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NEXT Academy

Average Rating4.05
96 Reviews
5 Courses
NEXT Academy offers a 10-week Full-Stack Web Development bootcamp in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and remote 8-week Front-End Web Development courses and 12-week Digital Marketing courses. NEXT Academy was founded by self-taught programmer and bootcamp graduate, Josh Teng. NEXT Academy partnered with the Malaysian government agency, Malaysian Global Innovation & Creative Centre (MaGIC) in 2014 - jointly officiated by U.S. President Obama, Prime Minister of Malaysia Naj...
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  • Ong Li Whei
    Ong Li Whei
    Graduate • Full Stack Web Development Course • Kuala Lumpur
    Jan 16, 2017
    Overall Experience
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    Reply to CEO's statement

    There is lots you could do if all your staff didn't gave me a standard answer. " it's like that everyone have to pass that stage everyone go through them , everyone will get use to it eventually" I have voice it out since day one. My struggle and problems!

    Exactly! you have read the similar feedback before during the second week of school but have you show any concern? You respond to me after I have text you for 2 days and when you finally have the time for...

    Report
  • Our complaint went nowhere
    Our complaint went nowhere
    Graduate • Full Stack Web Development Course • Kuala Lumpur
    Oct 07, 2017
    Overall Experience
    Instructors
    Curriculum
    Job Assistance

    bad worse worst

    You're reading from the one that studied here,,

    Misleading marketing. (no coding background needed) (will get jobs)

    Learn non worthiness coding language.

    98% of your grads get jobs? puihhh, 

    Never spend such money here, you're WASTING your TIME and MONEY ! 

    NEVER study , apply or even read anything from their website.

     

    Report

    Josh Teng of NEXT Academy

    Founder

    Mar 04, 2018

    Hi,

    I'm Josh, the founder of NEXT Academy. I've worked with my team to further understand where you're coming from and I would like to personally apologize that you had a bad experience. We take this very seriously because it's what my team and I are dedicating our lives towards - the empowerment of people to pursue careers in technology. Clearly, there's something that we have failed with your experience.

    We have stopped making any claims about the percentages of students getting jobs since early 2017. The reason why we stopped isn't that our quality and commitment have dropped, in fact, we are dedicating far more resources and attention than ever to ensure a good outcome for our students. 

    The reason why we removed the claim was because between Q4 2016 - Q2 2017, we removed our admission interview and failed to communicate to incoming students about the preparation necessary prior to joining the bootcamp (yes, you can join the bootcamp as a beginner, but there are a few things that potential students need to prepare for. we address those in the admission interview). We have since restarted the admission interviews to prevent students from having known bad experiences.

    We have made many improvements consistently to the bootcamp and curriculum since Q2 of 2017 and are continuously doing so. One of the biggest being a MONEY BACK guarantee for students who fail to secure a job after attempting the bootcamp. We have, obviously, some terms in place to prevent people from gaming the system since we have bills to pay.

    Again, I would like to sincerely apologize. I ensure you that we are not working on NEXT Academy to make a quick buck - there is also a high cost operating a physical academy employing highly demanded engineers. NEXT Academy has been around for close to 4 years and we plan to be for decades to come. The only way we can remain in business is to ensure a good outcome for you and others.

    For others who are reading this and have thoughts about joining NEXT Academy, I hope you will continue to consider us. And may I suggest that you go on LinkedIn and search for students who have attended NEXT Academy and have a conversation with them just so you get more opinions before parting with hard earned cash.

    To the person who left this review, I'm not sure who you are but I would like to hear from you. If you are comfortable reaching out, do email me at josh@nextacademy.com.


  • Anonymous
    Student • Full Stack Web Development Course • Kuala Lumpur
    May 16, 2016
    Overall Experience
    Instructors
    Curriculum
    Job Assistance

    Next Academy: Sink or Swim

    There has been extremely diverse opinions about Next; and reading them all, one would be inclined to think that Next is either extremely bad or extremely good but with lazy, disgruntled students dissing them. Which is it?

    Next Academy is like a school offering to teach its students how to swim. Some fishes, some dogs and some eagles sign up. Next takes their money and throws them into the pool. “Here you go, learn to swim!” And leaves them t...

