Programming Bootcamp. What it is and how it works.

Possibly you have a friend, family member or acquaintance who has told you about coding bootcamps or coding bootcamps. The unstoppable advance towards the digitalization of the economy and business demands an increasing number of application programmers and data analysts.

The problem is that the traditional education system, which includes school, high school and university, is not designed or intended to train us in these highly demanded skills to find a quality job. For this reason, a new offer has recently emerged to be able to make the digital transformation of our professional careers, the coding schools or Code Academies.

Since then, schools have been opened and created in the main cities of the world and wherever there is a great demand for technological profiles.

Ubiqum Code Academy was founded in January 2016 and since then we have helped over 1,100 people start a new digital career in both software development and data analytics.

What is a programming bootcamp?

A programming bootcamp is an intensive training program designed to teach programming skills in software development and/or data analysis in a short period of time. Unlike traditional methods of education, such as university degrees that can last several years, bootcamps typically last from a few weeks to a few months.

These programs are focused on equipping students with practical knowledge directly applicable in the job market, covering popular programming languages, web and mobile development, database design, and more.

The best bootcamps reduce theoretical lessons to a minimum and place the greatest emphasis on practical projects, where students work on real problems and develop their own portfolio of projects.

The popularity of programming bootcamps has grown significantly in recent years, as they offer a fast and efficient route into the technology field, a sector with high demand for skilled professionals. These programs are suitable for both beginners looking to start a career in technology and professionals looking to upgrade their skills or change careers.

In addition, many bootcamps offer flexible learning options, such as online, part-time and full-time programs, to suit the varying needs of students. With a focus on hands-on learning and employability, programming bootcamps have established themselves as a valuable alternative to traditional higher education in the field of software development.

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Coding bootcamp: Main features and differentials

Coding schools have very specific and differential characteristics compared to traditional education.

• Intensity. Any university master’s degree is designed to take 9 months, from September to June, for 1 or 2 years, with a few hours of theoretical classes per week, generally no more than 10/15 hours, and a lot of “study” work on the part of the student. On the other hand, in a bootcamp the schedule is intensive, 8/10 hours a day and is concentrated in a few weeks, from 10 to 20 weeks for the course, so the student obtains better results in much less time. In the part-time option the intensity 3 or 4 hours a day is set to be compatible with the student’s working day.
• No prerequisites. A second aspect is the absence of prerequisites to access the course. Given the practical and professional methodology used, any intelligent and motivated person, to work hard for 3 or 5 months, can access the course and be successful.
• Professional. Another important difference is the content of the course. In a bootcamp you work with the tools and processes that the companies that are going to hire the student are looking for and not with theoretical and academic concepts that only interest the professors.
• Practical. As a corollary to the above, learning in a bootcamp is practical and not theoretical. The best programming bootcamps work by projects, simulating almost exactly the real professional life that the student will find in his new career. So the transfer of learning to the workplace is very fast, Time to Performanceand companies appreciate this practical and professional approach.
• Focused on employment. The bottom line is that the mission of a good bootcamp is to ensure that its students find employment as close as possible to the end of the course.

How do I know if a Coding Bootcamp is for me?

During the 8 years of Ubiqum’s existence, we have witnessed an evolution of the number of students who want to take a program with us. At the beginning, the profile of the person looking for this type of educational service was very specific. People between 25 and 35 years old with an unsatisfactory professional career, willing to make a break in their working life, leave their current job and take a bootcamp program to make the transition to a technological career. However, although this profile still exists, the market has opened up to other types of students.

The new group of professionals who are starting to attend programming bootcamps are people who have a good job and a good career but who see how their companies are immersed in accelerated digitization projects and want to develop digital skills that they do not have. Let’s look at a couple of examples:

• Celia is a successful human resources professional, over 40, and sees how companies are betting on people with data analytics skills in all areas of management. She has signed up for the part-time and flexible Data Analytics & Power BI course at Ubiqum to maintain and enhance her career options.
• Luca, 38, is a project manager in a technology company. He is satisfied with his job but sees that in order to advance in his career he needs to acquire programming skills. He has signed up for the flexible part-time web development course at Ubiqum.

Many more examples can be seen on the Ubiqum alumni testimonials page. All of them have started a new and successful professional career in a coding bootcamp with Ubiqum.