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Building a New Mythology: The Coding Boot-camp PhenomenonGraham WilsonIn the last three years, the coding boot-camp [19, 20] has truly established itself as a quick-fix aiming to plug the developer shortage emerging from a perceived gap between education and industry [17, 18]. Software development companies have struggled to find suitable university graduates to fill their positions and have pointed the finger firmly at education [15]. With a growing gap between the number of graduates and positions available (Figure 1), the issue has become very public. The bootcamp concept, offering a viable alternative to the university degree route, has tapped into that potentially lucrative market, gaining promotion from the likes of former President Barack Obama in the US and ex-Prime Minister David Cameron in the UK [2, 35]. The popularity of the coding bootcamp concept is twofold. Budding entrepreneurs with a decent business model are able to provide a fresh stream of developers for industry, and keen developers can fast-track their careers, while avoiding cumbersome student debts. This article compares the coding bootcamp concept with the traditional university degree model, evaluating the impact on the sector. Do they deliver on their promises? Are they transparent enough? And, are they truly addressing the skills shortage in the sector?Figure 1 – The skills gap in computing [1]Although the concept of the boot-camp is traditionally associated with children or adolescents [13, 38], one such endeavour, ‘Makers Academy’, a coding bootcamp in in East London (UK), propose to train adult developers from diverse backgrounds [19]. Recruits include out-of-work developers and those seeking a career change, or simply wishing to upskill. ‘Makers’ are highly selective in their recruiting, rejecting 9 in 10 applicants, with a fifth of successful applicants also ejected in the first few weeks for ‘not working hard enough’. A huge emphasis is placed on problem-solving ability and computational thinking, with interviewees deliberately given problems they cannot solve. For ‘Makers’, candidate reaction to failure measures strength of character [19].Given that ‘Makers’ offer an intensive three-month training regime costing ?8000, it seems surprising that the course provides a minimal support framework, with trainee developers working in pairs and encouraged to be self-sufficient [19]. The determination of ‘Makers’ to churn out independent-thinking and highly employable graduates, while touting themselves as a start-up aiming to plug the developer shortage, appears to be an honourable endeavour. But, the levy ‘Makers’ elicit from trainees and from employers subsequently hiring their boot-camp survivors, could be viewed as an exploitative and opportunistic driving force [19].‘Guardian’ newspaper columnist and former Political Editor at ‘The Observer’, Gaby Hinsliff, considered the difficulties ‘Makers’ initially had persuading companies to hire their graduates as junior programmers [19]. While software development companies want the best talent, the stock of readily available talent has dwindled [15] and Ruben Kostucki, chief operating officer at ‘Makers’ is in no doubt: “If juniors cannot get experience, then ultimately you run short of experienced people” [19].Established in Edinburgh in 2015, the ‘CodeClan' bootcamp appears remarkably similar to ‘Makers Academy’, offering an intense 16 week boot-camp ‘software skills experience’ [14]. Unlike ‘Makers Academy’, ‘CodeClan’ only recruit “STEM graduates and individuals who have an aptitude for coding and need a route into the industry”. Recruits must pass a mandatory three-week long pre-entry course and “rigorous selection process” to gain entry [20]. Both ventures detailed are market-driven, attempting to plug a recognised skills shortage in the software development industry, but are they merely exploiting the skills gap to obtain considerable external funding, while also eliciting substantial sums of money from desperate trainees and employers? Success is seldom guaranteed, with words such as ‘passionate’, ‘dedicated’ and ‘committed’ highly suggestive of a survival of the fittest mentality. Aiming to churn out 20 graduates every 10 weeks, ‘CodeClan’ could become highly profitable, while those who fail to make the grade are cast aside [14, 20].