    Report

    Josh Teng of NEXT Academy

    Founder/CEO

    Sep 29, 2016

    Hi,

    I must say of all reviews, I actually found this very interesting. What this person said is very true and made me reflect a lot.

    So here's my response:

    Things we have done to improve
    1. We have an industry veteran who has been in charge of the entire tech of  $100 million company. He has also hired. He's now working with us on making sure our curriculum is great and industry ready.
    2. We've also employed a university professor just to mix in some academia to our practical minds
    3. Change the class set-up. 1 mentor is personally in charge to see his/her 10-12 students succeed. We no longer do 1 giant class of 30 students with 3 mentors. Though the ratio of mentor is the same, this has worked very well because mentors have ownership of their students and they don't have to roam a huge classroom leaving some other students behind

    Outcome
    We have gotten even more students in the past few months than ever before. We have 400 graduates now and even more companies are hiring from us.

    CTOs of billion dollar companies hire from us personally and are continuously doing so. Companies like AirAsia, Digi, Maxis and many massive companies are doing so. If you are a graduate, I encourage you to respond to our events and come for these hiring events.

    My Advice
    To address the difference you highlighted in people (fish vs dogs vs birds). I agree with you that no one is the same. Our education philosophy is to encourage independent thinkers and what you experienced was the fine line of us making sure students attempt to solve the problem with the guidance of the mentor. It's a very fine line that can sometimes be difficult to balance. The most successful people in the world are the ones who are capable of being independent and solve problems with their own self-initiative. So while not everyone is like that, we want our students to be such and that is why we will always believe in how we do things.

    That is not to say, we are close minded. We have just seen so much successes that we know it works. In fact, we encourage our students to be open minded on what animal they choose to be. Because we know, some times for things to change we must first change.

    Finally
    I've thoroughly absorbed your feedback and we are systemizing and setting higher education standards in making sure mentors do what's best for students.

    Rest assured, we know we are not perfect and we are constantly improving. The past couple of months has been incredibly better. So thank you for voicing out.

    If you ever wanted to talk about this or just share more, feel free to reach out to me at josh@nextacademy.com
  • Anonymous
    Graduate • Full Stack Web Development Course • Kuala Lumpur
    May 08, 2016
    Overall Experience
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    Job Assistance

    the mentors don't have enough experience

    Throughout the boot camp, you have to rely mostly on yourself. Those mentors didn't really have real industrial programming experience. Most of them are just 'top' student from previous batch.
    Report

    Josh Teng of NEXT Academy

    CEO/Founder

    Sep 29, 2016

    Hi,

    I'm Josh, the founder. I'm sorry you felt this way. Your review seems to be the same with one that I just replied. So let me address it similarly.

    Inexperience mentors
    This is the real problem I want to address. I'm not sure which intake you were in. We have since changed things around. In the past, we had a very short notice period for mentors looking to quit NEXT Academy. During those rare moments, I stay up late nights, panicking on making sure we have sufficient mentors for you guys.
    While manpower shortage will always be an issue in the tech industry, we have finally managed to develop a strict policy that works. 
    We have some of the greatest mentors who have built apps that handle millions of dollar in transactions. We also have junior mentors that we hire from our graduate pool. 
    Most people think that hiring from our graduate pool is a bad idea. But I do it intentionally. We have the luxury of selecting the top 1% from our graduate pool of hundreds of graduates to be trained up to be great teachers and coders. Coupled with the fact that we have seen how capable they are in a 9 weeks full time intensive learning environment. This allows us to hire the cream of the crop. 

    We, now, have an mentor in training program where these past graduates will shadow a senior experienced instructor and at the same time spend 50% of their other time coding production systems as a contract staff with our partnered tech companies.

    Conclusion

    We have many successful graduates who are working as software engineers at great companies in our region like AirAsia, Maxis, Digi, KFIT, Grab, Mindvalley. These companies has an extremely high level of standards of who they admit. In fact, many of them are still working there today after a year.

