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Silicon Valley is racing ahead with its own alternative to college and new research from bootcamp review site Course Report suggests that graduates are out-earning some of their diploma-wielding peers.
Nicknamed “coding bootcamps,” these offerings have become a cottage industry of fast-track private vocational schools for graduates looking to enter the competitive tech industry as software engineers, data scientists, and other in-demand jobs.
See also: Google Designs Low-Cost Online Degree On How To Build Startups
Many graduates hold college majors notorious for slim earnings potential (like English Majors,) and are now fully-employed in the tech industry making a lot more money.
English Majors earn $33,000 more after graduation (Engineering Majors earn $3,000 more, by reference). Many have no prior coding experience at all to attending the intensive programs, which average 10 weeks long and cost about $9,000 (though, they can last much longer and cost twice as much).
For a few years, there wasn’t much data on whether these schools could reliably place graduates at top-tier tech companies, or with some high-paying job in the field.
For the second year in a row, Course Report finds that graduates snag a much higher salary ($18,000 on average) and have better prospects for full-time employment (from 53% to 63%).
Course Reports should be taken with caution: These aren’t your average students. They tend to be a motivated, self-selected group of students who want to change careers, hoping additional schooling will help them break into a competitive field with high-earning potential.
The report looks like a good sign that even colleges have been slow to adopt programs that actually get most of their students a job in their field of study, Silicon Valley can create its own solution.
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