‘Dev Bootcamp’, based in San Francisco, typifies the US-style equivalent of the coding boot-camp, charging $12,200 tuition fees (in 2013, now $14,000) and with “a new class of 20 students every three weeks” classes can generate $244,000, with 17 sessions per year suggesting a $4.1 million annual income [41]. When such figures are bandied about, it is unsurprising that there is an element of public and industry distrust in the bootcamp model.Not only have the financial motivations of some bootcamps been regarded with caution, but also the quality of training and graduates that they deliver. Web Developer and Code Mentor Ken Mazaika (Editor at Techinspiration), claimed that “the largest coding bootcamps have a reputation among hiring managers for churning out developers who have the professional maturity of a teenager at a One Direction concert” and that “marketers and the media have brainwashed people into thinking that it’s a cakewalk getting a job paying six figures as a developer” [25]. The quality of some boot-camp teaching was called into question by Mazaika:“good coding bootcamps out there will cover CS topics around algorithms and data structures, but 9 out of 10 coding bootcamps won’t cover these topics at all? - ?because these topics can be difficult to teach” [25].Melanie Pinola, Editorial Manager at tech solutions firm Zapier, alleged that 63% of boot-camp graduates do attain full-time developer positions, although potential employers are decidedly sceptical regarding perceived skill-levels [32]. Antonio Reyes (CTO of Trading Ticket) expressed his disdain for boot-camp graduates and the targeted training they receive:“instead of teaching their students how to think like coders, most coding bootcamps teach very heavily to the tests that recruiters at the big firms are known to give out” [8].Pinola highlighted a lack of regulation as a major concern for IT companies and a preference for university degrees over boot-camp training in those securing positions, arguing that “it’s more important to learn how to think like a computer scientist than to learn how to code” [32]. Despite this, the boot-camp phenomenon has taken hold rapidly, growing from 45 offline camps in 2014 to 121 in 2017, in North America alone [7]. See Figure 2. The figure worldwide, is over 500. These are principally located within the major cities and therefore could offer a direct alternative to a university degree course. Figure 2 – Boot-camps located in US [4]Ex-president Obama’s depiction of the coding boot-camp as a quick “ticket to the middle class” [35], has encouraged some lenders to open up the sector to student loans, providing more than enough incentive for many entrepreneurial developers to risk investing in the bootcamp model [26]. With similar starting salaries for degree and bootcamp graduates, and the prospect of substantial financial and time savings, the explosion in the bootcamp model is easily understood, although there are other advantages and disadvantages to consider (Figure 3 presents an aggregated cross-section of some of these). Issie Lapowsky, senior writer at WIRED, proposed that the US boot-camp bubble was about to burst, as the number of institutions had ballooned to the point where graduate numbers would soon reach saturation point:“The more people are encouraged to enroll in these bootcamps, the more likely a good percentage of them will find themselves six months later out several thousand dollars and out of a job” [21]. Figure 3 – Boot-camp Advantages and DisadvantagesShould the bootcamp model crash, many would-be developers will have to carry the cost, while the bootcamp entrepreneurs will be able to walk away largely unscathed. The boot-camp business model, which takes financial advantage of recruits up-front and out-the-back, was also criticised by ‘dpg’, a venture capitalist, hacker, and writer for ‘Techendo’, who claimed that the approach would “inevitably turn out lower quality individuals, while trying to maximize profits”. Going further still, ‘dpg’ claimed, “I'd be willing to bet the majority are unemployable if it weren't for such a talent drought” [40].Bjarne Stroustrup, inventor of ‘C++’ had this to say about accelerated training programs in 2006, long before the current boot-camp phenomenon:“The idea of programming as a semiskilled task, practiced by people with a few months’ training, is dangerous. We wouldn’t tolerate plumbers or accountants that are poorly educated. We don’t have as an aim that architecture (of buildings) and engineering (of bridges and trains) should become more accessible to people with progressively less training. Indeed, one serious problem is that currently, too many software developers are undereducated and undertrained” [33].The computer scientist Peter Norvig (Director of Research at Google Inc.) had previously considered the naivety of many would be developers, and observing that online retailers were selling books purporting to help the reader learn to program in 7 days or 24 hours, proposed his own title, “Teach Yourself Programming in Ten Years” [29]. Norvig suggested that:“Either people are in a big rush to learn about computers, or that computers are somehow fabulously easier to learn than anything else” [29].Norvig noted that Bloom had proposed roughly ten years’ experience necessary to become an expert in a specific area [3, 29], and Winslow referenced that same timeframe directly regarding computer programming expertise [5]. Examining studies in classical music [11], Norvig suggested that rather than ten years’ experience, 10,000 hours’ practice would be necessary to become an elite performer [29], a perspective from which the notion of code academies producing industry-ready developers in as little as eight weeks seems preposterous. Ericsson and Pool subsequently revised the findings of their original research into classical music [11], contending