    I know this reply to your feedback will probably not make you feel better. That is why, I would love if you would send me an email at josh@nextacademy.com to see what we can do to help you now.
  • KW Lai
    KW Lai
    m572567@mvrht.net • Student • Full Stack Web Development Course • Kuala Lumpur
    Sep 09, 2017
    Overall Experience
    Instructors
    Curriculum
    Job Assistance
    N/A

    Look Elsewhere

    DId the web development bootcamp. Very little instruction and every day you will show up and work through an online interface that lags and is mostly copied and pasted from github. Would recommend codeacademy, freecodecamp, treehouse or even a udemy/edX course instead- save yourself the money for what is essentially a highly overpriced study hall. If you must do a bootcamp, look elsewhere/compare other bootcamps and ask to watch a class first. 

    Report

    Colin of NEXT Academy

    Program Coordinator

    Sep 11, 2017

    Hi, I'm Colin, the Program Coordinator at NEXT Academy. 

    We view students' input and concerns seriously and constantly work with our students/graduates especially on matters related to curriculum. Unfortunately, I could not find your student record in our system. I have also tried to get in touch with you via your email address on Course Report but was not able to reach you. May I know which intake are you from?
  • Sean Sebastian
    Anonymous
    Student
    Aug 15, 2016
    Overall Experience
    Instructors
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    Job Assistance

    Deceptive marketing

    Be wary of Next's deceptive marketing to lure programming enthusiast to join their overly hyped up bootcamp. The fake 5 stars reviews in a single day above pretty much sums up their ethicality. 

    Report

    Josh Teng of NEXT Academy

    Founder/CEO

    Sep 29, 2016

    This was painful.

    I won't call this review by you unfair because clearly, you are upset and you have the right to be. In fact, I'm sorry you feel this way.

    Our entire team works extremely hard to empower people. Most people we hire are extremely passionate about education. Our single goal is to empower people. Most great coders much prefer to work in a tech company than an education company. The only reason why we are here is because we want to help people achieve what they seek to accomplish.

    I do, however, want to challenge your accusation on our ethical standards. We don't do fake reviews. We have graduated 300 over students and we do reach out to them for reviews. And many of them are working at great companies like AirAsia, Digi, Maxis, KFIT, Mindvalley and more. Ask them, ask their CTOs who hired them. They are truly amazing. Many of them are also building their own MVPs, taking on the entrepreneurial journey. We have students in various top regional accelerators like MaGIC, DBS, and more.

    If you want to reach out to me, please email me at josh@nextacademy.com
    No hard feelings. I just want to buy you coffee to understand what made you this upset.
  • Wei Jun
    Wei Jun
    Junior Web Developer, Mindvalley • Graduate • Full Stack Web Development Course • Kuala Lumpur
    May 15, 2016
    Overall Experience
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    Curriculum
    Job Assistance

    NEXT Academy changed my life.

    I was a salesperson stuck in a job I didn't want and always feeling limited by not being able to materialize my own ideas. I tried learning coding online and there is no doubt that it's a frustating experience for myself and many other people.

    Under a recommendation of a friend, I started looking at web development bootcamps. I was afraid that by being 1/3 to 1/4 of the price of bootcamps offered overseas, it won't be as good - but I was wrong. <...

    Report

    Audrey Ling of NEXT Academy

    The Community Builder

    Oct 19, 2016

    Wei Jun!!

    Thanks! I'm so glad that after your time with us, you've since became a software developer. Do you know that the person who hired you came to our place to scout for even more talent because your team has such good reviews about you?

    Code on, and share your progress, your stories, startups and your work with us. We are featuring our students' projects here: https://www.nextacademy.com/graduates-project-showcase/

    We are now doubling our efforts to provide more exposure for all our students. This would mean: connecting graduates to employers, to potential partners and some times even to investors.

    Do come back for our community events too! We have tech talks, entrepreneur talks and all. 

    Always remember that the value of the bootcamps do not stop even after your 9 weeks with us. 

