San Diego Code School was founded in 2018 by Mike Roberts after having helped many beginners on their journey to a tech career at another local coding boot camp. In his previous role as Chief Academic Officer, he recognized the Bootcamp experience was not the right fit for many. Learning to code is hard.
More importantly, having a desire to learn to code doesn’t mean everyone can take a sabbatical, leave their families, and relocate to take an immersive in-person boot camp. The tuition cost alone can be in the tens of thousands of dollars, causing many students to go into debt. San Diego Code School is changing the trend by tackling the status quo and rising costs of education.
When he founded the program, Mike knew there was a need to make it a bit more flexible to fit into people’s lifestyles. San Diego Code School designed classes around the weekend so that working adults seeking a change in careers would be able to dedicate full time to the study of programming, but work part time as needed to pay the bills.
San Diego Code School operates an unrivaled coding boot camp experience. Online and MOOC are often seen as the best alternative approaches, but while the online experience provides accessibility, it is not nearly as efficient as time with instructors face-to-face. Mike Roberts created a program that would meet people where they are, in terms of cost and time commitment, without compromising the quality of the learning experience.
Within the first year, the operation has grown to two campus locations across the county. The school strategically selected communities with three attributes: large populations that have been historically underrepresented in the tech industry, low educational attainment with a high number of nontraditional students, and regional access to a large number of programming jobs. In a somewhat competitive landscape, no other program provides greater access within these communities. San Diego Code School has a diverse student body with 36.8% Female, 31.6% Latinx, 15% Black, and 20% Asian and Pacific Islander students enrolled as of January 2020.
NEW COLLAR APPRENTICESHIP
The largest area of innovation at San Diego Code School has been the Software Apprenticeship program. The program recently became registered with the State of California, and it allows students the opportunity to get on-the-job training. Like a traditional trade apprenticeship, participants in the Software Apprenticeship Program are paid from day one of training and gain over a year of experience before entering the job market. Apprenticeships graduate debt-free and with real-world experience.
While all San Diego Code School Students are provided placement services with partnering organizations, apprentices, in particular, are positioned much better to transition into larger software companies. The apprenticeship program is funded by employers, significant grants, and local foundation support.
SDCS leverages progressive team building to add new students to programs on an ongoing basis. In the open floor classroom environments, students are incubated alongside more experienced alumni, instructors, and students at various stages of the program. This holistic approach to engaging the learning community helps everyone gain the skills needed to work collaboratively in a professional shop.
The curriculum was designed in coordination with local employers, balancing the need for specific skills with the foundations of software engineering. Alumni and employers have shared that the program results in a lot of experience and transferable knowledge that allows them to be productive early in their engineering career.
The school also stands out by focusing on preparing students for day one on the job as a software developer. All the students train in a project-based curriculum culminating in the Impact Internship Program conducted on campus. During the internship, students work directly with local small businesses and build a project that adds value to a local business. This program has assisted several small startups launching new products and is now working with the San Diego Regional Entrepreneur Center to help even more startup founders leverage local talent.
San Diego is a special place to live and work if you enjoy an active lifestyle or are looking to start a business. It offers a thriving tech hub with world-renowned life science companies doing research as well. Alongside this community, the San Diego Code School provides an alternative path to careers in this ecosystem compared to the traditional computer science degree route. Rather than spending four years to earn a degree, students can complete a certificate program in as little as eight weeks and be ready to launch a career.
In addition to the flagship apprenticeship program, Mike Roberts founded the nonprofit Creating Coding Careers, which offers free community workshops to engage out-of-school youth and provide low-cost training in the evening as a precursor to admission into other programs.
Our vision of the future is a more inclusive one. Mike Roberts envisions out of school youth in San Diego having an equal opportunity to prepare for and attain software engineering and related technical careers, regardless of their economic status, race, sexual orientation, or gender. Cooperative educational opportunities will exist and are accessible for a variety of technical roles. The gap will be closed, and women and people of color will be well represented in these roles. San Diego Code School is an outcomes-driven organization with a mission to make that vision possible.
Helping people transition into careers in tech via San Diego Code School & San Diego JS