that 10,000 hours of “deliberate practice” might be a more realistic appreciation [12].The rising popularity of the boot-camp is indicative of a problem which may have emerged from an educational failure to maintain pace with technological development [9]. For dedicated and talented individuals, the boot-camp provides a means of entering (or re-entering) an industry purporting to be desperate for recruits [27]. Regardless of the duration and intensity of any boot-camp, they cannot be expected to equip graduates with all of the necessary skills in such a short duration, and extensive further training is frequently required. However, it has been suggested that colleges and universities also fail to provide graduates with the requisite skills over an extended timeframe [24]. As an alternative to a university degree, the advantages of a boot-camp are readily apparent, particularly the prospect of a quick route to a six-figure salary. Drawn by the immediate appeal of the approach, some university students have opted to drop out of their degree course and enrol in a bootcamp, saving money on student loans, and starting to earn almost immediately [16]. The impact that this has had on education is not entirely apparent and may be negligible, because it is unclear to what extent college or university graduates are competing with bootcamp graduates for positions.There are also concerns that boasts about massively successful boot-camp placement rates are actually made up, or fudged and misleading, often accounting for the 12-month period following course completion. Completion rates often remain undisclosed and very few boot-camps have had their figures audited [34]. Jonathan Lau, co-founder at SwitchUp, an independent directory of boot-camp reviews and rankings, claimed that “boot camps will make these numbers up” and that “They’ll exclude students who they think were bad and mark them as a failed student and do all sorts of weird things that bump up their numbers and make it look better. With a third-party auditor, you can’t really do that” [34]. A large part of the backlash against bootcamps has stemmed from their lack of transparency, a number of highly publicised instances of students getting fleeced while receiving little or no training in return, and erroneous success rate claims. However, the more scrupulous bootcamp providers have taken steps to agree industry-wide standards, to regulate practice and provide greater transparency [37].While Winslow and Bjarne Stroustrup were likely correct in their assessment that a world-class programming expert will require 10 years of deliberate practice in order to reach that level [33, 44], most boot-camps are not aiming to produce experts. However, neither are universities, and in both cases significant workplace experience will be required before a graduate can become expert. That could come later. The top 10 boot-camp languages at present are all web-focused [39], as in the US the main area of talent shortage was initially perceived to be for ‘Ruby on Rails’ (shifting towards Javascript in 2015), however the UK demand for software developers with experience in Java and C++ may be reaching a crisis point [36]. The lack of interest in Java, C++, .NET and C# from coding boot-camps, appears to stem from a perception that tech companies prefer to hire university graduates and experienced developers for those particular languages [31]. This assumption may have a sound basis; Ed Lazowska, the Bill & Melinda Gates Chair in Computer Science & Engineering at the University of Washington, suggested that, “Leading-edge tech companies of all sizes focus on recruiting the top Bachelors, Masters, and Doctoral graduates from the top Computer Science programs – programs such as those at Berkeley, Carnegie Mellon, MIT…” [22].Dan Garland, founder of agile web development consultants ‘We Got Coders’, takes a different view, suggesting that his computer degree got him nowhere and that a vocational bootcamp qualification would have allowed him to hit the ground running, as well as saving considerable time and money [6]. Kevin Wang, Vice President of product at tech solutions company ‘Appboy’, suggested that there were few differences between college and bootcamp graduates in the initial stages of employment, however, after six months, differences in technical knowledge became apparent in terms of efficiency, with college graduates able to “draw on these deeper experiences when tackling more complex problems” [28]. A potential problem faced by graduates when it comes to getting hired may be a lack of interpersonal skills. These have been identified in a number of studies, noting that teamwork, communication, business, professionalism, and self-management skills, often take precedence over technical ability [24, 21]. It is possible that bootcamp graduates have an advantage over college or university graduates in getting hired, because they have had an opportunity to develop these essential skills, even if only over a short duration. They are also often better prepared for interview and testing. Little wonder that even degree graduates may