    FYI, this year (2016) we have introduced iOS mobile development bootcamp and digital marketing bootcamp. Keep us in mind if your employer is looking into hiring more talent from us. :)

    Let's gather everyone for a night out soon. :)
  • Jay
    Jay
    Junior Web Developer • Graduate • Full Stack Web Development Course • Kuala Lumpur
    May 14, 2016
    Overall Experience
    Instructors
    Curriculum
    Job Assistance

    Learning to be Independent

    I learnt so much in 9 weeks. I learnt so much more than just code. Before signing up for the NEXT Academy, I signed up for many Udemy courses and I've also tried Lynda. I find learning online to be pretty difficult for me. It was easy to follow the step-by-step guides in these online courses but at the end of these courses I didn't feel like I understood anything. I spent a good 9 months trying to learn on my own but I just didn't feel I was learning fast enough. The biggest issue was that...

    Report

    Audrey Ling of NEXT Academy

    The Community Builder

    Oct 19, 2016

    Hey Jay!

    It was great having you with us and I'm super stoked to hear that you enjoyed your time with us!

    Continue building and continue sharing your progress and work with us. We also feature our students' projects here: https://www.nextacademy.com/graduates-project-showcase/

    We are now doubling our efforts to provide more exposure for all our students. This would mean: connecting graduates to employers, to potential partners and some times even to investors.

    Do come back for our community events too! We have tech talks, entrepreneur talks and all. 

    Always remember that the value of the bootcamps do not stop even after your 9 weeks with us. 

    FYI, this year (2016) we have introduced iOS mobile development bootcamp and digital marketing bootcamp. Keep us in mind if you ever thought about joining us to upskill once more!

    And do drop by for coffee sometimes at our alumni space. We just moved to our new hideout in town. This new space is beautiful. :)
  • Anonymous
    Graduate • Kuala Lumpur
    May 11, 2016
    Overall Experience
    Instructors
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    Job Assistance

    Too much 3rd party free resources...

    I joined the December 2015 batch, and just like others from the same batch. We have to give out our 3 month of full commitment to this course where 90% of us there gave up their previous job and really hope can change their life by attending this course. As Next Academy advertised, "No coding knowledge required", "Make your idea into a real working web application in 9 weeks!" and more. 

    Throughout the course, most of their teaching materials or the content of their online learni...

    Report

    Josh Teng of NEXT Academy

    Founder/CEO

    Sep 29, 2016

    Hi,

    I'm sorry you feel this way.
    I feel like I've answered the exact same review before. So I'm going to adapt some of my previous respond for this as well.

    You say: Too Much Free Resources
    There are bootcamps that actually completely open-sourced their curriculum so that everyone can use for free. The value of a bootcamp isn't in the originality of the curriculum but in the effectiveness in helping you learn. In fact, adapting the best content from allowed sources to conduct a class is the best way for us to help you learn. 
    There are experts whose jobs are to develop content and our job is to disseminate the knowledge to you. 30-40% of our curriculum are from such sources and remaining 60% are jointly develop with engineers from Twitter, Grab, Mindvalley, KFIT and more. :)

    In summary, content is free. When people join bootcamps, the don't join for the content but for the mentorship and expedite learning, which are the most valuable parts given that programming isn't black or white. There's no one right way to solve problems in code and therefore having a personal mentor/coach is one of the most effective way to be great.

    You say: Graduate Jobs
    We have 2 dedicated person who is in charge of helping graduates get jobs now. In the past, we worked closely with students who indicated they wanted jobs. So we don't generally connect graduates who aren't looking for a programming job with employers looking for developers.

    We have also done events where we invite employers to share and connect with alumni. Please come for these events if you are looking for jobs.

    We also have the responsibility to ensure we recommend students who proved themselves and have great attitude to employers. 

    We will always do our part to make sure more students turn out great given our no interview policy unlike other bootcamps that probably filters out most people before they get in.

    Having said that, December 2015 batch was probably the one batch we had many issues. We had also step up to ensure such things don't repeat.

    Things we have done to improve
    1. We have an industry veteran who has been in charge of the entire tech of  $100 million company. He has also hired. He's now working with us on making sure our curriculum is great and industry ready.
    2. We've also employed a university professor just to mix in some academia to our practical minds
    3. Change the class set-up. 1 mentor is personally in charge to see his/her 10-12 students succeed. We no longer do 1 giant class of 30 students with 3 mentors. Though the ratio of mentor is the same, this has worked very well because mentors have ownership of their students and they don't have to roam a huge classroom leaving some other students behind

    Outcome
    We have gotten even more students in the past few months than ever before. We have 400 graduates now and even more companies are hiring from us.

