent As SE Factory is a new bootcamp, it is still too ear- of the program is currently reaching countrywide. 60 In terms of social spheres, the lower-middle class is the target segment on which the program has Sources the most impact. However, the impact is not like- ly to extend to the poorest segments of the po- Personal interview with Fadi Bizri, pulation, as the program focuses on relatively edu- Program Manager and cofounder. cated students with existing English language skills and computer science degrees. SE Factory: http://sefactory.io/. The key positive effects of the bootcamp are Bader Young Entrepreneurs Program: not limited to building new skills, but also in- http://baderlebanon.com/. clude the sense of community and engagement The Nawaya Network: among the bootcamp participants and alumni. http://www.nawaya.org/. Going beyond the technical training, SE Factory Asfari Foundation: aims to transform its students’ lives by facilitating http://www.asfarifoundation.org.uk/. upward social mobility. Building a strong network Al-Mawarid Bank: of bootcamp alumni and participants is especia- http://www.almawarid.com/. lly important in order to achieve this mission. Bank Audi: http://www.bankaudi.com.lb/Lebanon/ Home. Berytech: http://berytech.org/. 61 62 WORLD TECH MAKERS LOCATIONS GENERAL BOOTCAMP & PARTNERSHIPS: INFORMATION: PROGRAM: Legal structure Cost to participants Bootcamp participants For-profit corporation $2,000 in Colombia, $3,500 Open to all participants. MEXICO CITY in Brazil, $499.99 per month Primarily men between Number of years in operation for online programs the ages of 18-35 3 years (May 2014) BOGOTA Number of students trained Duration of the bootcamp Bootcamp curriculum SAO PAULO (to date) 3 months for onsite Different programs focused MEDELLIN 650+ students programs, 1 week-2 years on Ruby on Rails, iOS, for online programs Android, JavaScript 63 World Tech Makers (WTM) is a technology education company offering onsite coding bootcamps and STEM eLearning solutions for individuals and/or organizations. The company has operations in four physical coding bootcamp locations across three different countries. With clients across the globe, World Tech Makers specializes in vocational training for young people and adults, along with K-12 STEM training for children and teenagers. Regarding the onsite coding bootcamps, the Having grown up in Colombia, she saw the de- now come online. organization focuses on emerging economies mand for high-quality technical talent in her (mostly in Latin America) and trains students in home country. However, she received feedback Business Model web and mobile technologies, with programs that the margins in Latin America were too low to WTM is a for-profit that charges a tuition fee to ranging from 8 to 12 weeks in both part-time and justify an expansion for a private, for-profit com- students of its training programs. Physical boot- full-time intensity levels. The programs are also pany. camp fees depend on location, and online fees offered online with remote connections (LIVE). range from $14.99 to $499.99 per month. Loca- Both cofounders had a passion for education and tion-specific fees were decided based on in- The company offers financial aid assistance from Ilana’s experience with coding bootcamps, come levels within the cities as well as initial for low-income students and the cost of the she understood the global shortage of progra- demand for coding bootcamps. Because WTM program ranges from $2,000 to $3,500 for the mmers. The team felt that they could fill a need openly allows anybody to apply, they have seen part-time onsite bootcamps. in the Latin American market, while working in wide variation in the income levels of applicants a sector they were passionate about. WTM was and students. Fee structures are flexible for less- Full-time and part-time courses exist for Ruby on started with a mission to destroy the mental affluent students, who are allowed to pay in Rails, iOS, Android, and JavaScript. Over 800 have archetype that coding is too difficult and complex smaller installments over a longer time period. completed the WTM program to date. to learn. They hope to teach people and have them stay in the region for years to come. A major part of the WTM model is its empha- About the Bootcamp sis on employment opportunities as a return on The founding team of WTM had met online on The bootcamp’s first Brazil location was star- students’ investment. The bootcamp has culti- Facebook. Ilya Brotsky was doing social impact ted by a cofounder who had been working with vated relationships with employers such as Mi- work in Sao Paulo and Ilana Milkes was comple- NGOs in the area at the time. After winning the crosoft, VanHack, and Imaginamos. Partner em- ting her second master’s degree in Chicago. On Startup Chile competition, WTM opened up a ployers range from large corporations to small a trip she made to Brazil, they finally met per- bootcamp in Santiago as well (now closed). After start-ups to public sector organizations. For both sonally and decided to launch WTM. Prior to this, announcing their first bootcamp cohort, to build physical and online bootcamps, job matching is she had been working at a coding