2021 began with $118M in coding bootcamp fundraises, plus some major acquisitions in the bootcamp space. Despite the overall loss in the U.S. job market, December’s job numbers showed tech adding plenty of new positions. In this roundup, we’re also highlighting the new workforce development programs now available to career changers, and the rise of cybersecurity bootcamps. Plus, learn about the 16 new bootcamps we added to the Course Report directory in January!
Curious about what happened in 2020? Check out last month’s episode with the biggest bootcamp news from 2020.
$118M IN FUNDRAISES & NEW ACQUISITIONS
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EdSurge estimated about $22 billion was invested into edtech companies in 2020, and in the bootcamp space, Lambda School’s $74M fundraise was the most substantial.
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Brighteye Ventures released its 2020 European edtech funding report, where the UK maintained its dominant position in the European edtech market. Investors have already poured $73M into this European coding bootcamp space, and those investments are predicted to increase.
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Ironhack secured $20M in funding in a Series B round.
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Multiverse completed a $44M Series B funding round led by General Catalyst.
- According to the Miami Herald, Wyncode Academy has been acquired by Brainstation.
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Venture Beat reports that Stockholm-based Sana Labs raised $18 million in a Series A round.
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Codecademy launched Codecademy for Business and reported 350% YoY growth.
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Pluralsight announced that it is acquiring Next Tech.
- According to Chicago Biz Journals, Victory Lap raised $25M in performance-based growth capital from Leif.
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FinSMES reports that Flockjay raised $11M in Series A financing this month.
ISAs IN THE NEWS
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Axios reported that Make School is eliminating their Income Share Agreement program, and pivoting to traditional student loans.
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Fullstack Academy launched its new income share agreement program in partnership with Leif.
RESKILLING THE AMERICAN WORKFORCE
- The U.S. government reported that 140K jobs were lost in December, and unemployment stayed around 6.7%.
- CompTIA reports that IT hiring in the U.S. expanded by 391,000 positions in December. The tech sector also outperformed the overall economy in December; companies in IT added 22,200 net workers to their payrolls.
- A think piece by Michael Horn in EdSurge expects the continued acceleration of the use of technology in education and work, an increased reliance on educational offerings that are lower cost and more convenient, and a further crumbling of the false dichotomy between short-term credentials and full degrees.
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Delaware Business Now reports that JPMorgan Chase hired 30 bootcamp grads from Zip Code Wilmington in 2020 thanks to the tuition reimbursement covered by the Delaware Governor’s Executive Order 43, Rapid Workforce Training and Redeployment Initiative.
- According to Alabama News Center, Bronze Valley Accelerator and Innovate Birmingham announced the launch of gener8tor Upskilling, a free training program to help Alabama residents learn critical digital skills for in-demand jobs.
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Flatiron School released its 2020 Jobs Report!
- David Staley, a professor at The Ohio State University, muses that there could be biocoding and bioengineering bootcamps in the future.
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Global Banking & Finance reports that Galvanize is partnering with 21K Skills to upskill the technical workforce in India.
THE RISE OF CYBERSECURITY IN 2021
- Joanne Cheng of EdSurge writes about how cyber security bootcamps can help develop the new cybersecurity workforce.
- Our cybersecurity career path guide made with Springboard cybersecurity expert Mark Adams walks through the types of jobs and salaries to expect at each level of the your cybersecurity career.
- Check out our cybersecurity certifications created with NexGenT, which breaks down the certifications you will need to land that first cybersecurity analyst position.
- If you’re just starting to look at cybersecurity bootcamps, our Ultimate Guide to Cybersecurity lists all of the cybersecurity bootcamps out there and what you can expect from each one.
DIVERSITY IN TECH BOOTCAMPS
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Technical.ly’s TWIJ Show interviewed Nimit Maru, the CEO of Fullstack Academy and the Grace Hopper Program, about if coding bootcamps actually have the capability to diversity the tech workforce. Maru highlights Fullstack’s Opportunity Fund, which offers full-tuition scholarships to members of the Black community.
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KCEN-TV featured Galvanize’s Operation LevelUp program, which was created in partnership with the Soldier for Life - Transition Assistance Program at Fort Hood.
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TechCrunch spotlit how Flockjay is diversifying the tech pipeline with its ISA and previous partnerships with organizations like Opportunity@Work, Hidden Genius Project, Peninsula Project, and TechHire Oakland.
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University of Birmingham Boot Camps (which are powered by Trilogy) are offering up Women in Tech scholarships to its data science course.
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BuiltIn NYC reports that NYC is considering a bill that would regulate hiring algorithms, which would make it the first city in the U.S. to do so.
2 NEW BOOTCAMP-UNIVERSITY PARTNERSHIPS
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Flatiron School is launching a data science program at The University of Cambridge.
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Fullstack Academy partnered with University of Oklahoma to launch cybersecurity and coding bootcamps.
16 NEW BOOTCAMPS ON COURSE REPORT
We added 16 new bootcamps to the Course Report school listings this month:
OUR FAVORITE BLOG POSTS THIS JANUARY
Jess recommends checking out her Q&A with recent Launch Academy alum Liishi. Liishi shares how she went from higher ed administration and pivoted into software engineering through Launch Academy’s hybrid learning experience.
Liz caught up with Karl Pfister, the iOS program director at Devmountain, about the ways Swift has evolved since it launched in 2015 and what he expects will change in 2021. If you’re interested in being a mobile developer, Karl has a really great bird’s eye view of what to expect!