    CTOs of billion dollar companies hire from us personally and are continuously doing so. Companies like AirAsia, Digi, Maxis and many massive companies are doing so. If you are a graduate, I encourage you to respond to our events and come for these hiring events.

    Finally
    I've thoroughly absorbed your feedback and we are systemizing and setting higher education standards in making sure mentors do what's best for students.

    Rest assured, we know we are not perfect and we are constantly improving. The past couple of months has been incredibly better. So thank you for voicing out.

    If you ever wanted to talk about this or just share more, feel free to reach out to me at josh@nextacademy.com

    To Those Looking to Learn to Code
    Please do watch some youtube tutorials, try out some other online courses before you join us. Everywhere around the world, the most successful people takes initiatives on their own. We are here to teach you when you're ready and supercharge the learning speed. We have a whole blog post talking about how to learn to code and share some recommendation and resources you can use for free https://www.nextacademy.com/blog/how-to-learn-to-code-on-your-own/ :)


  • z
    z
    Graduate • Kuala Lumpur
    May 15, 2016
    Overall Experience
    Instructors
    Curriculum
    Job Assistance
    N/A

    Winners/Losers

    You change yourself, NEXT gives you a helping hand. 

    Seeing all these bad reviews intrigued me to write this one, many of the bad reviews are left by people who are expecting to join this bootcamp - not work hard - and become a kickass coder. Unfortunately it doesn't work that way, if it did programming won't be in such demand.

    Yes - HTML + CSS is taught in a day - JS is taught with material from Codecademy, but it's relevant. If NEXT extended the learning and taught ex...

    Report

    audrey ling of NEXT Academy

    The Community Builder

    Oct 19, 2016

    Hey!

    I'm glad that despite facing something super new, unfamiliar and tough, you conquer this challenge! And it's awesome that it is an amazing experience for you!

    Code on, and share your progress, your stories, startups and your work with us. We are featuring our students' projects here: https://www.nextacademy.com/graduates-project-showcase/

    We are now doubling our efforts to provide more exposure for all our students. This would mean: connecting graduates to employers, to potential partners and some times even to investors.

    Do come back for our community events too! We have tech talks, entrepreneur talks and all. 

    Always remember that the value of the bootcamps do not stop even after your 9 weeks with us. 

    FYI, this year (2016) we have introduced iOS mobile development bootcamp and digital marketing bootcamp. Keep us in mind if you know anyone who is looking into hiring talent from us. :)
  • Wei Jia
    Wei Jia
    Ruby Developer, KFIT/ Co-Founder at NoNonsense Solutions • Graduate • Full Stack Web Development Course • Kuala Lumpur
    May 15, 2016
    Overall Experience
    Instructors
    Curriculum
    Job Assistance

    An empowering, life changing opportunity

    I'm a former Next Academy student of the Nov 2015 cohort. It's been more than a year since I graduated from Next Academy (formerly Code Division), and I'm still constantly grateful at the opportunity that this bootcamp gave me to venture into the world of tech that was quite far reaching and impossible to me before. 

    I've read all the comments and previous reviews. And I'd let to share my own experience. Like a lot of the reviewers, I too left my secure job in the Corporate Finan...

    Report

    Audrey Ling of NEXT Academy

    The Community Builder

    Oct 19, 2016

    Hey Wei Jia!

    Thanks for your kind words! It means so much to us.

    I'm so glad that after your time with us, you've since became a software developer and you made us so proud because people were coming up to us saying that you are one of their best hires.

    Code on, and share your progress, your stories, startups and your work with us. We are featuring our students' projects here: https://www.nextacademy.com/graduates-project-showcase/

    We are now doubling our efforts to provide more exposure for all our students. This would mean: connecting graduates to employers, to potential partners and some times even to investors.

    Do come back for our community events too! We have tech talks, entrepreneur talks and all. 

    Always remember that the value of the bootcamps do not stop even after your 9 weeks with us. 