bootcamp an initial base of interested applicants, WTM crea- critical; WTM enables job matching through a in Chicago, where she had acquired a set of ted a Facebook page and website for the Sao standalone app that specifically helps their stu- technical knowledge. During this time, she had Paulo and Bogota locations. Despite spending dents find jobs where they can use their skills. attempted to convince more developed Amer- just $500 on social media advertising, the team WTM determines the skills most in demand by ican bootcamps to expand to Latin America. has found that more than half of its applications holding one-on-one meetings with employers 64 several times each year, as well as analyzing assistance from industry mentors, and present mastery and later, skills with development plat- usage data of Remoto.online, WTM’s online hi- their apps during a Demo Day. WTM hosts one- forms and tools. The stages of learning are as ring portal. Moreover, curriculum programming on-one discussions with mentors that include follows: includes networking sessions with local emplo- investors like Tim Draper (Draper Fisher Jurvet- yers. son), entrepreneurs like Ted Gonder (Money- 1. Basics: Fundamentals of programming think), developers like Guillermo Iguaran (Ride. (for example, variables, loops, methods), co- Curriculum and Program com), and designer entrepreneurs like Lisa mmand line, Git (version control), user inter- WTM’s curriculum is a workplace-oriented ap- Russell (Pitch Training Camp). face/user experience (UI/UX), lean metho- proach to teaching coding skills. While most dologies (start-up venture creation). bootcamp programs offer project-based learn- Onsite bootcamps last eight weeks for full-time 2. Software Engineering: Object-oriented ing, WTM is unique in that it teaches project and programs and 12 weeks for part-time programs. skills, smart software architecture, design pa- product management techniques that are used Online bootcamps can extend any length of time tterns, system dynamics. at top technology companies. Part of the curri- as a monthly fee is charged and the LIVE content 3. Core Language: Ruby on Rails, JavaScript, culum is “agile” methodologies and techniques is paid on demand. iOS, or Android. Fundamentals, syntax, design, such as creating sprints, dividing tasks, and le- and project work. veraging SCRUM. Agile software development is Bootcamps.online, WTM’s online learning portal, 4. Database and Integrations: Databases and a set of principles that encourages collaboration, acts as both an independent training program tables, connections, external libraries, and iteration, and self-organization within product and a supplement to part-time onsite programs. APIs. teams; it is used in most technology companies Unlike typical online coding training, Bootcamps. 5. Projects: Synthesizing information to deve- such as Google, Apple, and Amazon. online is essentially a virtualization of the in-class lop and demo a live project. experience, with live and recorded lectures to Furthermore, to supplement mechanical know- watch, a challenge-based personalized learning During the development of this curriculum, the ledge of scripting languages (for example, Ruby path, and a global database of mentors. Online team had a chance to discuss with Pearson, the on Rails, JavaScript, and so on), students are participants can still access free and paid WTM world’s largest textbook publisher. They helped taught software product design and venture crea- mentors; for paid mentors, WTM takes a com- in defining specific evidence and learning out- tion. Specific skills they learn include building mission on their fees. In addition, the team is comes for each individual class, helping students empathy maps for potential users, applying de- implementing artificial intelligence to drive per- take steps toward an end-learning objective. sign thinking to products, and creating user inter- sonalization of the online learning experience. face (UI) wireframes before building the product Students struggling to grasp a certain concept WTM has pivoted multiple times to iterate its itself. can be given additional projects, mentorship, and curriculum. Initially, only full-time programs were foundational training modules. offered, where students would work eight hours Overall, the WTM curriculum promotes an im- a day for 12 weeks. Feedback from students and mersive learning experience where students Every course begins with foundational progra- applicants indicated that less intensive courses learn concepts, apply them to projects, get mming knowledge, moving toward language would be preferred. They have since shortened 65 the length of full-time courses to eight weeks the year, because of the holiday season. Online developer can build rather than in the concepts from 12 and have created part-time programs as bootcamps are open to anyone, without any appli- they learned at university. This stems from the well. In addition, Bootcamps.online itself was a cation process, except for LIVE content, where fact that bootcamps often ask partner employers pivot as the onsite bootcamp was greatly over- students go through the same selection process for feedback on their curriculum, whereas this