Читать книгу Paying For College For Dummies - Eric Tyson - Страница 29

Trade schools and apprenticeship programs are hardly new. But coding boot camps started in 2012 and will have 29K graduates in 2019. These programs originated because entry level software developer jobs were going unfilled due to the inadequate training that college graduates were receiving. These were the first so-called “last mile training programs” according to industry observer and venture capitalist Ryan Craig. Now these programs encompass a wide range of IT related disciplines and other fields with a technology component.

The early coding boot camps were tuition-based — meaning that the enrolled students paid for the training they got. The coding boot camps were quickly able to show the hiring statistics for their graduates and began to shift over to income-share programs whereby their students agree to pay a modest percentage of their future income for a set period of time instead of having to pay up-front for the training. Most but not all coding camps use this income-share approach which shows an alignment of interests of the school and the students.

Craig recounts speaking before hundreds of college administrators and asking those in attendance to raise their hand if they provided any training on the widely used Salesforce platform and not a single hand went up. “There is the myth of the digital native. College administrators seem to believe that since their students know how to use an iPhone, Netflix and computers they are digitally competent and savvy,” says Craig. But of course that doesn’t mean they have the required technological training for entry level jobs which Craig points out in most companies is on a SaaS (software as a service) platform.

According to the website Alternatives To College, which Craig was instrumental in founding (https://www.alternativestocollege.com/), at last check the site lists more than 420 alternatives to college, nearly 20K open jobs not requiring a college degree, and over 800K open jobs requiring some type of certification.

Programs that provide an employment path for those who don’t go to college are on the rise so that also means that more employers are hiring people without a college degree.