Coding boot camp aims to raise wages & boost opportunity in Baltimore

Johns Hopkins University is teaming up with 2U’s Trilogy Education to provide an intensive coding boot camp to the city of Baltimore’s working professionals.

The course will be run by the Whiting School of Engineering and will teach the front-end and back-end skills necessary to become a proficient full stack developer.

Web development is one of the fastest-growing jobs in today’s rapidly advancing economy. The industry is already struggling to fill roles in the field, with employers expressing concern there’s a skills gap leaving them short-staffed. Given the current state of the market, the industry is woefully underprepared for the projected 15 percent increase in roles that will be needed by 2026, as predicted by the Bureau of Labour Statistics.

The Coding Boot Camp at Johns Hopkins Engineering hopes to go some way in bridging that gap and opening up opportunities for adult learners in Baltimore to learn new skills, quickly.

The 24-week, part-time programme begins in September and will cover the basics of algorithms, coding and data structure as well as programming languages such as HTML, CSS and JavaScript. The bootcamp is offered over two three-hour evening classes during the week, and a four-hour class on Saturdays. Plus, there are about 20 hours a week of homework and projects.

While this is a non-credit course, participants do receive a certificate from the engineering school.

2U, a leader in helping universities embrace the digital age, acquired boot camp provider Trilogy Education Services earlier this year. The company focuses on short-term training programmes to help universities and businesses keep up with the constant demand for lifelong learning.

Trilogy is currently working with 48 universities to provide tech training programmes, working with a curriculum they have developed based on their vast experience.

It’s not all about coding. Participants will also have access to Trilogy’s career-planning assistance in which they will provide reviews of portfolios, career content and practice sessions, technical interview training, one-to-one career coaching, soft skills training, and support on honing resumes and social media profiles.

Trilogy hope its coding boot camp paired with career assistance will help raise wages in Baltimore. According to Technical.ly, Trilogy Chief Academic Officer Ahmed Haque was struck by the juxtaposition of two key stats: The median household income in Baltimore was 20 percent lower than the national average, but developer salaries are 20 percent higher.

There is also a huge glut of 36,000 tech roles in the area just waiting for the right person to fill them. This, in the eyes of Trilogy and Johns Hopkins, presents a huge opportunity.

“A big thing we were emphasising is we were building a curriculum that is really well designed for taking someone who has any kind of background and helping them learn the skills over the course of six months that gets them to where they want to go,” Haque said.

This outreach fits perfectly with the Johns Hopkins ethos. As the nation’s first research university, it was founded for “the express purpose of creating and expanding knowledge and putting that knowledge to work for the good of humanity.” This new project fits the bill perfectly.