subscribed with over 18,000 applications and this as in the onsite programs. happens to a much lesser extent in traditional presented an opportunity to participate in the education. To add, WTM instructors are profe- training in alternative ways. Impact of the Bootcamp ssionals who have built technology in the field. WTM reports that 75 percent of onsite participants Bootcamp Participants were employed within four months of gradua- The main negative effect that they have disco- Applications for WTM are open to everyone. ting from the program. Most program graduates vered is that many people come in with an unrea- About 80 percent of students are male and stu- get jobs as junior developers and many early stu- listic expectation of being taught a deep under- dents range from 14 to 59 years of age, although dents are now in roles where they lead junior de- standing of programming and computer science most are between 18 and 35 years of age. Most velopment teams. within an 8 to 12 week program. WTM empha- applicants and students live in the surrounding sizes that they teach the skills necessary to begin urban areas where each bootcamp is located. Still, the bootcamp’s impact is not only in attrac- work as a junior developer, but that bootcamp However, WTM has received some applications ting employment for the previously unemployed. graduates need to continue learning to improve from Europe as well. The earliest adopters of the Participants may have had a job prior to the boot- their skills to further progress in their respective WTM bootcamps were engineers who had re- camp, but software development may offer them workplace. ceived a formal education, but wanted to deve- a higher quality of life and salary. On the other lop more applied skills for the workforce. The hand, from their work and discussions with for- professional mix has changed since then, with mal education institutions (for example, Univer- more students who want to switch careers or sity of Los Andes), they have found that many start a technology company. middle and upper-class students do not apply for computer science programs because they The selection process begins with a short online are not as well paid as business programs. With application, after which a subset of candidates is the supply and demand situation of technical given 20-minute interviews. Interviews consist of talent in Latin America, the WTM team be- personal questions to assess program commit- lieves that it is possible that average salaries will ment and technical questions to see whether an increase for programming jobs. applicant has taken enough of an interest in co- ding to learn some foundations on their own. 10- The team believes that project-based training 20 percent of applicants are accepted, depen- is a better approach than theoretical learning ding on seasonality – the team has noticed that to fix the huge deficit of technically skilled wor- they receive fewer applications in later months of kers. Most companies are interested in what a 66 Sources Personal interviews with Ilana Milkes, Founder, Maker & CEO, World Tech Makers. World Tech Makers: http://www.worldtechmakers.com/boot- camps. VanHack: http://www.vanhack.com. Imaginamos: http://imaginamos.com. Remoto.online: https://remoto.online/. Bootcamps.online: http://www.bootcamps.online/. 67 68 CO DERI SE LOCATIONS GENERAL BOOTCAMP & PARTNERSHIPS: INFORMATION: PROGRAM: Legal structure Nonprofit organization registered in the United States Number of years in operation Cost to participants Bootcamp participants 4 years (since September 2012) Free of charge High-school students, MEDELLÍN 13-17 years of age Number of students trained Duration of the bootcamp Bootcamp curriculum (to date) 9 weeks, once a year CSS, HTML, JavaScript 120 students 69 Coderise is a Colombia-based bootcamp that seeks to empower high-school students by teaching them how to build web applications. A nonprofit organization operating in Medellín, Coderise teaches web development to promote upward social mobility in developing countries. According to Andrea Cornejo, the bootcamp founder, the program was a response to the lack of opportunities available for young people. Coderise teaches not only web development, but also critical thinking and the ability to solve complex problems. Medellín was chosen as the location for the Business Model Curriculum and Program bootcamp since the city is committed to leading As a nonprofit organization, Coderise is spon- Coderise’s vision does not end with teaching the technological innovation in the Latin American sored by donations from Socialatom Ventures, basics of web development – it also endeavors region and in the world. As such, it has a gro- which cover basic operational expenses, such as to stimulate the intellectual curiosity of students wing and active ecosystem of both tech start-up stationery, food, and transportation costs. Code- and equip them with learning skills that would entrepreneurs and software developers that are rise offers transportation grants to students trave- allow them to master new knowledge quick- indispensable to Coderise’s successful imple- lling from remote regions of the Medellín metro- ly and efficiently. Thus, technical