be inclined to seek out a bootcamp experience, not only to sharpen up their skills, but also to help develop the interpersonal skills they will need to exhibit in the workplace.In reality, the job market needs Java, C, C++, and Python developers, however the number of bootcamps providing training for those frameworks is low (See Figure 4). Figure 4 –Bootcamp Training Provision [5]Despite a recent general shift towards Javascript, the number of bootcamps offering training in ‘Ruby on Rails’ remains high [5]. The demand for Ruby developers is however presently low, with the language recently slipping out of the top-ten (to 11th place) in the TIOBE Community Index (see Figure 5). Besides a greatly expanded pool of Ruby developers graduating from bootcamps, part of the decline in Ruby’s popularity may be attributable to the increasing popularity of relative newcomers Node.js and Go [10].Figure 5 – TIOBE Programming Community Index [41]The boot-camp model may not be addressing the real and international software developer shortage which sparked their existence in the first place [30]. While the model is viable in terms of producing a steady stream of developers, particularly for web-based languages such as Ruby and Javascript, the skills gap for developers in Java, C++ and .NET persists. It would be expected that the majority of these positions could be filled from the pool of university graduates, however, despite a general international increase in enrolments, there is little to suggest that CS graduate numbers will witness any dramatic increases in the near future. If Issie Lapowsky is proven correct and the boot-camp production rate (currently 18,000 a year) reaches saturation point [21], will boot-camps begin to fold? There are some indicators that this may already be happening. Former bootcamp graduate Ted Wang suggested that the market is already flooded and that the sense of desperation formerly prevalent in recruiters has now shifted onto bootcamp graduates struggling to get hired. [42]. There also appears to be little inclination to adapt the business model and shift the training emphasis away from Ruby and Javascript towards the languages where developers are most needed.The bootcamp phenomenon has almost certainly helped, at least temporarily, to plug a gap in developer recruitment. It is certainly a model to which education does not appear to have any direct response. As college and university graduates often find it very difficult to get a foot-in-the-door, tagging a bootcamp experience onto the end of a degree program could potentially provide a much needed route into the industry. Many graduates are already taking such a path of their own accord. ‘CodeClan’ and similar bootcamp models aim to help graduates find positions by preparing them for industry and although their training comes with a hefty price tag, they would argue that it is small change next to the potential salary their graduates can rapidly attain. The only viable educational equivalent is the work placement scheme, and where universities do provide such opportunities to under-graduates, these are generally viewed as successful in enhancing future employment opportunities.While there is no significant conflict between the education sector and coding bootcamps, colleges and universities may have experienced the loss of some students to bootcamps and come to regard them as some sort of oppositional threat. Initial concerns over the bootcamp model have faded somewhat, with the model gaining a reputation for quick success. Public trust has grown and enrolments have escalated dramatically. From a bootcamp perspective, the traditional degree route is an out-dated model and out-of-step with the pace of technological development. Perhaps both will need to adapt significantly to meet the insatiable technological demands looming ahead. Just as a computing degree is not for everyone, neither are bootcamps. Both pathways require dedication, determination, subject interest, and financial investment. Clearly more needs to be done by education to help graduates into work. They may have the technical ability, but often have no comprehension of what they need to do to attain that vital first posting, or how to go about it. If a bootcamp experience provides them with that, then we as educators need to consider carefully how we can provide a similar experience.. What are coding bootcamps? 2017; . Accessed 2017 May 10.2.BCS (2011) BCS Welcomes Comment ‘We’re Not Doing Enough to Teach the Next Generation of Programmers’ by Prime Minister. 2011 November 11; . Accessed 2016 April 17.3.Bloom, B.S. Developing Talent in Young People. (New York: Ballantine Books, 1985).4.Bootcamp.me. Coding Bootcamps. 2017; . Accessed: 2017 May 12.5.Bootcamps.in. Programming bootcamps compared. 2017; . Accessed 2017 May 10.6.Cave, K. A coding bootcamp vs a computer science degree. 2016 September 08; . Accessed 2017 May 10.7.Desmond, K. How to choose the best coding bootcamp for you. 2017 March 23; 2017 May 10.8.Dennin, J. Why a Coding Bootcamp probably isn’t Right for You. 2016 June 27; . Accessed 2017 February 28.9.Duffner, R. The Rise of the Coding Boot Camp. 2014; . Accessed 2017 February 28.10.DICE. The Most In-Demand Languages of 2017? 