    FYI, this year (2016) we have introduced iOS mobile development bootcamp and digital marketing bootcamp. Keep us in mind if your employer is looking into hiring more talent from us. :)

    And let's do coffee sometimes. We are not too far from each other now!
  • Yuh Wen Foong
    Yuh Wen Foong
    founder of SushiVid • Graduate • Full Stack Web Development Course • Kuala Lumpur
    May 14, 2016
    Overall Experience
    Instructors
    Curriculum
    Job Assistance
    N/A

    How hungry are you?

    I am a very grateful graduate of the program from the February 2015 batch. I was just scrolling through the posts before this and want to add my two cents. I want to do this in the fairest way because yes, I do care about your RM10,000, probably more than Next Academy.

    I urge you, as future students to evaluate yourself, your want and your willingness to sacrifice before enrolling to the program. Why? because it truly is hard work, it is frustrating and it is painful but when you...

    Report

    Audrey Ling of NEXT Academy

    The Community Builder

    Oct 19, 2016

    Hey Yuh Wen!

    Thanks for your kind words!
    I'm glad you and Mak came together and start SushiVid: www.sushivid.com. Your startup journey has been so inspiring to us: being accepted in accelerator programs that are much coveted! We're all looking forward to see SushiVid grow and become a household name in SEA!

    Code on, and share your progress, your stories, startups and your work with us. We are featuring our students' projects here: https://www.nextacademy.com/graduates-project-showcase/

    We are now doubling our efforts to provide more exposure for all our students. This would mean: connecting graduates to employers, to potential partners and some times even to investors.

    Do come back for our community events too! We have tech talks, entrepreneur talks and all. 

    Always remember that the value of the bootcamps do not stop even after your 9 weeks with us. 

    FYI, this year (2016) we have introduced iOS mobile development bootcamp and digital marketing bootcamp. Keep us in mind if you are looking for more talent. :P

NEXT Academy Alumni Outcomes

Recent NEXT Academy News

Liz Eggleston
Liz Eggleston
Updated January 18, 2018
The January News Roundup is your monthly news digest full of the most interesting articles in the coding bootcamp space. If you're part of the bootcamp world or just want to stay current on coding bootcamps, then check out everything you may have missed in January! Let's Recap January... Olivia Vanni from BostInno argues that Computer Science degrees in 2016 don't really make sense (coding bootcamps are one reason). Quartz dives into the need for App Academy's new 3000 bootcamp ...

NEXT Academy Alumni Reviews Summary

Overall Experience
4.1
Instructors
4.1
Curriculum
4.0
Job Assistance
3.0
Write A Review
More Information
Guarantees Job
Job Assistance
Includes Housing
Offers Corporate Training
Accepts GI Bill
Licensing
None
Awards
Recent NEXT Academy News
FAQs

How much does NEXT Academy cost?

NEXT Academy costs around RM11,500. On the lower end, some NEXT Academy courses like Frontend Web Development (2 weeks) cost RM3,499.

Where does NEXT Academy have campuses?

NEXT Academy has in-person campuses in Kuala Lumpur. NEXT Academy also has a remote classroom so students can learn online.

Is NEXT Academy worth it?

NEXT Academy hasn't shared alumni outcomes yet, but one way to determine if a bootcamp is worth it is by reading alumni reviews. 96 NEXT Academy alumni, students, and applicants have reviewed NEXT Academy on Course Report - you should start there!

Is NEXT Academy legit?

We let alumni answer that question. 96 NEXT Academy alumni, students, and applicants have reviewed NEXT Academy and rate their overall experience a 4.05 out of 5.

Does NEXT Academy offer scholarships or accept the GI Bill?

Right now, it doesn't look like NEXT Academy offers scholarships or accepts the GI Bill. We're always adding to the list of schools that do offer Exclusive Course Report Scholarships and a list of the bootcamps that accept the GI Bill.

Can I read NEXT Academy reviews?

You can read 96 reviews of NEXT Academy on Course Report! NEXT Academy alumni, students, and applicants have reviewed NEXT Academy and rate their overall experience a 4.05 out of 5.

Is NEXT Academy accredited?

None

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