sessions are mentation. Beyond this, the Coderise founding politan area, as well as reimbursing travel costs combined with inspirational talks from success- team had close connections and support from for mentors who hold weekend industry insight ful web developers, start-up founders, and chief the tech community in Medellín from the outset. sessions. Students are also provided with snacks technology officers in the region. Additionally, its during breaks in-between sessions. The program mentorship system helps students discover their The technical curriculum includes CSS, HTML, itself is completely free of charge to participants. interests and understand how they can best em- and JavaScript, and is complemented with men- ploy their newly learned skills in the future. toring sessions by IT professionals from the re- Coderise estimates the cost to run each boot- gion. The bootcamp had graduated 120 students camp (nine weeks’ training for 20 students) is The Coderise curricula is semiformal, that is, by 2016, and is aiming to expand to countries between $15,000 and $20,000. This includes there is a list of minimum programming concepts such as Honduras and El Salvador in the near the cost of hiring premises and equipment, labor for HTML5, JavaScript, and CSS that students future. costs, and operational expenses (stationery, food, cover during the course. However, instructors and transportation). Premises and equipment are have some flexibility to expand on certain to- About the Bootcamp currently provided through its partnership with pics, so that they can react organically to stu- Coderise was founded in September 2012 by Andrea Ruta N, the business and innovation center in dents’ response to the material. The guidelines Cornejo, a developmental economist from Peru and Medellín. Regarding labor costs, instructors and for the curriculum were developed in-house, and a U.S. citizen, and backed by U.S. engineers and en- tutors who run the technical sessions work on a are quite similar to the curricula of other regio- trepreneurs with Latin American origins. Since then, pro bono basis. Coderise also maintains strong nal bootcamp providers. Bootcamp participants the bootcamp has been in operation every year for relationships with its network of mentors from are encouraged to make use of, and contribute nine weeks, accepting 20 students in each batch. the local community of tech entrepreneurs and to, open-source code. Since the bootcamp does Coderise also trained 17 students in Peru as part of developers. not focus on employment for its graduates (it is a one-off, all-female bootcamp in 2014. aimed at high school students), the curriculum 70 reflects overall trends in programming rather students work on their own projects, putting into curricular activities. Critical thinking, intellectual than specific industry demands prevalent at a practice the theory learned during the techni- curiosity, and strong motivation to learn are the certain point in time. The founders’ vision of the cal sessions. There are no strict guidelines as desired characteristics of those invited for inter- purpose of the bootcamp is to make young peo- to the topics of students’ projects, but they are view. Interestingly, having high grades is seen as ple curious about technology and increase their encouraged to work on socially focused appli- relatively less important than demonstrated so- educational attainment rather than turn them into cations that could help local communities. In cial engagement. professional web developers. the last week, students showcase their projects during the Demo Day, which is typically atten- Interviews are usually conducted via phone or The Coderise bootcamp runs for nine weeks, of ded by mentors, partner companies, and stu- Skype, and only in rare cases – when an appli- which the first four weeks are dedicated to tech- dents’ relatives and friends. Coderise does not cant has neither a mobile phone nor Internet nical modules, while weeks 5-8 cover practical use the Demo Day as a career fair matching stu- connection – in person. The interview focuses on applications of the theory; the last week is dedi- dents to prospective employers. Rather, it serves the student’s motivation to participate in a Code- cated to Demo Day presentations. as an exercise, aimed at training skills such as rise bootcamp, and to learn programming in ge- public speaking, critical thinking, and networking. neral. Interviewers also seek to understand the Technical modules are led by two instructors student’s interests and aspirations. The selection who explain the concepts for 20-30 minutes, with Bootcamp Participants criteria favor those with the strongest motiva- the remaining time allocated to practice. In order Coderise bootcamps are open to high-school tion to learn coding, and with the proven ability to progress to the next module, students are re- students from the Medellín metropolitan area. to commit to extracurricular activities. Because quired to complete a predefined set of exercises Prior to each application round, the Coderise Coderise bootcamps are scheduled at week- of various levels of difficulty. To help them with team targets local schools through a massive ends and after school on