2017 February 7; . Accessed 2017 May 10.11.Ericsson, A.K., Krampe, R.T. and Tesch-R?mer, C. The role of deliberate practice in the acquisition of expert performance. Psychological Review, 100, 3 (1993), 363–406. doi:10.1037//0033-295x.100.3.363.12.Ericsson, A. and Pool, R. Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise. (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016).13.Girls Who Code. Summer Immersion Program. 2017; . Accessed 2017 February 17.14.Gonzalez, S. Scotland’s first dedicated software skills academy. 2015 July 6; . Accessed 2016 October 7.15.Gorman, J. Year of code & the myth of the programmer shortage - software people inspiring. 2014 February 7; . Accessed 2016 April 4.16.Grant, S. Are You Wasting Your Money at Coding Boot Camp? 2015 November 10; . Accessed 2017 February 28.17.Hagan, D. (2004) Employer Satisfaction with ICT Graduates in Sixth Australasian Computing Education Conference (ACE2004). Edited by R. Lister and E. Young (Dunedin, New Zealand: Australian Computer Society, 2004). Australian Computer Society, Inc. Darlinghurst, Australia, Australia ?2004.18.Hamilton, M., Carbone, A., Gonzalvez, C. and Jollands, M. (2015) Breakfast with ICT Employers: What do they want to see in our graduates? in 17th Australasian Computing Education Conference (ACE 2015) – Volume 160. Edited by D. D’Souza and K. Falkner. (Sydney, Australia: Australian Computer Society, 2015). Australian Computer Society, Inc. Darlinghurst, Australia, Australia ?2015, 29–36.19.Hinsliff, G. Should your kids learn to code? 2015 December 3; . Accessed 2016 April 12.20.Jee, C. CodeClan’ launches Scotland’s first software skills academy. 2015 July 6; . Accessed 2016 February 26.21.Lapowsky, I. In 2016, the Coding Bootcamp Bubble is bound to Burst. 2016 January 4; . Accessed 2017 February 28.22.Lazowska, E. Dear GeekWire: A Coding Bootcamp is not a replacement for a Computer Science Degree. 2015 November 11; . Accessed 2017 February 28.23.Li, P.L., Ko, A.J. and Zhu, J. (2015) What Makes a Great Software Engineer? In 37th IEEE International Conference on Software Engineering (2015 IEEE/ACM), 700-110; doi: 10.1109/icse.2015.335.24.Mason, R. and Cooper, G. (2014) Introductory Programming Courses in Australia and New Zealand in 2013 - Trends and Reasons in Sixteenth Australasian Computing Education Conference (ACE 2014) – Volume 148. (Auckland, New Zealand: Australian Computer Society, 2014), Australian Computer Society, Inc. Darlinghurst, Australia, Australia ? 2014, 139-147.25.Mazaika, K. The Dirty Little Secrets about the worst Coding Bootcamps out there. 2015 June 29; . Accessed: 2017 February 28.26.McAlone, N. Some Coding ‘bootcamps’ can get Graduates an Average Salary of over $100, 000 after just three months, and now you can pay for them with Student Loans. 2015 July 13; . Accessed 2017 February 28.27.Mitchell, J. Solving the stem crisis: Coding Bootcamps offer an innovative solution. 2016 November 7; . Accessed 2017 February 28.28.Moon, A. Coding Bootcamp vs Computer Science Grad: Who’s the right fit for your startup? 2016 May 04; . Accessed 2017 May 10.29.Norvig, P. (2001) Teach yourself programming in Ten years. Available at: . (Accessed: 9 October 2016).30.O’Connor, F. Software Developer Shortage Transcends International Boundaries. 2014 October 21; . Accessed 2017 March 1.31.Pham, F. Coding Bootcamp Guide: How to avoid scams & empty promises. 2016 February 20; . Accessed 2017 February 28.32.Pinola, M. Will a ‘Programming Boot Camp’ help me get a Coding Job? 2015 April 3: . Accessed 2017 February 28.33.Pontin, J. Questions for Bjarne Stroustrup. MIT Technical Review (2006).34.Rodriguez, S. Code Boot Camps Fail Obama as Unaudited Stats Cast doubt on Success Rates. 2016 February 10; . Accessed 2017 March 1.35.Roy, A. Coding Boot Camps replace College for Software Engineers. 2016 August 27; . Accessed 2017 February 28.36.Savage, R. Six figure salaries and hounding recruiters: The war for London’s tech talent. 2015 July 31; . Accessed 2017 February 28.37.Silver, D. Students are demanding the facts about coding bootcamps. 2016 June 25; . Accessed 2017 May 11.38.Smith, G. and Sullivan, A. The Five Year Evolution of a Game Programming Course, SIGCSE’12. (Raleigh, North Carolina, USA: ACM, 2012), ACM ? 2012.39. SwitchUp. Coding Bootcamps - the best of 2017. 2017 February 6: . Accessed 2017 February 28.40.Techendo. Are Dev Bootcamps a Scam? A Hacker’s Perspective. 2014; . Accessed: 2017 February 28.41.TIOBE software BV. 2017. . Accessed 2017 June29.42.Truong, A. Become an iOS Developer in 8 weeks: The Truth about Hack Schools. 2013 December 17; . Accessed 2017 February 28.43.Wang, T. Glory days of Coding Bootcamps are over… 2016 March 18; . Accessed 2017 May 12.44.Winslow, L.E. Programming pedagogy---a psychological overview, ACM SIGCSE Bulletin, 28, 3 (1996), 17–22. doi:10.1145/234867.234872.Graham WilsonMoray College UHIMoray StreetElginMoray IV30 1JJGraham.WilsonMoray@uhi.ac.uk ................
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