weekdays, commitment practical assignments, there are 3-4 tutors per media campaign. Online applications are open to the program is crucial. In fact, no certificate of class of 20 students in order to provide guidance for two months, after which the selected appli- completion is issued to students who miss more and facilitate the learning process. Each techni- cants are invited for a telephone or Skype inter- than three sessions. cal module lasts three hours, with a 30-40 min view. The number of applications for 20 places in break in between modules. In general, there are each batch increased from 40 in 2012 to about Among the 20 selected bootcamp participants no mandatory homework assignments, but stu- 100 in the most recent application round in 2016. are students from 13 to 17 years of age, with the dents should complete the required set of exer- majority being 15-16 years old. Over the years, the cises in the time allocated for practice during the The online application form is simple, only re- gender distribution has been close to 50 percent technical session. Instructors also provide op- questing self-reported grades, a list of extra- male/50 percent female. Importantly, students tional materials from Code Academy and Khan curricular activities, and details of three referees come from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds, Academy, which students could use to deepen (typically school teachers). The online application and different areas of Medellín. Frequently, stu- their knowledge of the topics covered. is designed to identify students with above ave- dents who would not otherwise mix in social se- rage grades who are actively engaged in their lo- ttings are placed in the same classroom, During the second half of the bootcamp, cal communities, student clubs, and other extra- which makes socioeconomic status secondary 71 compared to the acquisition of knowledge and As to the impact on bootcamp graduates, cu- were conducted in this respect. skills. rrently Coderise does not collect data on grad- uates’ education or employment status. One While Coderise does not build formal links with Prior knowledge of coding is not necessary to reason for this is that it would require long-term educational institutions, a certain degree of coo- apply for the Coderise program. Some bootcamp tracking of graduates, since the gap between peration with schools is part of its promotions participants share the ambition of pursuing pro- high school and employment could extend for strategy, whereby school teachers can encour- gramming as a professional career, while others five to ten years. However, short-term (that is, age students to apply. In general, the founders are simply curious about coding. after six months) follow-up surveys from 2012- think that private and innovative initiatives usua- 2014 suggest that 40 percent of bootcamp gradua- lly overtake and lead advances in a sector, and Impact of the Bootcamp tes were still engaged in coding six months after formal education institutions on technology and The Coderise bootcamps’ impact on the the program ended, and half of graduates were computer programming fields are no exception. local economy and society has been to increase active in the coding community, attending local Bootcamps have an intentionally disruptive de- the number of young people with critical thin- tech meet-ups and events. According to Andrea sign and, as such, have made traditional training king skills who truly understand how technolo- Cornejo, the main positive effect has been to providers and the IT sector rethink and reevaluate gy and programming serve as tools to tackle the graduate students who believe they can tackle their strategies and the importance of generating world’s problems across all sectors. Coderise is the most important problems in their social medi- a highly capable and motivated labor supply. not meant to necessarily increase the number of um or community through technology. On the op- students that become software developers (this posite side of the spectrum, a significant challen- is merely a plus), however the growing economy ge that the evolving bootcamp model faces is Sources in Latin America needs young people with the to better understand and conceptualize the final technical and critical thinking skills to fill high- desired outcome. The bootcamp needs to stress Personal interview with Andrea Cornejo, skill jobs in the IT sector across the board in the that the most important result of a program is Founder, Coderise. coming decades. empowered young people that have developed the ability for effective and continuous learning. Coderise: In terms of geographical impact of the boot- After all, programming languages will come and http://coderise.org/. camp program, initially effects at the community go, but the ability and dedication to master new Socialatom Ventures: level are likely to dominate. Young people with a knowledge remains. http://socialatomventures.com/. higher level of skill and motivation can make the Ruta N: local economy more dynamic by creating new Another important impact, yet hard to quanti- http://www.rutanmedellin.org/es. job opportunities or increasing local supply of ca- fy through surveys, is the social and emotional pable programmers. As the program is scaled up, learning acquired through the bootcamp expe- the bootcamp program is more likely to struc- rience. It is likely that the program has a positive turally change a country’s long-term direction. effect on grades and performance in academia and at the workplace; however, no formal studies 72 73 DECODING BOOTCAMPS PROJECT 74 Funded under the Jobs Umbrella Multi-Donor Trust Fund , the World Bank is conducting an activity to assess the key success factors for rapid technology skills training programs (that is, coding bootcamps) and measure their impact on employment and employability of young people. This initiative is specifically focused on addre- focus group discussions) in Beirut and Nairobi, in Through these components, the activity seeks to ssing the youth unemployment problem in ur- collaboration with key players from the local tech lay the foundation for a swift response to boost ban settings with traditionally large and growing innovation ecosystems (see Appendix A). demand-driven labor market training that is nece- young populations in developing countries. ssary to tackle youth unemployment in today’s The initiative relies on four main components: fast-changing world. The ultimate goal of this ini- The activity will test whether coding bootcamps 1. Assessing the impact of coding bootcamps tiative is to establish best practices for rapid tech are applicable to an emerging economy context on local, young jobseekers to secure quick skills programs (coding bootcamps) that result in by creating employment for low-entry tech skills employment and income generation oppor- employability and employment to inform policies and reducing the skills mismatch. The Rapid tunities thanks to the coding bootcamp; in the emerging world. Technology Skills Training Program is being pilo- 2. Comparing employment patterns of boot- ted in three cities: Beirut, Lebanon; Medellín, camp participants to those in a control group The activity has developed an online website to Colombia; and Nairobi, Kenya. All three cities who have not received the training; make available the contents of the program and have been selected because of the presence 3. Identifying key success factors of coding its results: http://www.decodingbootcamps.org. of vibrant local tech innovation ecosystems, re- bootcamps and devising a methodological levant size of the low-income youth population toolkit for designing a coding bootcamp from (which helps extrapolate findings to other cities scratch based on an overview of existing tools and even countries), and high youth unemploy- and best-practice methods; ment. 4. Informing policy makers in emerging mar- kets on how to support the establishment, The impact of these bootcamps is being mea- implementation, and growth of demand-dri- sured through a randomized controlled trial (RCT) ven rapid tech skills training to combat youth in Medellín and qualitative studies (surveys and unemployment. 75 REFERENCES Bloc. 2015. “Three Truths About Coding Bootcamp Job Placement Rates.” Bloc ITU. 2016. Coding Bootcamps: A Strategy for Youth Employment. 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Heckman and Kautz (2013) suggest that all of them refer to the same con- cept and that they are often used interchangeably. The authors have used the term socioemotional skills to refer to all the terms within the same conceptual space (such as noncognitive skills, soft skills or life skills). 3. https://generalassemb.ly. 4. http://www.c4q.nyc. 5. For the U.S. IT skills gaps, see: https://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/technology/ techhire; for Canada, see: ICTC 2016; for the EU, see: Korte and Hüsing 2016 . 6. https://www.andela.com. 7. http://www.hackreactor.com. 8. http://agilemanifesto.org/principles.html. 9. See, for instance, Advanced Manufacturing Bootcamp at DevryBootcamp, http:// manufacturing.devry.edu/ ; or manufacturing bootcamp at the Foundery in Balti- more: http://baltimore.cbslocal.com/2017/02/20/baltimore-boot-camp-teach- es-valuable-manufacturing-skills/. 10. https://www.kiva.org 11. http://www.ruralsourcing.com/. 12. http://www.hackreactor.com. 13. Occupation rate takes into account both employment and continuing education. 14. http://www.rutanmedellin.org/es. 77 This work is available under the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial 3.0 IGO license (CC BY NC 3.0 IGO). Under the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial license, you are free to copy, distribute, transmit, and adapt this work for non-commercial purposes, under the following conditions: Attribution—Please cite the work as follows: Mulas, Victor; Cecilia Paradi-Guilford, Elene Allende Letona, and Zhenia Viatchaninova Dalphond. 2017. Coding Bootcamps: Building Future-Proof Skills through Rapid Skills Training. License—Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial CC 3.0 IGO Translations—If you create a translation of this work, please add the following disclaimer along with the attribution: This translation was not created by The World Bank and should not be considered an official World Bank translation. 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